Fourth Sunday in Advent.

"The LORD is at hand," is most properly an Advent saying; it means, “The cloud will soon be withdrawn, the gates of Heaven will again be thrown open, and Christ, the Son of GOD, will come according to His promise. He will come, by GOD'S great long-suffering, on this Christmas, as in former seasons of Christmas. As the preaching of S. John the Baptist prepared the way for the First Coming of our LORD, so these days of Advent returning yearly, prepare the way for our keeping the memory of that First Coming on Christmas Day. On that Day He came to save us; came to save the very worst and most provoking of those whom we have to deal with. What right has any one of us to give way to angry feelings, to be scornful, spiteful, rude, uncourteous, haughty, towards any one else, the meanest and most ignorant of our brethren, seeing that He, Whom all the Angels worship, did not think it scorn to be born in a manger, and afterwards to die on a Cross for that very person?

SERMON Xxxix.

Fourth Monday in Advent.

Our sins, and nothing else, are the cause why we are sore let and hindered in running the race that

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is set before us." It is our own sins then, from which we ask to be delivered; and that speedily. Whether we consider the whole Church or the soul of each one of us in particular; our sin is so great an evil, and we are so frail and helpless, that we know not how to be delivered from it, except by Christ's Coming especially, by His grace and providence, to deliver us. For this therefore the Church has instructed us to pray, now that we are so near the very hour of His First Coming.

SERMON XXVii.

Fourth Tuesday in Advent.

We shall do well, perhaps, in the special selfexamination, which this solemn time of preparation for Christmas Communion ought to bring along with it, we shall do well to notice particularly, how far we may have been wanting in Christian moderation and gentleness, when we have been speaking and thinking of others: whether we have kept ourselves from putting the worst interpretation upon their doings, and from rejoicing when they did wrong (alas ! that ever Christians should feel tempted to have such a feeling as that, a feeling fit only for the evil and lost spirit), whether we have truly rejoiced in their

goodness, and have been pleased to have things turn out to their credit, when they deserved it.

SERMON Xxxix.

Fourth Wednesday in Advent.

Are our loins girded about, and our lights burning? Or are we rather going on in an idle, careless, self-satisfied way, as if we had found out some way to be safe without continual watching and prayer ; as if we might safely be unconcerned, while every year that passes by, every clock that strikes, every sun that sets, nay, every breath that we draw, has a voice given it from GOD to warn us of approaching Judgement. I beseech you, think on these things; or depend on it, the best of us has a great deal to do, and the youngest will find he has but a short time.

SERMON Xxii.

Fourth Thursday in Advent.

As our nightly sleep is an image of death, so the nightly self-examination of a thoughtful person is in some sort an image of the last Great Day. As the Holy Communion is the earnest and pledge of Heaven, so the trial and judgement of our own

selves, which we are ordered to practise before the Holy Communion, is a shadow of that aweful hour, when we shall all stand before the Judgement-Seat of Christ.

SERMON xiii.

Fourth Friday in Advent.

If GOD'S afflictions have so blessed an effect on men, we may hope that those, with which we visit ourselves, such as fasting and other penitential exercises, may all be blessed in their measure, and may help us to lay hold in earnest of the Cross. For that is, in short, the sum and substance of all penitency; whether we confess our sins, fast, give alms, afflict our souls, exercise bodily mortification, it is all well, so far as these are ways of truly laying hold of the Cross, clinging closer to it. That is what S. Paul called being made conformable to Christ's Death. Far from abating our trust in His Blood, such penitential exercises drive us to Him as our only Hope.

SERMON XlV.

Christmas Eve.

AND now in keeping Christmas Eve, we, of Christ's family, do in spirit go back to those hours of expectation; we are awaiting the solemnity of Christ's Birth, as the very few who knew the aweful secret of His miraculous conception, went on awaiting the Birth itself. And now we may see with our mind's eye, Joseph and Mary on their journey. Their coming to Bethlehem was, in a way, the last sign of the wonderful and saving Sunrise, the very Eve of the first Christmas Day. Christ came unseen with her, and nothing remained but for Him to come forth into the open day, and begin to show forth His brightness to all men. And is it not so, that even now the same Jesus Christ, GOD and Man, is drawing near to each one of us; unseen as He was there; for He was then in His Mother's womb, as now He is invisible in His glory in Heaven. But not more surely, did He in flesh draw near to Bethlehem with S. Joseph and His Blessed Mother, on or just before the first Christmas Day, than He is even now drawing near each one of us in Spirit, and trying us, whether or no we will attend to the many tokens He has given us of His approach.

SERMON i.