marked by a special work of heralding and preparation, like the ministry of the Baptist of old.

Throughout our Advent Services this aspect of the season is ever the most prominent. The other is indeed apparent enough; and, if Christmas come round once more, our Advent will have duly prepared us for its celebration. But still more does it avail to quicken our hope and prepare our hearts for that second coming of which the first was but an earnest. That for this His Ministers may prepare His way we pray in the Collect. In the Anthems we cry that the heavens may drop down their dew from above, and the Lamb be sent forth to be the Ruler of the earth; we rejoice that the Marriage of the Lamb is near, and exhort that His Bride make herself ready. The Epistles and Gospels which are appointed for the four Sundays in Advent testify to the same thing. On the first there is the trumpet-voice, “The night is far spent; the day is at hand," to wake us from our slumbers; and the Lord's triumphal entry into Jerusalem to picture to us His second coming, when all shall cry, "Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord." The second and third Sundays show us how the Lord is now present in His Church by His Word and His Ministers, by them inspiring patience and hope, and preparing the way for His Personal coming. And to-day once more the trumpet-note is sounded in the Epistle, "The Lord is at hand;" and in the Gospel we see the ending of the work of the forerunner. For-" The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God This is He of Whom I spake." And while these things are so throughout the season, in this its last week the note of preparation for the second Advent rings out more clearly still. From the

eighteenth to the twenty-fourth of December inclusive our services are full of one subject. Special Anthems are appointed daily for Morning and Evening Prayer: another Advent Collect follows the one already in use. In the Forenoon and Afternoon Services are said those ancient versicles, beginning, "O Wisdom of God." We are not content, like our brethren of the Latin Church, to use one only of these daily. But accumulating all together,—by every name which He has assumed, by every grace which He has manifested and will manifest, we call upon our King, crying "Come, Lord Jesu!" These are accompanied by additional prayers, all speaking of the same future hope-all ending "That when Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, shall come." And so the days roll on, and our passionate supplication rises higher and higher, and goes forth ever with deeper intensity, till Christmas dawns, and all sinks into silence. Our note is then of joy indeed, but joy that is realized, not expected. What shall we say but that the coming of the Lord Himself should rightly crown our supplications; and only when the whole earth is filled with His glory the prayers of David the son of Jesse be ended?

If these Advent Services are (as we maintain them to be) a faithful rendering of the Church's mind in this holy Season, certain consequences follow. Of two of these we will speak: the first concerning our brethren around us, the second relating to ourselves.

I. The weeks which follow Pentecost represent the course of this dispensation from the giving of the Comforter onwards. What means, then, the intervention of a season such as Advent, before the ending of these weeks in the consummation of Christmas? What can it mean but that to which all types, and symbols, and

prophecies bear witness-that a special Work of preparation must precede the coming of the Lord, and the end of this present age. His reward is with Him, but His work before Him. And that work is seen to be no new Pentecost, but something which draws all its force from the giving of the Spirit at the Pentecost of old. It is a continuation, in however revived vigour, of that which then. came into being it inherits the whole work of the Holy Ghost in the Church. Its one distinctive feature is that in it the Ministers of Christ, the stewards of the mysteries of God, are making ready and preparing the way for their Lord's second coming, even as the Baptist for His first.

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If, then, the Church does well in keeping the season of Advent, she should, in all consistency, look for a special work of preparation to precede the coming of the Lord. Our message to our brethren is, that that work is proceeding; that we are living in the very Advent-time of this dispensation. This is the day of the Lord's forerunner, the hour of the shining of the morning star. Oh that they would believe this. Then, indeed, would the night be far spent, and the Day at hand.

II. And now a word for ourselves. We are gathered in the faith of these things. We have seen the Lord's star in the east, and are come to worship Him. If Advent be here, Christmas cannot be far off. We may indeed hope that we have now arrived at the time to which the more urgent supplications of this last week of Advent point. Brighter and brighter in these late years has become to us the hope of glory; clearer and clearer in the light of prophecy have grown the details of its realization. O let these solemn observances of ours quicken our sense of it, that so we may be purified by it more perfectly, that its holy flame may consume our worldliness

while it warms our piety. So shall Advent year by year bring closer the fulfilment of its own anticipations; and the Coming One of Whom it speaks shall be willingly drawn from heaven by the love and longing of His faithful.

"Kejoice in the Lord alway.

The Lord is at

hand."

THIS life is full of troubles. Pain, disappointment, and bereavement beset us on every side. The air is full of litanies of supplication-" Have mercy upon us," "Good Lord, deliver us." No one knew from experience the sufferings of this present time better than the Apostle Paul. And yet he exhorts us, in to-day's Epistle, "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say unto you, Rejoice." In this he does but follow the tenor of all Scripture. Joy is no mere natural emotion. It is a Christian virtue : it is one of the fruits of the Spirit. The Kingdom of Heaven is not only righteousness and peace, but also joy in the Holy Ghost. Now joy is the sense of delight: and to delight in anything we must needs be able to feel it and know it. A deaf man cannot delight in sweet music, nor an idiot in a great poem. So, if to rejoice in the Lord be ours, the Lord must be a living reality to us. We must know him as we know a friend or a brother. We must in the spirit have seen His face and touched His hand. Converse and communion with Him must be no unfamiliar thing to us, exercise of thought upon Him, going out of feeling towards Him. So rejoicing in the

Lord shall come, not of duty merely, but spontaneously. We shall have pleasure in Him not less really than in those nearest and dearest to us, as a son speaks with reverent gladness of the greatness of a noble father, as a proud mother feels her heart swell and her eyes fill when she thinks of her faithful children. We will abundantly utter the memory of His great goodness, and will sing of His righteousness. In His Name we will rejoice all the day, singing, Worthy art thou, O Lord! worthy is the Lamb that was slain !

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And this rejoicing in the Lord is to be "always." Not only when He blesses us, but also when He afflicts for affliction and blessing alike come from Him Who loveth us. No fruit of the Spirit may be lacking in the plants of God's garden. Our peace must abound, though in the midst of fightings without and fears within and our joy must not fail, however much there be to cause us to lament. This will come about in proportion as the world grows less to us and the Lord more. In the world, tribulation; in Me, peace: in the world, sorrow; in Me, joy. So says the Lord, and so His saints have ever found it. They go singing through the desolate wilderness and the valley of affliction, for He is with them. Nothing but the hiding of His face can trouble them, for He is more to them than all else beside, than parent, or consort, or child, or friend, than name or estate, than comfort or honour. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth; but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

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Rejoice in the Lord always," says the Apostle; but he could hardly have said so had he not been able to go on, "The Lord is at hand." No suffering for the present