seriously, then, what retribution do you deserve? Were the last trumpet now to strike upon your ears, and the Son of Man to descend in great power and majesty, would you stand with great constancy before the face of the fear of the Lord, or would you not strive to go into the caverns of the rocks to hide your confusion from His presence, and invoke in vain the mountains to fall upon you? Let your conscience answer this moment: not such a conscience as is found in the midst of the world, feeble, irresolute, compromising, sacrificing its convictions to a temporary self-interest, bending to the force of bad example, and fancying to find an apology for its own guilt in the delinquency of others. No, but a conscience looking its God in the face, and awed only by His presence; detached from every tie of friends, of connections, of interest, of fashion-in fine, of the worldas it will then be found, solitary, helpless, resting only on itself in the presence of its Creator and its Judge. Let such a conscience now pronounce its verdict, and if that verdict be your condemnation, in the name of heaven what grounds have you for expecting a different judgment on the last day? Hopes of repentance. Treacherous hopes, to which many, to their utter ruin, have rashly confided their salvation. Often before have you heard the awful description of the terrors of the last day. Often, perhaps, have you formed resolutions of repentance. When your terror subsided did not those resolutions vanish? Did you not return, not only to your ordinary occupations, but also to your follies and to your sins, resembling "those who, in the days before the flood, were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the Ark. And they knew not until the flood came and took them all away: so also shall the coming of the Son of

Man be." Good God, and notwithstanding this threat of the sudden and unexpected arrival of the great Judge, men live with as much security as if they had calculated the time of His coming, and obviated all its consequences. What means, then, must we adopt in order to stand secure against the danger? Unremitting vigilance and fervent prayer. Unremitting vigilance! It is the admonition of Christ Himself; "And take heed to yourselves lest, perhaps, your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly. For as a snare shall it come upon all that sit upon the face of the earth."2 Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all those things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of Man. Watch, then, and pray. Imitate St. Jerome, who often imagined to Himself the last trumpet striking on his ear and awakening him to judgment. Offer up your fervent prayers to Jesus, who now comes in sweetness and in mercy to purify your hearts by His grace, and to attach them to Him by the influence of His love that at His second coming you may stand unmoved before His judgment-seat, and share in the eternal rewards of the blessed. Amen.

'S. Matt. xxiv. 38, 39.

2 S. Luke, xxi. 34, &c.

PREACHING OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

"This is He of whom it is written: behold I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.-S. MATT. XI. 10.

SUCH is the language in which the Redeemer of the world bore testimony to the merits of John the Baptist. Such, too, is the language in which Malachy, the last of the prophets, announced his coming, and to which our Saviour refers as a proof that the Baptist realised in his character the truth of the prophetic prediction. We read in the Gospel that John sent a respectful embassy to our Saviour to inquire into the leading characters of His mission, and that the Redeemer availed Himself of this circumstance to point the attention of the people to the life and precepts of the Baptist. In a strain of the most pointed and significant interrogation, He asks them: What had they gone out into the desert to see ? Was it a reed shaken by the wind? Was it a man clothed in soft garments? No; for they that are clothed in soft garments are in the palaces of kings. The soft and flexible life of the voluptuous relaxed with the luxurious indolence of a palace, and bending to every whim of a capricious master, but ill suited the simple solitary who was sent to teach an austere and unchangeable morality. What, then, did they go out into the desert to see? A prophet; and the Redeemer emphatically adds: "I tell you, and more than a prophet, for this is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send my angel before thy face who shall prepare thy way before thee." Yes, standing on the confines of the Jewish and the Christian covenant, John

'S. Matt. xi. 7, &c.

was the prophet of the one and the apostle of the other in proclaiming the coming of the Lamb who was to take away the sins of the world, as well as in exhorting the people "to prepare the way of the Lord, and make straight His paths." Unlike the vain philosophers, so well described by St. Augustine, who dispense lofty lectures on virtue, but leave to others the burden of their fulfilment, the Baptist was the living model of the doctrine which he preached. His food was locusts and wild honey, his drink the running fountain, his couch the mossy rock, and his roof the canopy of heaven. His garments were of camel's hair, and thus attired the man of God walked along the banks of the Jordan, filling the wilderness with an awful voice, that awakened the surrounding people to repentance and conversion. Such was the preparation with which the first advent of the Redeemer of this world was ushered in by His faithful precursor. It is the same voice and the same doctrine that have been since re-echoed throughout the Church of God on the recurrence of every other advent of redemption. It is the same important precept of preparing the way of the Lord, and making straight His paths that I purpose to impress on you on this solemn occasion, in order to enable you to participate in the abundant graces that are diffused among the faithful at the approaching festival.

You are all, no doubt, anxious to be of the number of those who shall hail the Redeemer of the World on the coming feast of His nativity. You are likewise solicitous to receive on that solemn occasion some token of His favour. But above all, you burn with a holy desire to be enrolled among those who shall swell His last and most glorious triumph when He shall come to judge the living and the dead. This is a truth which cannot be combated. It is attested by the conscience of every

individual; and there is none, however careless or indifferent about the means of purchasing it, that does not cherish the wish, and if his heart allowed it, even the hope of participating in the rewards of religion. The Saviour for whom the patriarchs sighed, whom the prophets foretold, and whom all the saints of the Old Law, to use the inspired language, saluted from afar, is on the eve of descending among us with all the spiritual treasures expressed in the words: "Let the clouds rain down the just One," and we are invited to "prepare His ways, and make straight His paths.” All, then, who desire to welcome the Son of God—and surely there is not one who could bear to be overlooked as He passes-must be anxious to learn how His ways are to be prepared, and by what means His paths are to be so smoothed and made straight, as may enable the sinner, without the fear of stumbling or going astray, to meet the Divine Dispenser of grace and mercy. Those who aspire to perfection in the arts, and are anxious to learn how that perfection is attainable, seldom trust to the caprices of their own mind, or to the suggestions of those who are strangers to such a study. No; they instantly ascend to the purest sources of information. The correctest models are carefully examined, the precepts of the first masters are listened to with attention; and thus the mind is trained to a conviction, which the shallow and superficial remarks of the unpractised in such subjects are unable to shake. Applying this obvious principle we may briefly ascertain the most effectual means of preparing a suitable reception for our Saviour, and the finding acceptance in His sight. What were the means promulgated by His precursor? Repentance. He came preaching penance unto the remission of sins.