2. The most miraculous phenomena will be displayed: "Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed." This refers, first, to the entire constitutions of the powers and kingdoms belonging to this world. These St. Paul calls the "principalities," the "powers," the "rulers of the darkness of this world," and the "spiritual wickedness in high places;" all these shall be crushed by the coming of the Saviour. Their glory shall grow dim before the exceeding glory of the Son of God. Through the power of His Gospel they shall be made submissive unto Him; for at the sounding of the seventh angel it will be declared, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." The dream of Nebuchadnezzar shall then be fulfilled, “And in the days of those kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever." This shall be fully accomplished when He shall appear in the clouds of heaven. He declares by St. Matthew, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light: and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."

Again, the phrase may be taken literally, referring to the dissolution of matter in the last day. "The moon shall be confounded, and the sun shall be ashamed." All matter shall be dissolved at His coming. Nature shall, as it were, swoon away at the appearance of His majesty and the brightness of His glory. The sun veiled his light when He suffered on the cross of Calvary, but "heaven and earth shall pass away" when He comes to reign on the throne of glory, St. Peter teaches this when he says, "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night: in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall

melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up." Well may we apply the subject to ourselves as he did to the scattered tribes, "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and god

liness."

3. The final visitation will then be made to His enemies. In the 22d verse it is said, "And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered together in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited." The image seems to have been taken from the practice of some great monarchs of that time, who, when they had thrown their wretched captives into a dungeon, never gave themselves the trouble of inquiring about them, but let them lie in that miserable condition, disregarded, and wholly destitute of relief, until brought forth to execution. At death the souls of the wicked are driven to a prison of torment, and their bodies to the prison of the grave. There they are left in a state of degradation and misery, without any change or commiseration. Satan and all his votaries are bound for a certain period, and at the expiration of that period they "shall be visited," and brought forth to receive the sentence of their endless doom, which will be the "blackness of darkness for ever."

Such, my brethren, will be the scenes presented at our Lord's second coming. Where shall we be then? This is a question of the greatest moment. We shall all be there. But to which party shall we belong? Shall we be amongst His ancients, or amongst those who shall be visited in prison? Let us answer the question between ourselves and God.

28

The Third Sunday in Advent.

MORNING SERVICE.-First Lesson: Isaiah xxv.

Verse 8.-"He will swallow up death in victory: and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall be taken away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it."

DEATH is an enemy. The most formidable enemy with which we are acquainted. An enemy that knows no pity—that gives no quarter. A mother's tears, a wife's sighs, a child's grief, a father or husband's subdued sorrow, have no effect to excite compassion. This enemy has no respect of persons. The monarch and the prince are as sure of feeling his shaft as the pauper and the beggar. His sword, like that of Saul, never returns empty. The progenitor of death is sin; "Sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." The ravages of death have been, are, and will be so extensive as sin is prevalent. The question which remains to us is, "How are we to escape death in its worst consequences?" Is he always to shake his terrors over man? Is he always to be conqueror, and man to be subdued? Isaiah saw through the medium of inspiration that death was to be matched in a coming conqueror-that his sway was to be broken, and he himself to be vanquished. "He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces."

Let us briefly consider-First, the conflict; Secondly, the victory; and Thirdly, the result.

I. The conflict. The conflict is implied in the victory Had there been no conflict, there would be no victory.

won.

This conflict is twofold; first, that between death and Christ: secondly, that between death and the Christian. The contest between death and Christ was a hard struggle. Never before had death such an antagonist as when he entered the list against the Son of God. Heroes, kings, and conquerors, as well as patriarchs, prophets, and philosophers, had been accustomed to surrender to his arms at the first summons, and if a few, as it were, slipped from his grasp, it was to return again to his toils, and to drop again into corruption, but here time after time he had to retreat from the field. At the warning, "My hour is not come," the fatal weapon was blunted, and had to be restored to its sheath. And when that hour had arrived death was compelled to subpoen to his aid all the powers of darkness, together with all the evil geniuses of earth, before he could achieve the conquest. If all the devils had ever been allowed to quit for a time their abode of darkness, it was when they conspired with wicked men to accomplish the death of the Lord of life. With them the high priests, and the rulers of the Jews, Herod and Pilate, together with some of His own followers, assisted in this remarkable tragedy. Still, with all this He would have been too high for the arm of death, had He not bowed down His head and gave up the ghost.

The struggle was also hard on the part of the Saviour. O! the sad scene of shame and suffering! The conflict in the garden, the posture of agony, the flow of blood, the bitter groans, the thrice reiterated prayer: "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Then comes the hurry of the betrayal, the confusion of surprise, the violent seizure by a ruthless band, who drag Him away first before Annas, from Annas to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod to Pilate back again. Then the mock ceremonial of a trial, the purple robe, the crown of thorns, the sceptre of reed, the kneeling before Him in derisive homage, the greeting Him with the scornful salutation, "Hail, King of the Jews," while one buffeted Him another blindfolded Him.

Then the stripping Him of the insignia of royalty, and throwing around him His own mean garments, and dragging Him away amid the hootings of the rabble throng to the hill of crucifixion. Then again, think of the print of the nails, and the gash of the spear; think of the denial by one friend, His betrayal by another, and His desertion by all; and above all, think of that great and exceeding bitter cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and say that Christ's conflict with death was not a hard struggle. At last He yielded, but not finally overcome. It was a drawn

battle.

We must also enter into this conflict. We are now busily engaged in fighting what is generally called the "battle of life." So intent are we upon this, that many of us dedicate all our thoughts, our energies, and our time to the enterprise. But there is another battle which must be fought, for the fighting of which preparation is by no means general-the battle of death. This great enemy of the human race will one day attack each one of us, and there will be no escape. We may try to elude the enemy by resorting from one remedy to the other, and by running from one climate to the other; but he will chase us like the huntsman chases his game from cover to cover, until at last, exhausted, we are hunted down. In his quiver he has many arrows, and by one or the other we shall all be pierced. Sometimes the conflict is very short. It is soon over. The man leaves his home in perfect health, but not many hours elapse before he falls from a precipice, is run over by a vehicle, slips into the water, or is crushed by a train concussion, and is carried back a corpse. Another imagines himself in perfect health; he retires at night to his repose, and sleeps the sleep of death. We shudder as we exclaim, "How awfully sudden!" Sometimes the conflict is prolonged through anxious weeks, and months, and even years, but it will come at last. The fact stares us in the face, with the last enemy we must all grapple, and fight the death battle. Of this we have daily proofs. We see friend after friend dropping away. We have seen