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.2 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, "My strength is made perfect in weakness."

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

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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," 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

* St. John, xiv. 19.

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Isaiah, lxvi. 2.

way to enfeebling despondency, because he is not already perfect. We must not expect to be perfect all in a moment. The work of grace is a gradual and long continued work, "first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear." Even St. Paul says, long after his conversion, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after." 10

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"Let patience," therefore, "have her perfect work." Be satisfied to go on day by day endeavouring to improve, though it be but slowly, curing one fault after another as it comes forward more prominently, learning one grace after another, as opportunity for exercising it is granted you. willing to pray every morning for grace to keep you during the day from falling into sin; and be willing to confess every evening how much sin you have committed in thought, or word, or deed, by your own fault, your own exceeding fault. Thus will the tender plant of grace grow silently but surely in the dry ground of your sinful hearts; thus will you certainly, though, perhaps, imperceptibly to yourselves, be advancing along the narrow road, with the greater security and speed, because in selfabasement, self-diffidence, and sorrow for sin. It was on purpose to carry on this secret, silent, gradual, painful work in souls conceived in sin, that Christ was this day born, the Saviour of sinners. For this very end He this day sprang up as a tender plant rooted in a dry ground, that He might plant and train up, water, and prune, and carefully tend, and bring to

perfection, the frail and tender plants of heavenly virtues in stony and barren human hearts. To soften them, to change them, to make them good; to sow the seed, to send the dew and the rain, each in its season, the sunshine and the shade; this is the great work which by His holy Spirit He is ever carrying on; and the perfecting of this work in each of His fore-known and fore-ordained members, is the fruit of the travail of His soul, of which He saw and was satisfied.12

Let us, then, dear brethren, go cheerfully and trustfully about our great work. It would, indeed, be overwhelming, if all its separate trials, contests, and difficulties, were summed up in one, and laid before us; and just because men will look upon it as a whole, they are alarmed and discouraged. But in fact, and by the gracious providence of God, each trial comes alone, and grace for each. Each trial comes alone; and though the whole number of our difficulties and sorrows be more than we can calculate, yet as they one by one are cheerfully met, courageously borne, and safely passed through, the Divine Life, of which Christ is the source, is not only unimpaired, but quickened in the soul; the powers of death are enfeebled, and the powers of the heavenly life are extended and deepened.

Rejoice, then, O humble and penitent souls, in Him who is born as on this day a Saviour, Christ the Lord. Your narrow path of penitence and earnest endeavours after obedience, overclouded as it may be sometimes with the shadows of sins that are past, 12 See Isaiah, liii. 11.

may yet be lighted up by the quickening rays of the Sun of Righteousness, who is the source of life, and joy, and peace, and holiness, to all that put their trust in Him: life for the little ones, strength for the young in their struggles with temptation, guidance and consolation for those who are toiling amid the occupations and cares of this troublesome world, and comfort, support, and ever-brightening hope for the aged Christian, who is waiting patiently for the hour of his departure.