and perfect remedy in the hand of Him, who when on earth, by a word or touch "unstopped the ears of the deaf." Further, we wish to be assured that there is a state of endless joy and felicity awaiting the people of God after this earthly life has closed. We want some confirmation that this corruptible and mortal body we consign to mother earth, shall be raised incorruptible and immortal; and that the disembodied spirit meanwhile, which is in safe keeping, shall one day come back, from the Paradise of God, to inhabit the raised spiritual and immortal body.

We know that He who claimed to be the Lord of life and death, and the Conqueror of the grave, proved His ability and will, to fulfil His promise in that He raised the dead. We know that our Saviour when on earth, who called and proved Himself to be the Resurrection and the Life, recalled the soul to the body in three several stages. Once as in the case of Jairus' daughter, just after she had died; once when the one son of the widow of Nain was about to be buried; and once again, as in the case of Lazarus, four days after burial, when dissolution had set in. Then in verification of His promise, He raised Himself "on the third day" from the tomb. In the face then, of all this unquestioned testimony, every humble believing Christian would say: I require no further argument on this point. He who created a world out of nothing, can if He pleases, bring together the scattered particles of my body. He who made His voice to be heard in the rocky sepulchre of Bethany can make it heard in mine. He who raised Himself, can surely raise me. With the Holy Church therefore throughout the world, "I believe in the resurrection of the Body and the Life everlasting."

The last of these signs which our Lord gave to the disciples of John the Baptist, to prove that He was the Christ, was this: "The poor have the gospel preached to them." To understand the peculiar significance and force of this fact, as a proof of Christianity, we should bear in mind, that the wise men, and philosophers of old, the various priests and teachers of the many false systems of religion, did not take the trouble to teach the poor, or meek of the earth. They believed them incapable of comprehending or appreciating any subject requiring thought or reasoning; so, like the Scribes and Pharisees amongst the Jews, they kept their learning and their speculations to themselves, and their immediate followers, and treated with somewhat of contempt all who were not so wise, or so favored as they thought themselves to be. Now one of the chief signs which the old prophets had predicted would distinguish the true Christ from all other teachers was, that He should preach the gospel to the poor. When our Saviour therefore in reply to the question, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?" said to John's disciples, "The poor have the gospel preached to them," He intimated that there was no room left here for the shadow of a doubt as to His being the very Christ.

In His family, the Church and household of God, learned men, simply as such, have no advantage over the unlearned, the rich, in that particular, no prominence over the poor. The offer of pardon, mercy, grace, and eternal life are made on the same terms to all classes ranks and conditions. The glad news of a Saviour born, died, risen again, ascended, is for all people. "All who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled" Under the gospel dispensation, there is no royal road

to Heaven; for the great, the wise, the wealthy, there is but one beaten, well trodden way, viz: the way of true repentance, faith, holiness, obedience, and the Holy Sacraments.

Such, then, were the signs which our blessed Lord gave to the messengers which John sent, to show them and him, that He was the Christ; and they are the very same things to which we appeal to-day, in confirmation of our faith in Him, as the compassionate and loving Saviour of poor fallen men. It is an oft-repeated, but well authenticated fact, that in heathen lands, hospitals were never known, they are the blessed fruits of Christianity, and no Christian land has ever been without them.

Christian people give freely of their means, to relieve the sick, send the gospel to heathen lands, and spread it in their own. We can point still to the blessed fruits of Christianity, hardened sinners brought through the preaching of Christ's love to the foot of His cross; men of simple faith leaving their homes and native country, the love of Christ constraining them, that they, like and for Him, may go forth wherever there are human souls to seek and save. Whole nations and tribes of heathen, casting away their idols, and worshipping Jesus Christ as their Lord and God, see the meekness of the gospel changing ferocious passions, melting down in the near future contending sects into the "One Body," and giving new life to a thousand budding charities too long nipped by the before steady cold winter's frost of unhappy divisions. The Kingdoms of this world are fast becoming "the Kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ." These are things which we see and hear. They are the fruits of Christianity, the

signs to us of this generation, at the distance of nearly nineteen hundred years, that the long expected Saviour, He that should come, has come, and that we do not look for another. We are quite sure that He who has come "will come again in power and great glory." We see on every side the undoubted signs of Christ's second advent, and have experienced in our own hearts and lives many signal proofs of His presence, His power and His love. Let us see, then, that our belief, our knowledge, our experience, are producing their proper fruit. It is the living, Christ-like example, that tells upon the people we live amongst, and though the results may seem slow, they will be sure, and certainly most blessed. Let us remember that nothing is lost in this world of ours; therefore let us always bear in mind that whatever sphere we occupy in our Heavenly Father's scene of action here, we ourselves must be an influence for good, or else an example for evil. Therefore let us honor, worship, love and serve Christ our King, so faithfully in this life, that when He shall come again in power and great glory we may have, after the sweet rest in Paradise, our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and in soul in His eternal and everlasting Kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

TEXT: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias.-St. John 1, 23.

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By the REV. JAMES DOWDELL STANLEY,

Rector of The Church of Our Saviour, Cincinnati, O.

ONG years had passed since a prophet had arisen in Israel. Malachi had sounded the last note of prediction, and then, for generations, lips remained untouched by the live coal from the altar. But now, a voice, proclaiming things to come, is ringing in men's ears.

There appears an austere man in the character of a prophet. His garb is peculiar. He comes from the wilderness. There is in his words an intense earnestness, which transfixes all hearers. He stands upon the banks of the Jordan and preaches repentance. His language is simple, but his words pierce into the very consciences of men. They realize, as never before, human responsibility and the certainty of Divine judgment. They are told by this one-who seems to be the very embodiment of prophetic truth, and whose lips quiver with almost sacred fire-they are told by him, that "the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." They are startled by the announcement, that He, who is about to come, "already has the winnowing fan in His hand, and that He will thoroughly purge His floor, and that, gathering the wheat into His garner, He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable