The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. : THERE needeth much of man's "loftiness to be bowed down," much of his "haughtiness to be made low," before he can be made "spiritually to discern," experimentally to feel, and practically to appreciate, the import of these words. He must "bow down the loftiness" of his own human wisdom, and meekly acknowledge, with the apostle, that "though he had the gift of prophecy, and understood all mysteries and all knowledge," he is in the sight of God but "a child in understanding," and "knoweth not any thing as yet as he ought to know." He must 66 make low the haughtiness" of his imagined power, superiority, and pre-eminence, over his fellow-creatures, and remember, that, though as compared with some of them, he may seem powerful and high in rank, and "increased with goods," and "honoured in his generation," he is, in reality, but a steward of God's possessions, and "has nothing which he did not receive." He must" bow down," above all, the loftiness of "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," and, humbly confessing that "no flesh can glory in the Lord's presence;" no flesh "do a good thing," or "be sufficient of itself to think any thing as of itself;" no flesh purchase for itself heaven, or save itself from hell;" bring every thought of self-righteousness and vain glory into captivity to the obedience of Christ." How many are there, however, who periodically celebrate the day of Christ's nativity,-the day above all others, when "the haughtiness of man was especially made low, and the Lord alone especially exalted,"-without any feelings of this kind! How many are there, it must even be admitted, who directly reverse the prophetic anticipation in the text, and make this great day of the Lord" the day of "the doing of a great sacrifice to Baal," and, without remembering the source and the reason of that joy in which they indulge, "joy before God," as we read in one of the lessons for the day, " according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.' When we remember, however, as remember we all must, in the hour of sober reflection, that far other, in reality, are the legitimate occupations, reflections, and rejoicings of the day of Christ's nativity; and that to do that for us which, with all our imagined wisdom and excellence, we could not do for ourselves—to save us from the effects of our own folly; to "destroy the works of the devil;" to "purify unto himself a peculiar people;" and to "bring in everlasting righteousness"—our Saviour was on the day of the Nativity manifested; our carnal merriment will be at once moderated, our vociferous mirth quieted, and all our joy spiritualized: "The loftiness of men will be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men will be made low: and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day." 66 To create and to perpetuate such impressions, those common objects of our one and the same faith, the first and second advent of Christ, are, I think, eminently calculated; and I hope, accordingly, to make it presently appear, that to no two periods more appropriately than to each of these could the prophet have borne reference, when he said, "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." In the coming of Christ in the flesh, in the first place, man's inability to foresee, or to contrive a remedy, for his lost estate, and the power of God to do both, was made very manifest. Ages had past since man fell from his innocence; and he had been tried under many different dispensations, and found wanting under all; when at length, "in the dispensation of the fulness of times, the Lord gathered together in one all things in Christ, both which were in heaven and which were in earth, even in him." Exactly at the time predicted by God, when "the sceptre was departing from Judah, and the lawgiver from between his feet, did Shiloh come;" and "thus the glory of the Lord was revealed, and all flesh did see it." But so, again, in the circumstances of this Saviour's birth was there a most remarkable manifestation of the same truth. "God's onlybegotten Son took our nature upon him, and was at this time born of a pure virgin," showing evidently, in that miraculous and mighty act, that with him, and with him alone, "all things were possible;" and that without "the taking of the manhood into God," there could be "none to guide it (as the prophet saith) of all the sons whom it brought forth; and none to take it by the hand of all the sons whom it brought up." And look also at the other peculiar circumstances that preceded and followed this birth. No mighty man's birth, victory, triumph, or first assumption of dominion over a great empire, was ever so attended or heralded. A miraculously-born prophet was sent specially to inform the world, that " one mightier even than he should come after him;" a star manifested him to the Gentiles ;" "a multitude of the heavenly host" celebrated his entrance into the world in a hymn of praise; the great and wise of the eastern world paid him their homage, and offered him their gifts; the shepherds glorified and worshipped him; and fear, astonishment, and reverence, held possession of all hearts. 66 But we find another proof of the applicability of our text to Christ's first advent, in the doctrine immediately involved in it. It established, in the most striking manner possible, the corruption of human nature, the necessity of a satisfaction for it, the inadequacy of any created means towards that end, and the liability of unexpiated guilt to the Divine wrath and punishment. It magnified, on the other hand, the love, mercy, power, and glory of God, and proved, to demonstration, his allsufficiency for a work, for which no kings, or philosophers, or conquerors, or legislators, or prophets, or founders of empires, had hitherto found themselves equal-the redemption of an immortal soul from sin and death. "The fortress of the high fort of their walls did the Lord, in this great event, bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust." "And he purposed it to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth." But recognize, as equally illustrative of the text with the last mentioned, some of the consequences, remote or immediate, of the birth of Christ. Observe men, families, and nations, gradually throwing off the trammels of the idolatry in which they were educated, and actually "preaching the faith which once they destroyed." Observe the worship of one God taking the place of the worship of no god, or of many gods; the sins, miseries, and ignorances of men giving way before the hidden influences of a divine religion; and all this effected by "base things of the world, and things which were despised, yea, and things which were not bringing to nought things that were ;" and you find the text fully exemplified. Yea, and a time shall come hereafter, we are told, when men shall" see even greater things than these" resulting from the manifestation of a Saviour; when Christ shall be glorified and