First Sunday in Advent. THE ADVENT SEASON ST. MATTHEW xxi. 5. Behold thy King cometh unto thee. To any one who has learnt to appreciate, even in a slight degree, the beautiful arrangement and lofty purpose of the Christian Seasons, the return of Advent cannot but be a source of real comfort and satisfaction. We seem to have been too long estranged from Him whose Ascension into Heaven we celebrated more than six months ago. Up to that period, how constantly was He brought before us! How much of Humiliation indeed, yet how much of Glory was there in the varied history of Christmas and Epiphany, Lent, and Easter; until Whit-Sunday gathered up all into one glorious Festival! But from that moment, all has appeared to be at an end; and we seem to have been only more and more losing sight of Him who died for our sins, and rose again for our sanctification. The Apocryphal lessons which have been read in Church for the last two months have conduced not a little to sever the links which connected us, at least in memory, with our LORD. We have missed those far-sighted allusions to the Day of the Gospel,those typical histories,—those familiar prophecies, -which are for ever recurring in the Old Testament Scriptures, and which help to keep the History of Redemption before our eyes when what may be called the sacramental half of the year has come to a close. Even on Sundays, the first Lessons from the book of Proverbs have helped to produce the same general impression that we were becoming daily further and further removed from the heavenly Canaan,-the Land of our promised inheritance: for it is hard to see CHRIST in the book of Proverbs, though we know for certain that He is there. In the meanwhile, it is not fanciful to point out that the very decay of external Nature contributes an element of unconscious despondency and regret. While Summer was with us in its leafy pride, and Autumn in its exquisite variety, there was something outward for the eye if not for the heart to rest upon with pleasure. But Summer and Autumn have already been gathered into the grave of Winter. The air is chill, and the sky is dark, and the days grow visibly shorter. The trees have become bare, and the gardens empty. Every thing preaches to us unmistakably of decay and death. The kingdom of Nature therefore, is now beginning to partake in the decline which we have so long witnessed in the kingdom of Grace; and its phenomena affect us in a somewhat kindred manner. At such a time does Advent surprise the inattentive, and cheer the wakeful, by its heartstirring approach. This Day's Collect, (which is founded on this Day's Epistle,) is like a trumpetblast to awake the spiritually dead, to arouse the sleeping, to produce activity and attention in all. Well may we pray for grace to 'cast away the works of darkness,' if indeed the Night is far spent and the Day is at hand.' At the same time the mention of armour suggests the idea of an enemy to be encountered, and a victory to be won while the allusion to our LORD's second Advent sets before the mind at once the great reality of this, the first of the sacred Seasons; and establishes its purpose to prepare the Church for what is yet future, no less than to remind her of what is already past. This indeed is the great object of all our sacred anniversaries. Their obvious effect is to inform |