SERMON XXXI.

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE CROSS.

S. MAT. XXVI. 22.-" And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say, Lord, is it I?"

SERMON XXXII.

DANGER OF THE WORLD'S APPROBATION

ST. LUKE VI. 26.-"Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets."

SERMON I,

(ADVENT SUNDAY.)

THE SUMMONS TO THE SLEEPERS.

ROMANS XIII. 11.

"And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

THE Holy Catholic Church, the bride of Christ, ought now to be dwelling in sweet meditation upon the glories and blessings of her Lord's first Advent, and looking forward in eager expectation to His second coming in glory. Yes; the meditation ought indeed to be sweet when inspired history can summon before the mind so great and glorious a host of beautiful, self-denying acts, in the first lowly life on earth of the now glorified Bridegroom. In the ardour of our devotion and the fervour of our faith, the glories of Bethlehem and the sufferings of Calvary ought to seem as if we ourselves were watching by night upon the plain, or walking without the

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city gates to see the Saviour die. Oh, for the Spirit of all-believing, trusting love which is the bond between the Bride and the Bridegroom: which seizes within its grasp the great events of the far off past, and lays them down at the worshippers' feet: which should inspire every Advent hymn and strike the first note of the summons which bids us watch for the second coming unto judgment and dominion! Sweet thought to dwell upon in holy quiet, within the heart's purest shrine! He is coming again and in His royal hand He brings salvation to His ransomed bride. Mark the hours as they pass swiftly by with but little good seed sown for the coming harvest; mark the days with the too impure sacrifice of the morning and the evening; mark the years with the sad and gloomy retrospect of golden opportunities numbered with the neglected past. This is no time for sleep cries the inspired Apostle; inspired to realize the mysteries of the first Advent and to behold in prophetic vision the triumphant glories of the second.

Meditation upon the wondrous past is indeed. sweet food for the loving, longing soul; the soul loving ardently enough to long for the vision of that beauty which, though now invisible, is the

mainspring of all real spiritual life; but as the cross, the symbol of our faith, with one of its arms seems pointing to the days gone by—so, with the other, does it seem to direct our gaze forward to the glories of the coming King when all the mighty sowing of the Advent in humiliation shall be reaped in the triumphant glory of the Advent in majesty and might.

But the Advent that we are waiting and watching for is not only that of the victorious King with the rich rewards of conquest in His right hand: it is also the Advent of the Judge before whose seat of judgment all flesh shall stand. We dare not slumber with the knowledge that each day brings us nearer to the end of all things earthly; we must be awake and watch to catch the first sound of His footfall, the first note of the angels' music, the first blast of the announcing trumpet: verily, "it is high "time to awake out of sleep: for now is our sal"vation nearer than when we believed."

Sad indeed is the thought that we are not ready yet: that the bride is not yet purified, that her garments are too sin-stained to meet the all glorious Bridegroom. But she is passing through the discipline of tribulation which shall make

her robes as white as the snow. Like Israel of old she is often weeping beside the waters of the Babylon of this world, and all music is hushed save the chanting of the penitential Psalm. But all her persecution and sorrow are foretold by the loving lips of the Redeemer Himself; foretold as the passage through the wilderness into the land of peace and plenty.

In the midst of her struggle she remembers the promise of the second Advent. Her redemption is accomplished, her freedom is secured by the first coming to lowliness and meekness and Calvary the second coming shall bring with it her freedom from bondage, and her exaltation to the Bridegroom's side.

And if the grand and final exaltation of the Church of Christ be the exaltation also of each individual member; of each child with the dew of his baptism still damp upon his brow, the sign of the cross still bright and clear; of each weather-beaten soldier who has fought on through storm and tempest with faith enough to lead him to victory: if each member singly is to join in the glory of the second Advent, we dare not forget that the discipline and trial, the repentance, the sorrow and persecution belong,