features of the Messiah which were dispersed through the prophets; verified the anticipations of David, and exhibited in life and character the more perfect figure which Isaiah had been instructed to delineate. All this supplies matter for perpetual contemplation; and as often as it is contemplated, enables the Christian to proceed on his pilgrimage with his faith strengthened and his hope confirmed.

I shall, however, confine myself at present to a much narrower compass, the event of the nativity which we are celebrating. Let me then carry back your thoughts eighteen hundred years; and consider the transactions of that night on which the Saviour was born."

Daniel had written, "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and the prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy." Much of

1

1 Daniel ix. 24. "Seventy weeks of years, or seventy times seven years; each day being accounted for a year, according to the prophetical way of reckoning." See Numb. xiv. 34. Ezek. iv. 6.—W. Louth. "In consequence of this

that time had elapsed: and whoever reflected upon the prophecy, and looked for its fulfil

ment, must have known ment was drawing nigh.

that the accomplishAnd how were the

inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah employed? Were they earnestly desiring to see the salvation of God? Had they withdrawn some portion of their thoughts from worldly things, and were they studying the divine oracles, and endeavouring to scan the counsels of the Most High? Were they copying the example of Daniel himself in former times? He "had understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusalem. And he set his face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes:" to seek the accomplishment of that promise of restoration from captivity, which Jeremiah had been directed to foretell. In like manner we might have hoped

prophecy of Daniel, the coming of the Messiah towards the end of that period was generally expected among the nations of the East."-Bp. Hallifax.

2 Dan. ix. 2.

to find Jerusalem in the attitude of prayer,

confessing her sins, and presenting her supplications before the Lord her God" for a more glorious deliverer than Cyrus, and a speedy redemption from a worse captivity than that of Babylon.

No. The great and busy city offers no such edifying spectacle. The scribes and pharisees who "sat in Moses' seat," were putting the shadow for the substance, the form for the reality of godliness: they were binding "heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and laying them on the shoulders" of those who came to them for instruction in righteousness: they were courting the reputation of sanctity, with none of the spirit of saints: they were loving precedence and supremacy, and not "walking humbly with their God:" they were "making the law of God of none effect through their traditions: they were boasting of their scrupulous exactness in trifles, and omitting "the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith." Their prayers were a pretence; and their religion hypocrisy. Poor preparation this, for welcoming a meek and lowly Saviour! They were "Abraham's children:" they

were "of the truth:" they were

free, and

never in bondage to any man:" he could be nothing to them, who " came to preach the gospel to the poor; who was sent to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty the bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." 3

Another principal party in Jerusalem was still farther removed from the kingdom of God. The sadducees said "there was no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit ; "4 and this in defiance of the many intimations which are found in their history, and interspersed among their scriptures, and of divers plain declarations which their later prophets contain. These then must have thrown off the very appearance of religion, and have taken for their practical maxim, “Let us eat and drink, for to morrow we die."

The temple, which ought to have been the glory of nations, and the light of the world; for there alone was the Creator worshipped instead of the creature, there alone was an altar without " a graven image the work of men's hands:"-was this temple purified and cleansed

66

3 Luke iv. 18.

4 Acts xxiii. 8.

from unworthy pretenders to devotion, and prepared to receive the incarnate God within its walls, "the glory of the Father, and express image of his person, full of grace and truth?" Alas! the "house of prayer" was become "a den of thieves" the place of worship was made a place of merchandise, and the business of worldly gain profaned the seasons of devotion. Are these "the gates of Sion," honoured by the favour of God "more than all the dwellings of Jacob!" "How is the faithful city become an harlot! Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil doers, children that are corrupters; they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger.

Still God had reserved to himself a remnant, more worthy descendants of that "father of the faithful," who " rejoiced to see the day of Christ." Such was Anna the prophetess, who departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day." And now the desire of her heart is answered. But a few days more will pass by, and she will

5 Isaiah i. 4.