themselves, but at Christ and all
spiritual perfection--they become more and more painfully aware of their
own imperfections. The beauty of Christ's character shows them the
ugliness of their own. His purity shows them their own foulness. His
love their own hardness. His wisdom their own folly. His strength their
own weakness. The higher their standard rises, the lower falls their
estimate of themselves; till, in utter humiliation and self-distrust,
they seek comfort ere alone it can be found--in FAITH--in utter faith and
trust in that very moral perfection of Christ which shames and dazzles
them, and yet is their only hope. To trust in Him for themselves and all
they love. To trust that, just because Christ is so magnificent, He will
pity, and not despise, our meanness. Just because He is so pure, and
righteous, and true, and lovely, He will appreciate, and not abhor, our
struggles after purity, righteousness, truth, love, however imperfect,
however soiled with failure--and with worse. Just because He is so
unlike us, He will smile graciously upon out feeblest attempts to be like
Him. Just because He has borne the sins and carried the sorrows of
mankind, therefore those who come to Him He will in no wise cast out.
Amen.

SERMON V. ADVENT LESSONS

Westminster Abbey, First Sunday in Advent, 1873.

Romans vii. 22-25. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

This is the first Sunday in Advent. To-day we have prayed that God would
give us grace to put away the works of darkness, and put on us the armour
of light. Next Sunday we shall pray that, by true understanding of the
Scriptures, we may embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting
life. The Sunday after that the ministers and stewards of God's
mysteries may prepare His way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to
the wisdom of the just--the next, that His grace and mercy may speedily
help and deliver us from the sins which hinder us in running the race set
before us. But I do not think that we shall understand those collects,
or indeed the meaning of Advent itself, or the reason why we keep the
season of Advent year by ye