day in Advent, she chooses for our meditation passages of Scripture which chime in with the common feeling of joy that now prevails.

She does not wish to stop that joy. She would not have us abate one jot of the gladness with which we greet the approach of Christmas.

Her desire is to increase our joy; to deepen it, to enlarge it: and, that it may be deepened and enlarged, to put it upon its only true ground. Rejoice, she says, but it is Rejoice in the Lord. So that your joy is centred upon Him, it cannot be too full. Rejoice in the Lord and again I say, Rejoice.

Now I would take occasion, from the occurrence of this verse in the Epistle, to speak a few words on the sort of rejoicing that ought to be ours at Christmas; and also on the sort of rejoicing which ought not to be ours— which we cannot indulge in without harm.

I. Of the unfit rejoicing, that which we could wish might not prevail, and which can in no wise be commended.

Of this kind is all excess of riot, drunkenness, gluttony, revellings, and the like.

When men think of Christmas only for the opportunity it gives them of indulging their bodily appetites: when they make excuse for such indulgence by saying, "Christmas comes but once a year," let us eat, drink, and be merry: when that merriment is pushed beyond all temperate bounds-when there is no moderation in our festive doings: when, like the Jews of old, whom Isaiah rebukes, we feast without a thought of

Him Whose coming alone sanctifies our feast-have the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine in our feasts, but regard not the work of the Lord: when this is the case-must we not say all such rejoicing is wrong? It is not a joying in Jesus Christ. It does not tend to His honour. It tends to His dishonour, and to bring scandal on His holy religion.

May such a profanation of Christmas be far from us! Eat and drink we may surely, at this time, and of the best that our means can provide. Merry we may be, so that we transgress not in our mirth. But let this thought be with us to check all excess, all going beyond the bounds of what is becoming. "I rejoice, because Jesus Christ is come into the world-because He who is without spot has come down from heaven and taken my nature, to make me and all who will receive Him clean from sin. Shall I, on His birthday, run into sin? Shall I not, even in my mirth, remember Him, and keep myself, my body, soul, and spirit,-no longer mine, but His-blameless ?"

And O, brethren, if there be some of you who, in times gone by, have abused this holy season, who have made our great holiday a day of sinful indulgence, let the past suffice to have wrought such folly. Do not, I beseech you, repeat your trespass. Do not add another misspent Christmas to the sad reckoning of former years. On you lies very strongly the obligation in the second verse of my text, Let your moderation be known unto all Let your neighbours see that you can rejoice, and at the same time be wise.

men.

And if you know, from past experience, that some

places, and some companies are attended with danger, if you know yourselves to be weak and easily led into temptation, your safety will be to keep away from such peril. It were better not to go into any company, not to share in any festivity at Christmas, than by so doing to be made a transgressor.

And sure I am that no rejoicing, either now or at any time, can be good, which, when it is over, leaves us not the better, but the worse for it; not strengthened and refreshed, but weakened and saddened; neither at ease in our own hearts, nor at peace with God through Jesus Christ.

And now, having considered the rejoicing which is not good for us, let me try and set before you the opposite, let me declare in what true Christmas rejoicing will consist.

And for this I must go back to the text, Rejoice in the Lord-We should never lose sight of this throughout the Christmas season. Our joy should connect itself at every turn with the thought of Jesus Christ.

But for Him we should have no Christmas at all. If He had not come down from heaven and been born as at this time of a pure Virgin, there would have been no occasion for us to rejoice. Our plight would still have been that of the heathen. We had remained, as they do at this day, ignorant of God, ignorant of a Saviour, full of gloomy fears and cruel superstitions.

But it is not so now. has dispersed the gloom.

Christ the Sun of Righteousness

By faith in Him we have the

victory over death, and every other enemy to our souls.

There is now no condemnation for us, as many as are in Christ Jesus. Pardon of sin, renewal of the heart, the blessed hope of an everlasting life, all are ours; all are brought to us by Him.

Well, then is it, right, fit, and our bounden duty-to keep the day of His Nativity with universal gladness: well that we should testify in every possible way our joy at the birth of our Redeemer.

But the question again comes back-What is the proper way of shewing our joy?

One way will be to meet together in the church, to take part in the religious services particularly appointed for the Lord's Nativity; and not only to come to church, but also to partake of the Sacrament, for which we know there is an especial preface on Christmas Day.

I trust we shall many of us feel it our duty,-nay, our best privilege and comfort to do this. I cannot think our Christmas joy will be complete unless we do. I cannot call it Christmas joy if this, which ought to be the crown of our rejoicing, the Holy Communion, is omitted.

I know, indeed, that some of you object to coming to the Sacrament on Christmas Day, who do communicate at other times, on the plea that so serious, so solemn a thing is out of place with the festivities you are looking to share in afterwards. But surely there is an easy answer to this objection-If one or other must be given up on Christmas day, which ought it rather to be-the feast at home or the feast in church?

If the pleasure you promise yourselves in the afternoon be sinful-be such as leads to excess-will staying away from the Lord's Supper in the morning make it a

whit less wrong? If, however, your festivity at home be such as your conscience can approve, why should a partaking of the Holy Communion hinder you from enjoying it?

And indeed, brethren, you do that "heavenly banquet" wrong, you do its Great Author wrong-by thus putting it in opposition to your feast at home. There need be no conflict between them. Christ is not an enemy to reasonable mirth. The first miracle that He wrought, He did it to increase the joy of a wedding dinner. He shewed by His presence there, at Cana in Galilee, that He can rejoice with us in our rejoicings, as surely as He can sympathise with us in our sorrows. He gave there a clear hint that He was interested in all that interests us. And we do Him, as I have said, injustice, when we seek to withdraw any part of our life from fellowship with Him.

Do not, then, brethren, be absent next Saturday from the Sacrament. However you purpose to spend the remainder of the day, whatever recreations you promise yourselves at home, you will enjoy them, so that they be innocent, all the more, and with a clearer conscience, when you have first been your Lord's guests at His table, and partaken of the food, the most heavenly food which He has provided for you, and to which you have all been invited.

There is but one further word I would say to you this morning on the right way of shewing our joy at Christmas. Let us not be selfish in our gladness-in the midst of our own happiness, let us think of our needy, our suffering, our afflicted brethren.