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bring about all that was promised and more, considering Who He is that then came; no human, no angelic, but a Divine Person, God the Son, the Second in the adorable Trinity. I beseech you, my brethren, represent it earnestly to yourselves: fix your mind's eye upon it. This little helpless BABE, whom His Mother has just wrapped in swaddling-clothes and laid in the manger, is the GOD and CREATOR of that Mother, and of you and me, and of the highest Angel in Heaven,-of all creatures, both visible and invisible. This INFANT who now lies outwardly unhonoured in a stable, shut out of the Inn, as it may seem, through the poverty of His Mother, is the Owner of all things, the Prince of the Kings of the Earth. He who now utters but the wailings of childhood, His voice shall before long pronounce the everlasting sentence on all souls of man. He hath now laid HIMSELF SO low, and will lay HIMSELF lower, even in the grave and shadow of death, in order that that sentence may be, to you and me and all believers, if we reject it not, a word of blessing, not of reprobation.

Consider what a work it must be, for which HE so comes into His own world, the renewing, namely, and final salvation of sinners and consider as deeply as ever your heart can do it, what a thing it is to be called upon, as we all are, to labour, in a manner, with our LORD-to be humble instruments in His Hand -for the accomplishment of that work, at least so far as our own souls are concerned. Consider what an intolerable burden, to answer at the last dreadful Day for having wrought against your REDEEMER, and made void His miraculous mercy: and, on the other hand, what an unspeakable honour, to be thanked by HIM, to have HIM say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Beseech HIM to impress upon you, and never to let you forget, the exceeding greatness of this your calling, which is, to be working out your own salvation, as a Member of HIM Who is the Most High GOD.

As His Birth was 66 Glory to God in the highest," see to it that you try to glorify HIM in all things. Beware that in meditating on His lowliness you forget not His exceeding greatness. As you read of HIM in the Bible, now at His FATHER's right hand, or sitting enthroned to judge men and angels, now in the crib with the oxen, or hereafter stripped, scourged, and crucified

with the thieves, never forget that it is one and the same Person, of whom all these things are written, and that Person God the SON.

Again, His Birthday was "Peace on Earth :" do you then strive from year to year to be freer from dislikes and jealousies, more brotherly in heart and behaviour, that you may keep it more worthily. Whether men will be at peace or no, yet do your best, and that without grudging, in order, if possible, to be at peace with them.

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Lastly, the Birth of CHRIST was good will towards men :" it meant them nothing but good, and the very best of good: how nearly, then, are we concerned, not to work against it by putting evil in their way: not to bring on ourselves the judgment of those, by whom one of these little ones shall perish!

CHRIST is really in us, my brethren, as many of us as have been baptized into CHRIST, and have not quite thrown away His blessing. CHRIST is within us by His SPIRIT: if we will, we may in every part of our doings show forth, faintly yet truly, the likeness of His Incarnation and Birth; humbling ourselves; glorifying God; helping our brethren; and so turning the whole year into a happy and thankful Christmas.

SERMON CCLXXIV.

OUR LORD'S NURSING FATHER.

FOR THE SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS.

ST. MATT. i. 24.

"Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the Angel of the LORD had

bidden him."

WE cannot surely think too much, now during these days of Christmas, of the wonderful sight which they showed before sinful men, GOD manifest in the Flesh: GOD the SoN, the ONLY BEGOTTEN, begotten of His FATHER before all the worlds,behold HIM nursed in His Mother's arms, and then composed to rest in a manger; HIм Who holds in His hands the heaven and the earth! Behold HIM in deepest poverty, that we through His poverty may become rich!

If to a person of tolerable good nature any little child is an interesting object; if we cannot keep our eyes off them, so engaging is it to watch their ways, to measure their growth and improvement, to wonder and speculate on what is passing in their minds; how much more, when we are invited devoutly to consider the Cradle and Swaddling-bands of our LORD, to watch HIM growing "in wisdom and stature, and in favour with GOD and man;" and to pray, that by GoD's infinite mercy it may not yet be too late, even for such as we are, to become so far like that little CHILD, that we may not be cast out of the Kingdom of Heaven!

