Second Sunday in Advent. COMFORT OF THE SCRIPTURES. ROMANS XV. 4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Most of our Collects, it is well-known, are of immense antiquity, many of them being traceable back to within three hundred years of the Apostolic age. Some few, (and those certainly not the least exquisite,) are comparatively modern. To-day's Collect, for example, appeared for the first time in the first reformed English Book of Common-Prayer; namely, in 1549. It is quite unlike every other Collect, and seems at first sight to stand without any particular fitness or propriety in the place where it is actually found; being, in effect, nothing else but a prayer preparatory to the reading of Holy Scripture. As such, we find it printed inside the cover of many of our Bibles; nor can we perhaps approach the study of GOD's Book with a better form of sound words' upon our lips. Let us make it our business, on this occasion, to offer a few remarks illustrative of the matter thus brought before our notice. Wherein consists the fitness of this day's Collect, and to what train of thought does its insertion in the present place guide us? First, it will be perceived at once that it is formed out of the Epistle for the day; which, like the present Gospel, has been used by the Church of England ever since Christianity was first planted in these kingdoms. By singling out St. Paul's reference to Holy Scripture however, in preference to any of the numerous striking Advent allusions which the Gospel for the day would have supplied, it is impossible to avoid suspecting that our compilers were eager to vindicate for the newly recovered Treasure of God's Word, its true dignity and importance. They placed the mention of it on the very threshold of the Church's Book of Devotions, as if in perpetual memorial of what 'was lost and is found;' and deep indeed must have been the fervour with which every pious heart will have joined in a prayer so scriptural in its tone, so truly comfortable and edifying in its general tenor and purpose. Difficult, or rather impossible is it for us at this distance of Time to appreciate what must have been the feelings of our forefathers in this respect. The free use of the sacred volume, which had been so long proscribed, must have seemed to them like little else than Life from the dead, the very Advent of CHRIST Himself. : - But this is evidently only an imperfect account of the matter. There must have been a profounder motive which induced our Reformers to construct such a Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent; and it appears to have been of the following nature. They seem to have wished to draw attention to the singular manner in which the Epistle and Gospel for the day are contrasted the latter telling of alarm, the former of consolation: the one, drawing an awful picture of the convulsions in Heaven and Earth which will be witnessed in the latter days; (signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the Stars; and upon the Earth, distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear;') the other, preaching words of Patience, and prompting thoughts of Comfort, and whispering lessons of Hope. Take notice of the concluding words of the Epistle: 'Now the GOD of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace in be lieving, that ye may abound in Hope, through the power of the HOLY GHOST.' What then, is it implied, should be the Believer's stay in the Day of Terror? On what shall he anchor his heart, and fix his thoughts, with confidence? The Collect suggests an answer to this question. Besides Patience, (which is required at the hands of all GOD's children,) there is the comfort of GOD'S Holy Word;whereby we embrace, and by GoD's help, ever hold fast the blessed Hope of Everlasting Life which He has given us in our SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST. This is the soul's stay in the hour of adversity. This will be the prop of failing hearts in the great and terrible Day of the LORD! And that all this is indeed so, must appear to any one who shall be at the pains to consider how unspeakable will be the consternation which our LORD describes; when, amid strange sights, and sounds unutterable;-amid the conflagration of this Earth, the interruption of the course of Nature, the disorganization of this entire visible frame of things;-'The Son of Man' will be seen coming in a cloud with power and great glory.' Surely, in that tremendous hour, (an hour which we shall every one of us witness!) the terror-stricken soul will reach out for some thing whereby to sustain itself. And on what shall it lay hold, if not on God's sure mercies in CHRIST? Where shall be its confidence, if not in those everlasting promises which, we know, cannot fail? Not only amid the terrors of the Great Day, but during all those darker hours through which we have to pass in the course of our mortal pilgrimage, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life,'-Holy Scripture is our appointed comfort. And this in truth is one of the chief reasons why, during the season of health and prosperity, the Sacred Volume should be much in our hands, the subject of our constant and assiduous study. Out of that heavenly armoury we shall thereby know how to furnish ourselves with an appropriate weapon in the hour of our greatest need. The Enemy will assail us with disquieting thoughts; but we shall know how to beat him back with the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of GOD.' The manner in which the Almighty One has constantly brought positive Good out of seeming Evil; has overruled events in themselves disastrous, to a blessed issue; has kept His people long waiting for an answer to their prayers, yet has ever answered them abundantly in the |