seemeth to be joyous, but rather grievous; and we could not glory in tribulations also, but for hope, the hope that maketh not ashamed, the hope of the glory of God. "The Lord is at hand" to wipe away tears from off all faces, to right the unequal balance of society, to put down tyranny and oppression, to bind Satan, and swallow up death in victory. He comes, bringing with Him those we have lost; He comes to set up in the world a kingdom of righteousness; He comes to break off all burdens, to bind up all broken hearts, to clear our confusions, to perfect our charity. Truly, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. God, Who knows this best, is happy, though He sees His creature suffer. Could His love suffer Him to be happy did He not foresee the far more exceeding and abundant weight of glory which shall accrue from present tribulation? We see His face lighted up with the future, invisible to us; and in His happiness we read our hope. So we rejoice "in the Lord." We smile back His smile, assured that all is well.

And therefore is Advent to us a time of holy joy. A practice has grown up in the Church of making it a penitential season. She occupies it with presenting before her children

"that day of wrath, that awful day,

When heaven and earth shall pass away :"

and bids them, with fasting and tears, prepare to meet their Judge. If it must be so that the Lamb's Wife has no heart to await His coming otherwise than in sackcloth and ashes, God forbid that we should check her sorrowing. But there are multitudes of faithful souls all over Christendom to whom the Advent trumpet sounds a more joyous note. They know their own shortcomings, indeed; but

all thought of self is swallowed up in the love of the Bridegroom, and in sympathy with the ruined world and the groaning creation, which nothing but His coming can bless. Of such the Lord would make up His sheaf of first fruits. Shall we not go forth to gather them? The Baptist's cry, in the Advent-time of that dispensation, was,

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Ours may well be, “Rejoice, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." O thou that bringest good tidings to Zion, how beautiful are thy feet on the mountains! Thou sayest, "Awake! awake! put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem!" Thou sayest, "Arise! shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is rising upon thee." What else can we do but be glad and rejoice, when the Marriage of the Lamb is near, and His wife doth make herself ready?

CHRISTMAS DAY.

Heb. i. 1-12.

The Nativity.

John i. 1-14.

THE birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is the meeting point of the great lines of prophetic light and of apostolic doctrine. To it the former converge; from it the latter radiate. On the farther side of it stand the goodly fellowship of the prophets. Their eager eyes look out into the yet distant future. In burning yet broken words they tell their fellows the glimpses they have caught of the coming glory. David foresees, in his own tribe, along his own line, a more imperial Solomon-a Son who is also his Lord. Micah cries to Bethlehem, "Out of thee shall He come forth that is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Isaiah sings of One virgin-born, whose name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. And Malachi closes the roll with the vision of Jehovah coming suddenly to His temple, and sending His messenger before His face, to prepare His way before Him.

So God, in time past, by sundry parts and in divers manners, spake unto the fathers by the Prophets. And now the glorious company of the Apostles take up the wondrous tale. Hear them, by the mouth of their last surviving representative, speak of what happened that first Christmas Day. In the beginning-when the heavens and earth were created-there was already existing the Word

of God. He was with God. He was God. By Him all things were made. In the fulness of time He was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Surely this thing is the same as that of which the Prophets spoke; surely, when the Word was made flesh, that prophecy was fulfilled, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God."

And then let us turn to the event of which such glorious things are spoken. On a winter's night, eighteen hundred and more years ago, in a little village of Judæa a Hebrew woman gives birth to her first-born son. Nothing seems more commonplace. But remember that this village is Bethlehem, and that this mother is here because she is of the house and lineage of David. Enquire a little farther, and you will hear of the strange events which heralded this birth, of Zachariah and Elizabeth, of the Annunciation of the Angel, of Joseph's dream, and you will begin to think you see before you the Virgin of whom Isaiah spoke. Wait yet a while, and breathless shepherds shall come running in, telling of a vision of glory, of an angelic message, of the Gloria in excelsis of the heavenly Host. Tarry at Bethlehem a few days longer, and Magi shall come from the far East, laden with costly gifts. They have seen His star-this Baby's star !—and have come to worship Him. Return, lastly, with the Holy Family to Jerusalem, and accompany them as they go up to the Temple to offer for the purification, and to present the First-born. See just and devout Simeon taking the Child into his arms, and declaring Him to be the Light that shall lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel. Hear aged Anna the prophetess as she comes in, breaking forth into thanksgiving, and speaking of Him to

all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And then all hesitation must be at an end, and there is nothing but to come with adoration and worship the Lord.

"This is He whom seers in old time

Chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the Prophets

Promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected:
Let creation praise the Lord."

When we remember these things, our soul is poured out within us. We think,―It had been good for us to have been there, to have made one in that blessed company. Perhaps so, if our faith had been strong enough to comprehend the mystery,—to penetrate the veil of sense, and see the work of God. But it is not too late, if we would prove that such faith is ours. It is our assured hope that we are on the eve of the Second Advent of our Lord. Be sure that the circumstances of His first coming will repeat themselves. It is yet open to us to say, with blessed Mary,

'Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to Thy word." If only we be faithful to that committed to us, whether in the affairs of the Church or of this world, it may yet be ours to see the glory of the Lord, and to hear the angels' song. Have we not seen His star in the East? Let the wise-hearted bring their gifts, and come to worship Him. Waiting for the consolation of Israel— dwelling in the house of the Lord all the days of our life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His Temple-it may be revealed to us also by the Holy Ghost, that we shall not taste death until we have seen the Lord's Christ.

We are already in the midst of this wonderful antitype. We are singing our Benedictus, for the forerunner is born;