But the same Gospels which show us JESUS CHRIST in His Cradle, show us also certain holy persons waiting round that Cradle; and all those persons, no doubt, are intended to be

our examples, deeply to be studied and loved, and carefully followed. The first and highest, unquestionably, is the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of our LORD and our GOD. No created being was ever so highly favoured as she was, or brought so near to the Most High and Eternal GODHEAD: she is the great pattern, next to our LORD HIMSELF, of heavenly love, and purity, and humility.

But of the Blessed Virgin, and of the deep honour due to her, our Church has appointed other occasions for speaking. I shall now pass on to the third person, whose image naturally rises in men's minds when we meditate on the blessed birth of our LORD. I shall say a few words to-day of the holy St. Joseph, the husband of Mary, and the reputed father of our LORD.

No man that we read of in Scripture was so highly favoured as St. Joseph, in respect of being constantly near the Person of our SAVIOUR. From CHRIST's birth to his own death, which was at least more than twelve years, and very likely a good deal longer, Joseph was the entrusted guardian of our LORD; the minister of GOD, especially called and raised up to watch over that holiest childhood and youth, and to protect His Blessed Mother. Judging from God's ordinary dealings in Scripture, we cannot but suppose that he must have been more than almost any one prepared and made meet for God's Kingdom, who was permitted for so long a time to exercise a ministry so near to GoD HIMSELF.

Again, we cannot but delight in imagining to ourselves the part which Joseph bore in that Holy Family; how tenderly, how reverently he watched over the Blessed Mother, and the Most Blessed and Divine CHILD: and we naturally look out for all that Holy Scripture tells us, that may help us to draw in our hearts that sacred picture.

The first thing we read in the Gospel concerning St. Joseph is, that the Virgin Mother of our LORD was espoused to him. For it pleased HIM, when He would redeem our poor fallen manhood by taking it into His own nature, to be born of a betrothed Virgin, not of one altogether free. And of this the holy writers of old give several reasons. It protected the Blessed Mary from the evil report which she would have other

wise had to endure. It provided her with a Friend, Comforter, and Helper in her poor and lowly life, and anxious care of the Holy CHILD. It veiled from the eyes of men, as yet unfit to bear it, the awful mystery of the Incarnation of GOD the SON : and accordingly we find that our LORD was all along spoken of by ordinary acquaintance as "the son of Joseph," "the carpenter's son."

Again, some have thought it might be in God's purpose to hide from the Evil Spirit the glory of the Divine CHILD, and that this was done by ordering things so, that Satan might imagine HIM to be the Son of Joseph and Mary; upon which he dared to tempt HIм, and so, being defeated and baffled, was, against his will, the cause of a great blessing to mankind.

And lastly, it may have been one point more in our LORD's exceeding humiliation, that He would be subject, in His childhood and youth, not to His Mother only, but to her Husband also whereas we proud sinners think it a great and happy thing to free ourselves, as much as possible, from submission and obedience; to be, as far as possible, our own masters.

It being then the will of our LORD that His Mother should be a betrothed, not a disengaged person, consider what manner of man he was whom HE so chose to be His Guardian. He was a poor hard-working man, a carpenter; so poor, that, as it may seem, he had not wherewithal to pay for a lodging at Bethlehem. Yet he was a person of high family, the very highest among the Jews. Both he and his espoused wife were of the house and lineage of David. These are circumstances very trying to the pride of man. Many feel to themselves as if they could bear poverty, but cannot bear decay and degradation; cannot bear to be in a lower place than they or their fathers have been used to. Not such, we may be sure, was the holy Joseph: and for his humble contentment, see how he was rewarded: he became the Foster-Father of the KING of kings: the ALMIGHTY LORD of Heaven and Earth lodged in his house for many years.

The Holy Scripture having mentioned St. Joseph, makes haste to tell us what manner of man he was, to whom the LORD'S Mother was betrothed. She being espoused to Joseph, "before they came together, she was found with child of the HOLY GHOST." This was most likely on her return from her visit to

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