"Behold! I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and SERMON I. THE SAVIOUR'S BIRTH. PREACHED ON CHRISTMAS DAY, 1832. ST. LUKE ii. 20. "And the shepherds returned praising and glorifying God for all the things that they had heard and seen." THIS day has been from age to age a day of rejoicing in the Christian world! Would to God it had not too often been a day of such rejoicing as is only calculated to make devils triumph, and angels weep! Mistake me not, my friends! I do not appear before you today, when the minister of the Gospel so preeminently feels that he comes before his people with good tidings! glad tidings of great joy the best news that ever reached our world. I do not come with the will, even had I the power, to damp the general glow of gladness that warms every heart, or cloud the sunshine of happiness that lights up every countenance ! I B would rather, indeed, be a partaker, yea, and a helper of your joy, so far as that joy is suitable to the glorious and gladdening event we are now assembled to commemorate; and with this hope I would point out one or two of the distinguishing characteristics of Christian joy in the Redeemer's birth; that joy which I fervently pray, that each of you, through the divine teaching of the Holy Spirit, may know, by your own sweet experience, to be a joy that not only passeth all description, but all understanding also. The first distinguishing feature of this joy I would notice, is, that it is a grateful joy, which, in the language of the text, glorifies and praises God. When the believer this morning—having heard, as it were, the voice of the angel saying to him, "Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is born a Saviour!" led by the guiding hand of faith-visits the stable where the infant Saviour lies —when he remembers (Oh! unfathomable mystery of redeeming love!) that that infant Saviour is the Mighty God! manifest in the flesh, who has thus shrouded the glories of His divinity under a garb of mortality for his sake, and for his salvation, stooping to such inconceivable humiliation, to exalt him to ineffable glory, Oh! surely he cannot return from the contemplation of such a sight, without, like the shepherds, glorifying and praising God for all that he has heard and seen. Surely his joy, while he bends over that manger, must overflow with a gratitude to which he would vainly endeavour to give utterance by words; and which he can only, however inadequately, express by the tears of thankfulness that bedew the manger where the babe is laid! the songs of praise that mingle with the anthem of the Heavenly Host! and the fervent prayer that rises from the depths of a gladdened and a grateful heart, that his life, as well as his lips, may harmonize with the strains of the angelic hymn, and the purpose of the Redeemer's birth-even to proclaim-" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and good-will amongst men." A second characteristic of Christian joy in the Redeemer's birth, is, that it is sober, and not unmingled with a shade of sadness-sobriety is indeed the characteristic of all true Christian joy-which dwells in the heart, more than on the lips, and is rather serene than sparkling-expressed by the sweet smile of calm cheerfulness, rather than the loud laugh of boisterous merriment. Unlike the empty gaiety of the world, which betrays its shallowness by the froth and noise it makes, true Christian joy, like a mighty and majestic river, too deep to be noisy, and too full to be frothy, flows on in silent strength, reflecting the heavens in its clear, calm surface, to mingle its pure and peaceful waves with the river of the water of life that flows beside the throne of God! This is preeminently true of Christian joy in the Redeemer's birthwhich is, indeed, sober and serious, and not untinged with sadness-for how can a believer rejoice with noisy or unhallowed merriment in a Saviour's birth, when he remembers that He, in whose birth he rejoices, was born for his sake, to a life of uninterrupted sorrow and suffering-to a death of unparalleled agony and shame! No! no! the world may forget, but he cannot, that it was his sins which dragged the well-beloved Son of God down from the bosom of the Father, and the Throne of Heaven, to the stable of Bethlehem, and the Cross of Calvary! and while bending over the manger where the infant Saviour sleeps, as the coming sorrows that await Him in His mysterious journey of redeeming love, crowd on the believer's view, he rejoices indeed in His birth, but he rejoices with trembling: tears of penitential sorrow mingle with tears of grateful joy; and while he glorifies and praises God, that unto him a Saviour has been born, he unites with his joyful praise the earnest prayer that he may never, by his conversation or conduct, wound the love or dishonour the name of that Redeemer, who stooped to a manger on earth, to exalt him to a throne in hea ven. The last characteristic of Christian joy in the birth of the Son of God I will notice, is, that it is a |