SERMONS ON NATIONAL SUBJECTS




I--THE KING OF THE EARTH



FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.
[Preached in 1849.]

Behold, thy King cometh unto thee.--MATTHEW xxi. 4.

This Sunday is the first of the four Sundays in Advent. During those
four Sundays, our forefathers have advised us to think seriously of
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ--not that we should neglect to
think of it at all times. As some of you know, I have preached to
you about it often lately. Perhaps before the end of Advent you will
all of you, more or less, understand what all that I have said about
the cholera, and public distress, and the sins of this nation, and
the sins of the labouring people has to do with the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. But I intend, especially in my next four sermons,
to speak my whole mind to you about this matter as far as God has
shown it to me; taking the Collect, Epistle, and Gospels, for each
Sunday in Advent, and explaining them. I am sure I cannot do better;
for the more I see of those Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, and the
way in which they are arranged, the more I am astonished and
delighted at the wisdom with which they are chosen, the wise order in
which they follow each other, and fit into each other. It is very