the commemoration of the Coming of the Lord in the flesh; they have been held to be thoughts which well befit us now that we are drawing close to the end of another year. My brethren, let us not cast them away. Every man must have his time when he will think of himself seriously and deeply, or he will be lost. This the Church feels, and therefore at this season she reads St. Paul's words, which exhort you to leave the world behind you, and to shape your hearts under God in Christian courses; to love earthly things less, and to desire godliness more, because the "Lord is at hand."

SERMON V.

Christmas day.

ST. LUKE ii. 14.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will
toward men.

HESE words, which are read in the second Lesson

THE

of the Morning Service on this day, were sung by the angels of God who appeared in the heavens when our Lord Jesus Christ was born. They are words such as we should expect the angels of God would utter; they are words full of devotion to God, full of loving-kindness towards men.

The first sentence in this hymn is partly, no doubt, a thanksgiving to the Lord because He had seen fit to send His only-begotten Son to be the Redeemer and the Saviour of the world. The heavenly host foresaw that the coming of the Lord Christ would bring many souls into bliss, and they poured forth their thanksgiving for this mercy; they felt their own happiness enlarged by the happiness of redeemed man, and they blessed God for this fresh spreading forth of His loving-kindness in the words, "Glory to God in the highest." So also,

the commemoration of the Coming of the Lord in the flesh; they have been held to be thoughts which well befit us now that we are drawing close to the end of another year. My brethren, let us not cast them away. Every man must have his time when he will think of himself seriously and deeply, or he will be lost. This the Church feels, and therefore at this season she reads St. Paul's words, which exhort you to leave the world behind you, and to shape your hearts under God in Christian courses; to love earthly things less, and to desire godliness more, because the "Lord is at hand."

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will
toward men.

HESE words, which are read in the second Lesson

THESE

of the Morning Service on this day, were sung by the angels of God who appeared in the heavens when our Lord Jesus Christ was born. They are words such as we should expect the angels of God would utter; they are words full of devotion to God, full of loving-kindness towards men.

The first sentence in this hymn is partly, no doubt, a thanksgiving to the Lord because He had seen fit to send His only-begotten Son to be the Redeemer and the Saviour of the world. The heavenly host foresaw that the coming of the Lord Christ would bring many souls into bliss, and they poured forth their thanksgiving for this mercy; they felt their own happiness enlarged by the happiness of redeemed man, and they blessed God for this fresh spreading forth of His loving-kindness in the words, "Glory to God in the highest." So also,

no doubt, they foresaw the enlargement which the glory of God might, in one sense, receive by the larger number of those who would now enter into bliss through the Lord Jesus Christ; and in this view their words are a foretelling and a proclamation of this advance of glory in the kingdom of God beyond the grave.

The second part of this sacred song well accords also with what we should expect the angels to feel and sing, "On earth peace, good will toward men." The angels long had dwelt in the presence of the Lord God Almighty; they had for a long time "seen Him as He is;" they had seen the mercy, the love, the goodness of God, and therefore they foresaw that His coming among men on earth would produce here also an enlargement of all holy feelings and habits, they felt that His teaching would tend towards peace, and would be a source of "good will among men."

The first words in the passage before us require but little remark, "Glory to God in the highest" is a sentence of which it is not difficult to discover the meaning it is a pious prayer that glory may be where all glory is due. prayer arose, in part at least, out of gratitude to God because the redemption of the world, so long promised and foreshadowed, had at length begun. These words, doubtless, contained a prayer that this

We may believe that this

a St. John iii. 2.