believed in every where; when "all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall serve him," and he shall be called "King of kings and Lord of lords," "from the river unto the ends of the earth.” When we think of these things, the acts of the greatest public benefactors of mankind sink into nothingness, and we are constrained to acknowledge that "the loftiness of man was indeed bowed down, and the haughtiness of men made low, and the Lord alone exalted in that day." But let us now reverse the picture, and apply the doctrine to Christ's second advent-the day of judgment. How alarming does not death always seem, as the herald of that advent; as the event, to which that advent is of necessity the next to succeed, and through which there is, in a manner, a virtual introduction to it. And this feeling of alarm at death is universal. The most courageous of men is then a coward, the proudest humbled as a little child, the most righteous anxious and earnest to deprecate the Lord's wrath, and magnify his mercies. And there are moments, we are all conscious, even in the pride of life and vigour of health, when the imagination, aided by Scripture and prompted by conscience, almost realizes to itself "the hidden mystery" of a yet future day of judgment,—clothes "the day of the Lord" with terrors for "every one that is proud and lofty;" and "sees, as it were in a vision, the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." And come at last it will in reality : that day of the Lord's greatest power, and man's sorest confusion and abasement, when "all the world shall stand guilty before him," when "no flesh shall glory in his presence;" and He whom we now "believe shall come to be our judge," shall have at length "put all enemies under his feet," and "be exalted as head above all." Then shall those whom no entreaties, no promises, no merciful delays of vengeance, could persuade to "live godly," be "laid in the lowest pit, in darkness and in the deeps;" and the faithfulness, majesty, and impartiality of the justice which passes the sentence, be universally acknowledged. And then shall those who are saved "enter into the joy of their Lord," and "not unto themselves, not unto their own righteousness or meritoriousness, but unto their Lord's manifold and great mercies, give the praise" and the beginning of their song of gratitude, and its continuance throughout eternity, shall be in one unvaried strain-"Blessing and honour, and glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." Then, surely, of Christ's second advent, equally as of his first, it may be said, in the words of the text, "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." On these two grand periods, brethren, the one past and the other to come, does our faith,—that "evidence of things not seen," and "substance of things hoped for," looking backward to the one, and looking forward to the other,— implicitly ground itself. It " sees a great light," though (as on a misty day) it cannot see the sun which gives it; and it knows of a still greater light to appear hereafter, of which appearance, it is now as confident as that the material sun shall rise to-morrow. By the first coming of Christ it has learnt, it has been convinced, it feels inwardly sure, that there is to be his second coming. The nativity is the point from which it sets out, and the day of the resurrection is the mark which it is fully assured it is destined to reach. And this full assurance of a true faith is that spiritually-conducting star which alone successfully guides the soul through the obscurities of the darkness of this world, to the dawn of the final great "coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our gathering together unto him." To implant, to strengthen, to renovate, to render more and more fruitful, such a faith as this, is the especial tendency of the present season, as it must also seem to have been the aim of the view now taken of it; let it, then, be the constant and unceasing desire and object of your whole lives, brethren, as it was the result of that past event, to which your faith owes its foundation, and will be the chief feature in that future one, when it will be lost in fruition, to "bring down" your natural "haughtiness," and "exalt the Lord alone.' "Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts; but who shall abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth?" "As a snare shall it come upon all them that dwell on the face of the earth;" and the sinners shall be gathered together, prisoners are gathered together, in the pit." "The Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall show the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones." Bring down" that pride of a sinful life which refuses to humble itself before the Lord by repentance; "bring down" that pride of over-wisdom which refuses to be guided by what it cannot understand and reason upon; bring down" that pride of superior station and resources which tramples upon the poor and needy, and spurns from it, as intrusive and ill-timed, their modestly preferred petition; "bring down" that pride of offended feelings, which cannot prevail upon itself to forgive, to forget, or to repair an injury; and "bring down" that pride of self-righteousness which imagines itself to be "something when it is nothing," and gives not the glory of a holy desire or just work to that Spirit of might which caused them, but to itself; and "bring down" whatever is brought down through the help of God's Holy Spirit, and lay any newlyacquired humble thoughts, and lowly desires, and mortified lusts, at the feet of Him who is the Justifier before God of all imperfect righteousness, and the Intercessor with him for all unreconciled transgression. 66 as But especially be it your care, brethren, to do all these things on the day of your Saviour's nativity. On that day earnestly, fervently, and importunately implore the Almighty searcher of spirits to open your hearts to an unusual sense of your fellow-Christians' temporal wants, and your own spiritual ones, enabling some of you to bring, like the Wise Men of the east, gold and frankincense and myrrh into your Saviour's presence, and others to lay upon his altar, like the poor, the simple, but right-minded shepherds, the more acceptable offering of a meek, a quiet, a penitent, and a chastened spirit, that so "in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and dead, you may rise thus justified and spiritualized to the life immortal, through Him who liveth and reigneth with the Father and the Holy Ghost, now and ever." Now unto God the Father, &c. I. F. H. MISCELLANEOUS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER. MR. EDITOR.-Should either of the subjoined imitations of the Portuguese Hymn prove available for the object which your correspondent of this month has in view, I shall not demand payment of his promissory note of thanks, but rather feel indebted to any one who may render me an humble instrument in giving utterance to the voice of thanksgiving. