all that iB equitable; endeavouring to do and to promote that which iR just in all the rolntions in which we strmd to others, or they to one another. 3. Piety; d,1ing every right thing as unto (J/iriBt our Lord; living consciously "before him;" so that all our rectiluclo of heart and excellency of behaviour is something more than a habit of life· it is a sacrifice unto our Saviour, ' IV. IT PEilSEVEaEs EVEN TO THE END, "All our days." There is no break in our course, Our upward and onwud path may be undulating, but it is continuous, and is ever making for the summit. We do not retire, or resign, or abdicate, in this noblest work, in this sacred office of being" servant of tlie Lord,"" king and priest unto God." Having loved his own, our Master loved them unto the e[.ld (,John xiii. 1); and loving him whom we have not seen, and rejoicing in him with unspe:.k<il>le joy, we are faithful unto death, and we know that "To him that overcometh A crown of life shall be: He with the King of glory Shall reign eternally." 0. Ver. 79.-(J/irist our Light. To whom and to what extent the Messiah should "give light" probably Zacharias did not know. He may have limited the blessing, in his mind, to the people of Israel; or, inspired and illumined of God, be may have bad a larger and truer outlook. We, at any rate, are unable to confine our thoughts to Jewry; we see in the Sun of Righteousness, in the Dayspring from uu bi;h, .. celestial luminary "whose going forth is from the end of the heaven, and bis circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." 'fo us it ia "the Light which, coming into the world, enlighteneth every one." I. 'l'HE DEGREES OF DARKNESS in which the world was shrouded when the Day- spring rose. It was a dark hour when Jesus Christ was born. "Darkness covered the earth." But the shadows were deeper in some lands than in others; some minds were more lost and buried in the thick darkness than others were. 1. The dim twilight of Judaism-a twilight, not of the morning, but of the evening. For Judaism had passed out of its manhood into its dotage, out of its strength and spirituality into a dreary and lifeless formalism. It had, indeed, escaped from idolatry, and it was free from the worst excesses of the pagan world; but of a pure piety, a spiritual aod acceptable service, it knew but little. Compared, however, with surrounding peoples, the Jews may be said to have stood in the twilight of truth. 2. The darkness of philosophy. For philosophy was groping in the darkness; it bad felt or was feeling its way out of the absurdities of polytheism and idolatry; it touched-but only here and there-the grand truth of monotheism; but it was peering in the direction of pantheism and atheism. "'l'he world by wisdom knew not God." Aud even where it did reach the idea of one living God, it could not tell how be was to be worshipped, how his favour was to be won, what were the relations he desired to sustain to mankind. 3. The thick darkness of paganism. If the philosophers "sat in darkness," the idolaters of uncivilized communities were '' in the shadow of death." What a death in life is the existence of those who are buried in the most blighting superstitions and the most deba~ing habits I There indeed "the light is as darkness;" it moves us to a profound pily as we think ofit. We are not surprised to read in the text of- 11. THE COMPASSION OF THE FATHER OF MEN m VIEW OF IT, "The tender mercy of our God" was called forth by the sad spe<:tacle of a world in deep shadow, a race with- out the Light of life. At their best, man were far enough from tiuth, from righteous- ness, from the love of God; at their worst, they had utterly gone astray, "stumbling on the dark mountains" of error and of iniquity. Well might the God of all pity compassionate such a lost race as this. III. THE VISIT OF THE HEAVENLY DAYBPRING. "The Dayspring from on high bath visited us, to give light." Jesus Christ came to be the" Light of the world;" aud such he is, He has illumined all the way from the blackness of darkness of sin to the light and glory of heaven. What precious rays of light ha.s the Divine Teacher shed on (1) the nature and the disposition of God, our Falher; on (2) the character and the cou- sequences of sin; on (3) the way back to God and righteousuc~s; on (4) the transcendent 26 'l'IlE G()f;I'EL ACCOHDIXO TO ST. LURR. [CR, I. 1-RO.
\'alue (If the human soul; on (5) the be1\\lty and blessedness of the life of consecration• on (6) the certainty of future glory to the good and faithful I Let us draw near to hi~ who is the Light of the human world, let us walk in the light of hie reviving truth "that we may be the children of light,n and dwell in immortal glory.-0. '