be cast into the fire, the signs of the Lord's coming will not deceive us. They will indeed be terrible to them who have not lived or died in Him; as they rise from the grave they shall call on the hills to cover them. But they shall be to us who live and die in Jesus, only the signal that death is conquered, and sin is destroyed, and that the saints have begun to reign!

Thank God, then, brethren, this day and all days, who, in his holy book, hath given us such full assurance of hope; and hath promised therein, that sorrows shall be turned into joys, and death into life, and the flames of wrath into the assurance of love! "Behold the fig tree and all the trees! When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves, that summer is now nigh at hand; so likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away."

Blessed Lord! who hath caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning; grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that, by patience and comfort of thy holy word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

55

SERMON III.

Matt. xxi. 5.—"Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold! thy king cometh unto thee!"

THIS Sunday, the beginning of our holy year, as you see by the collect, is called Advent Sunday, which means the day of the coming! the coming of the King of Zion to his people, whom at last he had visited. He manifested himself openly upon it, to claim that all knees should bow to him, and all hearts love him, and all lips praise him, because he had brought the salvation promised from the foundation of the world. "Tell ye the daughter of Zion, behold! thy king cometh!"

No one, I should think, who reads this account of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, from which my text is taken, can fail to be struck by the contrast which it presents to the ordinary quiet moving to and fro of our Lord! We see no more the noiseless peaceful steps which no one marked, and the voice which was not heard in the streets, in its gentleness and holiness! But here you find all on a sudden, that he enters the holy city with a humble pomp, certainly, but still with a pomp which betokens a royal dignity! He no longer flies, as he did of old, to far off mountains and wildernesses, lest the people should seize him, and make him a king! On the contrary, in the royal seat of David, he permits himself to be called David's son, who came, in the name of the Lord, to sit upon David's throne.

Every thing marks the king! The multitude spread their garments all along the way, as was done in those countries when great monarchs condescended to travel.

They marked thereby their the bare, common ground was his royal feet to tread upon!

feeling that

too vile for And those

holy feet, which had been so often wayworn and weary, as they wandered up and down from Jerusalem to Galilee, with the message of mercy, did not refuse the mark of reverence.

The multitude lifted up their voices and shouted, as men are wont to do on days of triumph, and He did not rebuke them. Nay, when the Pharisees required him to check what they accounted the blasphemy of his followers, he replies with a kingly sternness. He silences all objection by saying, that if they did not open their mouths to praise Him, the very stones themselves would immediately cry out.

Once before the city had been moved concerning Him! When the wise men came from the east in search of the new born king, and visited Jerusalem in their journey to Bethlehem, we are told, that when Herod heard these things he was