In it we intimate our inability, and its mortifying cause, on the one hand, to do that which must yet be done to ensure eternal happiness-the running properly the race set before us—and acknowledge on the other, that the assistance which can alone make us capable of doing this, must be the grace and mercy of God, granted to us through the satisfaction afforded His justice by our Lord and Saviour. Nor are the evil consequences of sin felt only by a few; the fall of Adam affects all creation, and has been the cause of mournful complaint by the best and holiest of his posterity in all ages, who have uniformly acknowledged that the power to do well has never been equalled by the inclination. The desire of a Redeemer becomes the greater as the necessity of one is the more apparent. Conscious of our need, and of our wretchedness, the Church, therefore, instructs us to implore the divine assistance, and the more earnestly as the approach of our Lord draws nigh, lest we lose the inestimable benefit that his first coming procured for us.

The Epistle, warning us that the Lord is at hand, commands us to rejoice; nor is this injunction at variance with the penitential strain of the Collect; for there is no exercise of religion that is unattended with gratification, the very tears of contrition are but seeds which will hereafter spring up into blissful recollection. At the same time we are warned to be moderate. The Christian must exhibit no extrava

gance in any respect, but staying himself with awful

reverence upon his God, "be careful for nothing;" neither oppressed by misfortune nor carried into any excesses of joy, but possessing his soul in patience and tranquillity.

By her selection of the portion of Scripture for the Gospel, the Church instructs us to listen with renewed attention to the voice of Him who once called the multitudes in the wilderness to repentance, that they might be prepared to meet the Messiah with becoming graces, and to make ready ourselves to receive Him in like manner, with fresh resolutions of amendment, in purity and faith. The testimony afforded by Christ to the Baptist's mission as His harbinger and messenger, confers the highest value on the Baptist's own humble declaration of himself, and attestations of the superiority of our Lord; for if one, "than whom no greater prophet was born of women," as affirmed by our Saviour, could with truth assert that he was not worthy to perform the most menial offices for Him "who was to come after him," it follows that the nature of the last must be divine, and that as God he was acknowledged and announced by the former.

The Proper Lessons by many awful denunciations and admonitions teach us to renounce the idolatrous worship of the world, which is spiritual Egypt, and to whose bondage, slavish as it is, the heart is but too strongly attached; and lead us to Christ, our only rock and defence, our refuge, and our refreshment, and whose service alone is freedom.

ISAIAH XXXI. 1.

"Behold! a King shall reign in righteousness."

The crooked paths make straight!
A highway for the Lord prepare!

He comes,-Hell's dread and hate,
The Son, the long-expected heir:
Desire of nations he,

The theme of prophecy,

Lost Adam's hope, the holy patriarchs' God,
He who shall rule all nations with his rod.

Not as on Sinai's hill

Doth he, the lowly Saviour, come;
As Hermon's dews distil,
Gentle he leaves his Father's home,

Quits his eternal throne,

And comes to seek his own;

Empties himself of glory, that as man
He may the task complete his love began.

Level each haughty thought,

Strew the rough places with thy pride;
Messiah must be sought

With humble breasts and sanctified.

Woe to the lofty heart

From sin that will not part,

Nor feeling in himself a Saviour's need,

Careless hosannah sings, or sees him bleed.

Earth! thou hadst cause to groan,
When man his first allegiance broke;

The thorn and thistle sown

Soon changed thy face-the desert woke.
Rejoice! rejoice! thy curse

No more shall tongue rehearse.

Fair fruits and flowers, the myrtle and the rose, Thy beauteous bosom henceforth shall disclose.

Nor gentle blood again be shed.

The cockatrice's nest

Be safe as mother's breast;

Nor friend, nor foe shall injure or destroy,
Nor aught in holy mount of God annoy.

Lo! Heaven hath caught the strain,

Th' expectant angels wond'ring wait,
Eager to form his train.

They stand at their own golden gate,

Ready to bear to earth

News of the holy birth,

And fill the skies with their celestial song-

"Our God now deigns mankind to dwell among."

O heart! if angels feel

Such joy for thee-if earth can raise

A voice, art thou of steel,

That thou can'st faint and coldly praise

The Saviour of thy race?

Lord! grant thy quick'ning grace,

That Heaven and Earth may not reproach our guiltThy birth was vain, vainly thy blood was spilt.

Let not a fatal sleep

Press down our heavy hearts: let not

The world in pleasure steep

Each heedless sense, till all forgot

We still are unprepared

When thou dost come, and bared

The red right hand of wrath we shuddering see,
And vainly seek from thy dread face to flee.

But fast the hours draw nigh,

We meet not in the holy fane,

Till with a joyful eye

And grateful heart we raise the strain,—

"To us a Child is born".

Hail to the blessed morn,

Our gracious God hath looked from heaven and smiled, And mercy, truth, and love are reconciled.