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the real birth-day; the nativity of our Lord was so early and so constantly observed, that its commencement is lost in obscurity; but St. Chrysostom traces back a tradition which fixes a very early observance, and probably the event itself, to the day on which we still keep the festival.

In this Collect the deepest mystery of our most holy faith is touched with that noble simplicity which accepts without questioning; and which of every truth contemplates the side which God turns towards us illumined by revelation, contented not yet to see that which is turned heavenward, and so out of the reach of our perception. The Incarnation will for ever demand, and for ever remain above, the adoring investigation of created intelligence, among the secrets that belong unto the Lord; but one view of it, the side turned to us, is plain, and is among the things which belong unto us and to our children. In the words of Hooker, 'The world's salvation was, without the Incarnation, a thing impossible; not simply impossible, but impossible it being presupposed that the Will of God was no otherwise to have it saved than by the death of His own Son.' This is not to say what God could or could not have done, but what God declares He has done; it was essential to our Lord's atonement that He should be clothed in a body, and that this body should be the body of man. He not only became flesh, but our flesh; forasmuch

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as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself took part of the same.' In the words of St. Anselm we may say, 'If God had made a new man who was not of Adam's race, he would not belong to that humanity which was born of Adam, and could not suitably satisfy for that nature to which he did not belong; for since it was right (that is, God's appointment) that man should satisfy for man's fault, therefore he who satisfied must either be the same with the sinner, or of the same race with him; and by the word of inspiration it is declared, 'He took on Him the seed of Abraham; wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest.'

His generation, in which perfect holiness was united to human nature, in which the Eternal became God with us,' is the source of our regeneration, whereby He makes us partakers of the divine nature, and the creature becomes a man of God; because God was manifest in the flesh,' we may arise and live to Him, instead of lying as part of the inert mass of perishing mortality. The life was manifested,' and His people are made partakers of it. Manhood, with all its mysterious wealth of thought and feeling, has been chosen to be the temple of God; not by the independent exaltation of the inferior race, but by the entrance of the seed of the higher, bringing back the life of God into the soul of

man. Humanity is elevated by the fact that He took part of its flesh and blood; and that portion of the human family which is brought spiritually near to Him by the connecting link of faith, is quickened and sanctified by the same Spirit that dwelt in His human body.

Into His mystical body, the Church, we are individually received in the Sacrament of Baptism; and so soon as consciousness awakes, we must abide in Him by faith, or fall from Him by unbelief: therefore we pray that we, being regenerated and made His children by adoption, may daily be renewed by the Holy Spirit; we pray, that because we are sons, God will send forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying Abba, Father; that having called us to the position and privilege of adoption, He will give us the heart and spirit of faithful children. This daily renewing of the Holy Ghost,' following 'the washing of regeneration,'1 is parallel to the lesson taught by the daily gathering of the manna, and the prayer, 'Give us day by day our daily bread.' We could no more lay up a store of divine grace, than we could lay up a store of life and breath; there must be the continual inhaling of His Spirit; the daily renewing of that repentance, whereby we renounce all trust in self, and that faith, whereby we confide our all to Him; and this personal and continuous renovation is through the same Lord Jesus Christ;' the 1 Titus, iii.

same of whom we have been thinking as the Babe of Bethlehem, but who is now living and reigning with the Eternal Father, and with 'the same Spirit,' (the same whereby He became man, and we became Christians,) 'ever one God;' the first and the last; the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; Jehovah; indivisible in eternity past and eternity to come.

ST. STEPHEN'S DAY.

Grant, O Lord, that, in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of Thy truth, we may steadfastly look up to Heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors, by the example of Thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to Thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God to succour all those that suffer for Thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

THE eye delights to rest upon that face which was as the face of an angel; and in that martyrdom there is a blessed repose, a holy calm, to which we turn as to a quiet green spot in earth's care and toil; for while all around was wrath and tumult, he stood the emblem of Christ's own peace and joy; peace in tribulation, joy rising out of suffering. In him the cross and the

crown are united: we hear his calm bold words; we feel the spirit and the power in which they were spoken; we see that lovely countenance, so early pictured in our hearts, that it seems a treasure rather of memory than of imagination; and we see the pelting of the pitiless storm that fell on that beautiful vision, not 'as though some strange thing happened unto him,' but as the expression of Satanic wrath against heavenly purity. He did not sink beneath it; even then his look toward heaven was steadfast; and without waiting till the torturers paused, or till the gentle form ceased to breathe and to suffer, he was permitted to attain all that we long for, for he 'saw Him as He is;' and he became God's messenger to tell the Church that her glorified Saviour is still the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.' He who was the first to lay down his life for Christ's sake, was the first to proclaim that truth which is above all others precious to the sufferer, the human sympathy of the Redeemer; and by that recorded word, 'I see heaven opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God,' the first martyr has in every age 'comforted those who are cast down, with the comfort wherewith he was comforted of God.'

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'He heeded not reviling tones,

Nor sold his heart to idle moans,

Though cursed and scorned and bruised with stones;
But looking upward full of grace,
He prayed, and from a happy place
God's glory smote him on the face.'

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