en it; the feelings, whatever may be the subject of them, require to be kept alive and excited by outward circumstances. How strongly are we reminded of the lapse of time by the annual recurrence of the same season! And, perhaps, it is the change which we feel to have taken place in ourselves between one anniversary and another, that first convinces us that life is really short, and our days here but as a shadow. We feel, every succeeding year, that some blessing, of youth, or strength, or health, is gliding away from us, and that the shadows of that evening are gradually gathering round us, which are sure to close, at last, in the darkness of the grave! And if the observance of times and seasons teaches thus a worldly lesson, surely it may bring to the Christian a lesson of spiritual wisdom. Time flies as fast, and is to the full as precious to the spiritual, as to the natural man; and he has, of a truth, as great reason to pause and look back upon his career, whenever any sudden turn in the direction of his course

gives him an opportunity for such a solemn retrospect. Such a one is the season of Advent. It is the commencement of the Christian year. The Church measures not its revolution of time by the motion of the sun; it dates the opening of its sacred year from the rising of the Sun of Righteousness,-the period when "the day-spring from on high" hath visited us; and, in order to raise our minds as much as possible to the due contemplation of that great event, it brings to our recollection, amongst other awakening reflections, the passage of Scripture before us; in which, more strongly than elsewhere, the dignity of our blessed Saviour and the splendour of his kingdom are displayed. It was the earthly advent of the King of Israel to his royal city; the public exhibition of a monarch, peaceable and meek, indeed, yet having salvation; weak in the flesh, but mighty in the spirit. It was the last call to repentance that he afforded his hardened nation; and he wept over its inevitable destruction, even as he ap

proached the walls of their city in triumph; when he reflected, that even this call, echoed as it was by the voice of prophecy, would be by them disregarded and despised. They might have seen, in his peaceful deportment, in the hosannas of the multitude, in his zeal for the temple, that the Lord had visited his people; but they would not; the veil was upon their hearts, and then, and till this day, the things which belong to their peace have indeed been hid from their eyes. With us, however, to whom, as well as to them, are the words of this salvation sent, the case is different; and we are called upon to see, in this glorious Advent of our Saviour, the proofs of his power and holiness, and to apply them to our spiritual edification. And here we are authorized, (for our Church has done the same,) to apply the narrative in a figurative manner; and to consider the events of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, as emblematic of that more awful season, when, the end of all things being at hand, “he shall come again, in his glorious majesty,

to judge the quick and dead 1." That such a day of solemn retribution will at last arrive, we can have no doubt. Every thing around us shows the necessity of it, and therefore proves its probability. We see a wisdom displayed in the formation of man, which, if his existence were bounded by the grave, would seem to be wasted, and to produce no adequate result. He is placed in a world, abounding with evil as well as good; the evil at hand, the good distant; he has faculties and dispositions, which he can cultivate and improve, but his labour meets with no adequate reward in this life; he sees the wicked flourishing like a green bay tree, whilst he himself may be suffering under grief, and poverty, and pain. He finds a wonderful system at work, apparently for his use; the earth bringing forth fruit, and the sky sending its rain, for his comfort and advantage; while he himself is a short lived creature, enjoying them for a little time, and then

1 See the Collect for this day.

vanishing away. All this we cannot conceive to be the whole truth. We cannot believe, that the wisdom which has brought us so far towards perfection, would leave us to perish, at the very point where existence becomes indeed a blessing. There must, therefore, be a world beyond the present; and, if so, a day of judgment,a day, in which the irregularities which exist here shall be rectified, and what is now crooked shall be made straight. Such is the language even of reason; how natural, and how unanswerable, then, is the voice of Scripture! "God hath appointed a day, in which he shall judge the world in righteousness 1." "The hour is coming, in which all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of Man, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation 2."" The Lord himself," saith St. Paul," shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the

1

! Acts xvii. 31.

2 John v.

28, 29.