be accomplished by that which seemed so feeble? Consider what a sore trial it must have been to the faith of those who looked for Redemption in Israel, to behold Him to whom their hopes were directed by angels and miraculous signs, wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger! Would it have been at all wonderful if any among them, the Blessed Virgin herself, or Simeon, or Anna, had said, like the Disciples who went to Emmaus, ""We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel;' but now we do not see that He is able to claim for Himself a place where He may lay His head, but He and His mother are obliged to give way to the rich and the noble of this world; and are by them thrust out into the stable. Neither does He manifest His power in opposition to a cruel tyrant; but is borne away as any infant might be, from his wrath; and suffers a multitude of innocents to perish in His stead. Neither as He grows up do we see any tokens of the power necessary to recover a lost world. We see, indeed, a meek, submissive child, yielding unswerving obedience to His mother, but we see no tokens of a kingly power; and we fear we have been deceived by vain visions, and have listened to fables without foundation." Can we wonder if these, or such as these, were the feelings of many of those who watched our Blessed Saviour as He passed through the periods of infancy and childhood ?

How, then, did it come to pass that He did, in fact, accomplish the great work which He undertook? And how was it that the Angels sang a song of joyous confidence the moment He was born, as though the great work were already accomplished, "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord?...... Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men ?" 1

Because, "in Him was life." Because He was greater than He appeared. He appeared to be a child only. He was God as well. Being God, He became man, yet still remained God. He became what He was not, and continued what He was. Even as His Blessed Mother, being a virgin before His conception, remained a virgin after His birth ; so He, becoming man, remained God as He was before He became man. For God the Word became incarnate, "not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh; but by taking of the manhood into God." Therefore, though it pleased Christ the Ever Blessed, to veil the glory of His Divine Person, yet Life was ever in Him; or rather, He was Himself that Life which the veil of mortal flesh concealed from the eye of men. "And the Life," we further read, " was the light of men." Now it is of the very nature of light to pierce the shades of darkness, and by its innate power to dispel them, and to triumph in its own diffusiveness. And as light is conveyed to us by the sun, which is itself a creature inferior to the light of which it is the temporary channel (light being created first, and then the sun afterwards to co convey it to earth and its inhabitants), so Christ, being Himself Light of Light, was pleased to make His assumed Humanity the channel of light for the life of the world that lay in darkness and the shadow of death.

1 St. Luke, ii. 11, 14.

It is, then, no longer strange that He should conquer sin and death, and the Lord of sin and death, though He chose instruments feeble as the infantile flesh of man, with a human soul and faculties, useless until developed into knowledge, and wisdom, and power, by experience, and exercise, and discipline.

Now in this, as in all other points, our Blessed Saviour is the pattern, type, or ensample of His elect in all ages. For it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, sin only excepted. And this thought, dear brethren, if rightly followed out, will afford us that comfort and encouragement of which we stand in need at all times, and may inspire us with some measure of that hopeful joy which is so peculiarly suitable to this holy season. Let us, then, endeavour, by the help of God, to trace this analogy, or likeness, between our Saviour in His apparent feebleness and real strength, and the condition of those who are to be conformed to His image.

It is exceedingly difficult for some Christians to rejoice with a calm spiritual joy in holy seasons like the present; and this is the case even with some who watch and pray as they are commanded, and who, therefore, ought to rejoice in Christmas blessings with hopeful gladness. But this they feel restrained from doing by a sense of their own manifold imperfections. "It is, indeed," they say, a cause of exceeding joy that Christ was born, as at this time, for man's salvation; but we do not deserve to share the general gladness, for we are ever falling into sin, and adding to the burthen of guilt: whereas He came to set men free from sin. Those who are

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holier than we, may well be happy; but we have too much cause for misery in ourselves to look abroad beyond our own hearts and take pleasure in events which happened to another." Dear brethren, I will take your words as a true picture of yourselves; and even so, by God's grace, I will lead you through those very thoughts which your words express (adding to them hope, which I believe you still cherish, though, perhaps, unconsciously), to thoughts of joy and consolation.

This, then, is the cause of your sadness, That you are so full of sin. Christ Jesus came into the world, as at this time, to save sinners. But you are so weak that you continually fall into sins of infirmity, and are afraid lest under great temptations you should fall into greater sins. Christ says, “Му strength is made perfect in weakness." 3

And even if this is very hard to believe, yet surely we may believe it on this day when we see it so marvellously fulfilled in our Blessed Saviour Himself. Was not strength made perfect in weakness, when the infant, as on this day born, overcame sin, and death, and Satan? And be sure, dear brethren, the promise will be equally fulfilled in every humble follower of the Holy Child Jesus. Lay your foundation in humility, and the building will rise to heaven. Build upon the rock, and your hope shall be firm amid all trials. That very humility which makes you feel your own sinfulness so much, is the very ground of other persons' hopes concerning you; and it is also the very condition of Christ's abiding in you. To His elect He promises, "Because I live, ye shall live also." And if we would know who are His elect, He says Himself by His Prophet, "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word." See, then, how those who humble themselves, who fear His wrath, who confess their sins, who become as little children, are His chosen resting-place, and their bodies the temples in which it pleaseth Him to dwell!

He would see in you His own image; yes, He of whom it was foretold, "He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground,"6 would see you like Himself. Fallen human nature was the dry ground from which He sprang, who was indeed a Tender Plant in all the weakness of infancy; and yet in whom was Life for the renewal of the whole human race. Even so each penitent soul of His humble followers is a Tender Plant, and the principle of divine life in each as a root out of a dry ground, the dry ground of each one's own sinful heart. And yet in each who perseveres, and in each one of you, we trust, dear brethren, who presses forward towards the prize of perseverance, shall be fulfilled this gracious promise, “They shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses;" for He "will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground," and thus He will "turn the hard rock into a standing water, and the flint stone into a springing well." Therefore let no humble-minded and tender-hearted Christian give