Evening Prayer (1662 Book of Common Prayer)

LECTIONS. John Calvin on the Psalms. Keil & Delitzsch: Joshua. Matthew Henry: Isaiah. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown: Gospels. Matthew Henry: Revelation. Dr. Robert Reymond: Systematic Theology. Prof. Berkhof, Systematic Theology: Soteriology. Dr. Philip Schaff, Apostolic Christianity, Medieval Christianity, Swiss Reformation and Creeds of Christendom. Westminster Larger Catechism, 157. For Psalm 15, Prof. Calvin comments about the pew—where the Godly and the hypocrites sit cheek-by-jowl. Patience until God swings his sickle on the chaff and saving the wheat. For Joshua 15, one gets another geography lesson on southern Judea. For Isaiah 3.9-15, Prof. Henry notes that God shall protect His people even while raining judgments down around them. One thinks of Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel and others like them. A great comfort, noted Prof. Henry. Indeed. For Mathew 3.1-12, Prof. Jamiesson deals with JB’s answers to the question appropriate to each class of penitent: how shall I show forth the fruits of repentance? Ministers should preach repentance unto life? For Revelation 9.1-12 deals with the fifth angel with the trumpet. But Jesus seemed so nice and so gentle. For Bibliology, Prof. Reymond is long-talking again about Ligonier evidentialists, citing Jonathan Edwards (the American Congregationalist) against them. For Soteriology, Prof. Berkhof gives an overview of the varied Hebrew and Greek words on “faith.” This is where the Prof. does best, in the languages. For Apostolic Christianity, Prof. Schaff characterizes the Roman and Greek heathenish pantheon as a “chronique scandaleuse of the gods” (74). These projections of human flaws onto their deities shows the wild growth on the soil of fallen human nature. One needs a score card and Word Excel chart to follow the deities' sins and failures. For Medieval Christianity, Prof. Schaff characterizes Columbanus’s engagements with Popes Gregory I and Boniface IV as bold, a man who could “not be silenced by flattery and bribe” (87). For the Swiss Reformation, Prof. Schaff tells us more about the lead-up to the first war of Cappel, in which Chaplain Zwingli was involved. For the Creeds of Christendom, Prof. Schaff introduces the redoubtable Jesuit and “Hammer of the Protestants,” the scholarly Roberto Bellarmino, 1542-1621, the veritable antagonist of the Rev. Dr. William Whittaker of Cambridge, the “Hammer of the Papists.” Two worthy opponents in the “World Wide Wrestling Ring.” They both respected each other. Dr. Whittaker's portrait hung in Cardinal Bellarmine's study to the annoyance of his fellow Jesuits, but he noted his respect for his worthy Cambridge interlocutor. Westminster Larger Catechism Q 157: Q. 157. How is the Word of God to be read? A. The holy Scriptures are to be read with an high and reverent esteem of them; with a firm persuasion that they are the very Word of God, and that he only can enable us to understand them; with desire to know, believe, and obey the will of God revealed in them; with diligence, and attention to the matter and scope of them; with meditation, application, self-denial, and prayer.