fit, too, that we should think of our Lord's coming at this season of
the year above all others; because it is the hardest season--the
season of most want, and misery, and discontent, when wages are low,
and work is scarce, and fuel is dear, and frosts are bitter, and
farmers and tradesmen, and gentlemen, too, are at their wits' end to
square their accounts, and pay their way. Then is the time that the
evils of society come home to us--that our sins, and our sorrows,
which, after all, are the punishment of our sins, stare us in the
face. Then is the time, if ever, for men's hearts to cry out for a
Saviour, who will deliver them out of their miseries and their sins;
for a Heavenly King who will rule them in righteousness, and do
justice and judgment on the earth, and see that those who are in need
and necessity have right; for a Heavenly Counsellor who will guide
them into all truth--who will teach them what they are, and whither
they are going, and what the Lord requires of them. I say the hard
days of winter are a fit time to turn men's hearts to Christ their
King--the fittest of all times for a clergyman to get up in his
pulpit, as I do now, and tell his people, as I tell you, that Jesus
Christ your King has not forgotten you--that He is coming speedily to
judge the world, and execute justice and judgment for the meek of the
earth.

Now do not be in a hurry, and fancy from what I have just said, that
I am one of those who think the end of the world is at hand. It may
be, for aught I know. "Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, not
even the angels of God, nor the Son, but the Father only." If you
wish for my own opinion, I believe that what people commonly call the
end of the world, that is, the end of the earth and of mankind on it,
is not at hand at all. As far as I can judge from Scripture, and
from the history of all nations, the earth is yet young, and mankind