shal ve if ve be windy to main that life, and the resurrection from the lead rest for ever the glorious sks I m ve hare read, and all whom we have Worthly loved! 1 Thess 3. 17; Heb. xii. 23.)

2 The misteros sise. What is their terror! It is manifested by their main stempts to fly (Rev. vi. 14—17, bas vorediment is impossible (Rev. i. 7) ; they had lain tormented in a dame S. Luke xvi. 24), and even more tormented in expectation of this: now it is ecme. Isa mr. 14)

3. The dead, smil and great, stand before GOD. The judgment is set, and the bocks are opened. (Dan. vii. 10.). All transactions, all thoughts, are published before the assembled universe. (Eccles. xii. 14; S. Matt. xii. 36; Rom. ii. 16; rv. 10, 12; 1 Cor. iv. 5; 2 Cor. v. 10.) Then shall the first separation take place (S. Matt. xxv. 32, 33), and "the King" shall pronounce the doom of both parties, and the reasons of it. (Ibid.) Those who have neglected religion all their lives, will cry in despair to be admitted (Ibid. 11); those who have coldly used the forms of religion, but lived without its spirit, will plead their services (S. Luke xiii. 25—27): the careless and selfish will attempt to defend their conduct (S. Matt. vii. 21-23): the idle will cast their faults on their LORD. (S. Matt. xxv. 24, 25.) Then shall they who have denied CHRIST, whether in word or work, be denied before His FaTHER and the holy Angels. (S. Matt. x. 33.)

4. The final separation takes place. (Rev. xxii. 11.) The righteous go into life eternal. Life deserving the name. (Rev. xii.; xxi., and parallel passages.) Human language, even when employed by the HOLY

SPIRIT, labours to describe that glory. (2 Cor. xii. 4; see Rev. above.) Man cannot conceive it. (Isa. lxiv. 4.) They shine as the brightness of the firmament— as the stars, for ever and ever—as the sun. (Dan. xii. 3; S. Matt. xiii. 43.)

The wicked go away into everlasting punishment. (Isa. lxvi. 24; 8. Matt. xiii. 42; S. Mark ix. 44—48; 2 Thess. i. 8, 9; Rev. xiv. 11.)1

Then, the memory of the time when they might have lived for heaven! the unrestrained fury of sinful passions! the impossibility of gratifying the appetites with which they have died!

III. Such is the day which we are looking for, and hasting unto. Had we a thousand years to prepare, would it be too much? How much more then, when When we know that it will

we know not the hour? come like a thief in the night, like the flood on the world, like the fire shower on Sodom, like the lightning shining from east to west? (See Illustrative Scriptures and Parallel Texts.) S. Paul, who knew it was not to take place in his time, yet exhorted his converts to be prepared for it and reason good: death is always near and uncertain ; and as we die, so shall we arise. (Eccles. ix. 10; xi. 3.) What manner of persons, then, ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness? Holy conversation: our conduct in the world; to ourselves, to our neighbours. Godliness: our conduct in

1 With all who believe in the Holy Catholic Church, there can be no doubt on the eternity of punishments. But the use of the same word (alúvios), to signify the duration of punishments and rewards equally, ought to silence all critical objectors who allow an immortality of the righteous.

respect of GOD. (The preacher may enlarge on these points.)

Let us ask ourselves-Are we as prepared to rejoice at our LORD's second coming, as for the anniversary of His first? If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. (1 Cor. xi. 31.) He Who will be our Judge, is now our SAVIOUR. Let us approach Him in the full meaning of the prayer, "In all time of tribulation; in all time of our wealth; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, Good LORD, deliver us!"

Bishop Jeremy Taylor's magnificent sermon in three parts, intituled "Doomsday Book," and S. Chrysostom's lxvith Oration, apply to this and the last outline.

V.

First Sunday after Christmas.

Subject. The Blessed Virgin's contemplation of the Incarnation. Text. S. Luke ii. 19. "Mary kept all these things, and pon dered them in her heart."

Principal Words. συνετήρει, συμβάλλουσα.

Ir was a very early usage of the Church to keep the festivals eight days; and this Sunday, falling within the octave, partakes of the festival. The feasts of the Passover and Tabernacles were so kept (Lev. xxiii. 8, 36) which are the shadows of Easter and Christmas. (1 Cor. v. 7; S. John i. 14, in the Greek.)

This usage is very profitable-one day's meditation of such a subject as the Incarnation is not sufficient for the year. In Advent we only prepare to meditate it. The tone of that period is solemn and penitential -that of Christmas joyful and praiseful. Now we need to meditate our hopes, encouragements, and blessings as much as our fears and dangers. And to descend from the raptures of the Incarnation at once to the reflections of the common year, is hard, were it desirable. It is the wisdom and tenderness of the Church to afford us a gradual descent; derived as it would seem, from above; for, independently of the

omgetmente of the Levitical law, our risen LORD reHisited Dia diamples after ngnt lays, and His circummaion took place on the nighth lay rom His Yarivity.

One great advantage of the practice is that it enables us to contemplate subjects of great moment, elich jet, however, are lost in the splendour of the more immediate. Thus, in the Incarnation, we look on Gop ilimself. 3. John xii. 15; xiv. J: Col i. 15; Heb. 1. 3. No wonder then that we should have no ere at that moment for any created spectacle, however rortby our regard, however connected with the subject itself. Moses on Pisgah, beholding mountains and plaing, cities "wailed to heaven." stately palmgroves, the kingly Jordan, the inland seas, the outspread ocean, had no eye for the lilies of the field, which were yet the work of the Hand that created the In the magnificence of the Incarnation we overlook points of importance, and closely connected with it. This interval enables us to regard them. And we may profitably employ it in considering the meditations which the Incarnation excited in the breast of her who was most connected with it, and who, we may be certain, entertained it most worthily.

The silence and expression of Holy Scripture on the subject of the Blessed Virgin are equally significant, considering who she was. We know this silence must be right, or we should deeply regret it. We know too that she has been obtruded in later ages into, perhaps above, the place of her Son Himself, and therefore we may be thankful that "the expressive silence" of Holy Scripture strengthens us against this error. But we must be no less thankful for what the