Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility. That, in the last day, when He shall come again in his glorious majesty, to judge both the quick and dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through Him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

79

SERMON IV.

Luke ïi. 15.—“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace."

THERE is something very striking in the whole manner in which the announcement of Christ's coming upon earth is made, and yet, at the same time, not in harmony, perhaps, with our first and natural expectation. Had we invented the circumstances, we should have arranged them differently. When we consider, for instance, that it was not only the greatest event which had ever happened in the universe at large, since it rose out of nothing until now; but to this sin-darkened portion of it, in which God has placed us, of the most

vital and direct importance, altogether startling and overwhelming;—a louder and more general proclamation of it, from the very first, might seem more suitable. Surely it was strange that the Maker and upholder of all things, the Lord and giver of life, should have come down from heaven, and have been dwelling, in the fulness of his divine attributes, in the midst of his creatures, and yet none of them have been conscious of the majestic stranger! Christ lay on his mother's bosom, and yet the whole earth slumbered and slept, and darkness lay upon it as of old. Though all things had in a moment become new, yet the nations and peoples, to the world's end, were unaware of any change in nature or grace. Yet heaven, yea, the very heaven of heavens, had come down to earth, and He that filleth eternity had become flesh.

But then, in another view of it, it is not marvellous that man should have been thus unconscious of the descended Godhead. For had it not always been so? is

it not so now, and ever will be, till the change shall come that will restore all things here to the pattern of things in heaven! Surely God hath always been dwelling among men, going in and out among them, and they perceive Him not. Yea, not only hath He from the beginning shone upon them in his eternal power and Godhead, while the stars in the firmament have audibly sung of Him in their courses, but in many an act of daily love and bounty, hath He shown his fatherly care. Yea, more than that, not only about them, but in them, in the depths of the heart, where none but He can penetrate the secret spirit, hath he ever spoken in a still but intelligible voice. Yet all the time men have never thought of Him, nor been conscious of his presence who filleth and upholdeth all things. No wonder, therefore, that his tabernacling in the flesh, and in the limits of a human form, should not have wakened them to a keener consciousness of his presence.

Nor, indeed, would it, or could it have done so, even if the whole earth had been startled at once by the sound of a trumpet, such as shall be heard on the judgment day. No, not even if a light from heaven had shone round about all men, and the voice of an archangel had proclaimed in all ears, that the hour of salvation had arrived, and that God had descended upon the earth! Of course, men would have wondered for a moment, and would have talked of this strange interruption of nature, and mused upon it for a little while, and then there would have been an end of it. But no outward glory, or sign of power whatsoever could have wrought the intended work of redemption. And glories and signs of power enough, if that were of any use, there have ever been in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath. But it was the heart and the soul which were to be converted to the Lord, and not the eyes dazzled and the senses shaken.