afresh from Him, and to cut you off again from the hope of happiness. God, then, was born into the world, as at this season, that He might not only offer a sacrifice for sins and reconcile you to God, but that He might infuse into your heart the principle of love to Himself; that He might win you back from the attractions of the world, its vanities and its enjoyments, to fix your deepest and truest affection upon Himself. He came, shewing you the brightest and clearest tokens of His love to you, that He might excite you to love Him in return. He came to set before you the love of God as the true end of your being, and to impart to you such strength and help as should enable you to shew forth your love in active obedience. And when He thus seeks you, will you flee from Him? When He comes as He does now, telling you of all His selfabasement, reminding you of His birth in the manger, of His life of poverty and suffering, and of His cruel death, will you turn away from Him? Will you say, "That tale of love is most touching; I cannot hear it without emotion; but alas! the inclinations of my evil nature are too strong for me, I cannot fight against them; I must indulge myself now and then"? My brethren, if any man can say this,—and alas! how many say it by their acts,-let such an one remember that at least God could do no more to excite his love and ensure his obedience. If he is not moved at the sight of his God clothed in flesh and enduring a life and death of ignominy, then is there no spectacle which can soften his stony heart. Let such an one take heed unto himself while yet there is time: let him cry to God to have mercy upon him, and to give him the grace and gift of love. In conclusion, my brethren, let us all determine, both those who are conscious of loving Christ and those who have not yet attained to that blessed state, let us, I say, one and all, determine to meditate on the wondrous event which this season sets before us. Let us place ourselves in thought before the infant Jesus as He lies in the arms of His Virgin Mother; let us reflect (as we have been doing this evening) on all that is implied by that scene. Let us think how it has brought salvation within the reach of all mankind; how it has placed it within our reach; how it has been the cause of awakening some of us at least to a sense of our danger and our sin since our Baptism; how it has opened out to us the hope of forgiveness, and made a fountain of love and hope and peace to spring up within our souls. To use the words of St. Anselm: "Thy Redeemer hath laid upon thy darkened eyes the ointment of His Incarnation, that thou who couldest not see God shining in the secretness of His majesty, mightest look upon God manifest among men; that looking, thou mightest acknowledge; that acknowledging, thou mightest love; and that loving, thou mightest strive with all thy might to attain to His glory." Gaze we, then, in earnest contemplation on the scene which, as at this season, was set before men in Bethlehem. Let us draw near with the shepherds; let us fall down before the Infant Child; let us offer Him the homage of our hearts, and dedicate to Him our best energies and powers; let us call upon ourselves and all men in the words of our Christmas hymn, saying, "Come and behold Him, Born the King of angels; SERMON VIII. · The Magnificat, F. ST. LUKE i. 46–48. "And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For He hath regarded the low estate of His handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His Name." ΤΗ HERE are scarcely any words of Scripture, I suppose, which are more familiar to us than those I have just read. In accordance with primitive custom, our Church invites us, whenever we offer up the evening sacrifice of prayer and praise, to celebrate God's goodness and mercy in this most beautiful of all hymns; and to express our feelings of humble thankfulness in the very words which fell from the lips of the blessed Virgin Mother of our Lord. She would desire that all her children should be filled with that spirit of conscious gratitude and quiet humbleness of heart which characterized her who spoke these words, and she knows no strain so calculated to infuse that spirit, so well adapted to calm and soften our hearts, to raise our thoughts from worldly cares to heaven, and fix them on our Lord and all the blessings which He has brought us, as this inspired hymn of praise and thanksgiving. But it too often happens that our very familiarity with passages of Scripture, however striking and beautiful in themselves, tends to blind us to the perception of their meaning, and to hinder the impression they should produce on us. Our lips and our ears become accustomed to the words; it costs us no effort, and but little attention, to repeat them accurately; and unless we are careful, by a distinct effort, to fix our thoughts upon them, we may find that we are repeating them more or less mechanically. And this may happen, too, with those who would shrink from the thought of offering to God a mere lip-service; who, though conscious that they are performing a religious act of praise, may all the while be little mindful of the full import of the words which they utter. Nor is there any other means by which we can check this tendency to mere formalism, but by cultivating habits of reflection, and striving, with the aid of God's grace, to understand and enter somewhat into the spirit of the Divine words which are put into our mouths. Thus, for instance, if, following the guidance of our Prayerbook, people would accustom themselves to reflect and meditate carefully and earnestly on the various parts of our services,-upon the selected portions of Scripture, the Canticles, the Psalms, the prayers, and various responses,-they would not only understand better the meaning of our services as a whole, and |