humility, and into the heart of the humble Divine wisdom will enter, and dwell there; thus we shall be prepared to celebrate duly the first coming of our Lord in great humility. Being humbled by a wholesome fear of His majesty, we shall see in that lowly child our Almighty Saviour; our Saviour now, who then will be our Judge. Fearing the majesty of His glory, we shall distrust ourselves, and feel and know in time that we can make no idols for ourselves that can deliver us in the day of wrath; and so shall turn to Him in humble confidence, and with true devotion, while we may be saved. Oh! how good, and right, and happy would it be if we could be brought to cast away our idols now whilst it would avail! If only we would yield up ourselves with simplicity of heart to Him who will now accept us, but then will judge us, how calm and bright, and full of peace, our souls might be! How undisturbedly and cheerfully we should walk through all the trials of life! How freely we should yield up those we love best to Him who loves them better than we! How richly would His gifts be poured upon us-the secret influences of the renewing Spirit! True fear He would teach us truly, and fear that hath torment He would keep far from us. We have made our own worst fears, and only He can take them away. We have, by our own sins, exposed ourselves to a horrible and overwhelming fear of judgment; and this is why we do not like to contemplate the Judgment Day. But if we cast away the idols that we have made, give up the plans on which God's blessing cannot be asked, worship the creations of our own minds no more, and shake off the dominion of our lusts, He will subdue that tormenting fear into a salutary awe, for He will take away the cause-I mean the sins we have committed-as we have heard so graciously promised to-day: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” 1 Cast your idols away, and your sins shall be blotted out cast them away now, while Christmas blessings may descend into your humbled hearts, for it will be too late to cast them away when He shall come in glory to abolish them utterly. 1 Isaiah, i. 18. 14 SERMON II. THE HUMBLING OF THE MEN OF THIS WORLD. ISAIAH, ii. 11. "The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." WHEN first Christ came into the world these words began to be fulfilled; they are in course of fulfilment now; and they will be fulfilled entirely when Christ shall come again to judge the world. For the expression "that day," which is so frequently used by the Prophets, seems to denote the whole period of the Christian dispensation. The holy Prophets be held a glorious vision of the kingdom of Christ. They beheld the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, established in the world, and again entering into glory. The vision, revealed to them by the Spirit of God, was one, and as one they describe it; and thus it comes to pass that they speak of the whole period of the dispensation of the kingdom as that day which should come, the day of the Lord. The day, therefore, of which they speak, is not to be measured by a fixed number of hours, as we measure days. It is a period whose duration is known to God alone, the time in which a certain work is to be done, longer or shorter, as it pleases God, and measured and bounded by His foreknowledge, for "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."1 That day, then-that day of great events for the happiness or misery of man-that day of the Lord is now running its course; and of those things which were foretold of the day of the Lord, many are being now fulfilled, since all that the Prophets have foretold of that day, either has been fulfilled, or is fulfilling, or will be fulfilled. Every single prediction either was accomplished when our Lord was upon earth, or is now working out its accomplishment in the Church, or shall be finally completed when Christ shall come again. But of the prophecy in the text we may say, as of many others contained in the books of the Prophets, that it was realized in a way that could never have been anticipated, in the birth of the lowly Child Jesus, in His life, in His death, in His Resurrection, in His Ascension; that through the whole course of the Church's history it is mysteriously exemplified; and that in the Day of Judgment it will find a more awful and dreadful fulfilment, when all that seem now to be exceptions shall be done away. It is, perhaps, the one most striking effect upon 1 1 Pet. iii. 8. the world of the establishment of God's kingdom, that the mighty shall be put down from their seat, and the humble and meek exalted. "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." "The city shall be low in a low place." "And the first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety. What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the Lord hath founded Zion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it." "For then will I take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain. I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord."" In these, and such words as these, the Prophets foretold the times of the Gospel. Accordingly, when Christ came, He was born of one who was humble and of low estate; He was brought up among the poor and unlearned; He chose men of a humble rank and of simple manners for his disciples; and through their instrumentality, unlearned and despised as they were, He subdued the world. And when He preached salvation to the multitudes, He said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; ... Blessed are the meek; Blessed are the mourners; and Blessed are they that suffer patiently the scorn and ill-usage of the world." For example of life He set a little child before His disciples; and for precepts of guidance, said, "Except 2 Isa. ii. 17; xxxii. 19; xiv. 30, 32. Zeph. iii. 11, 12. |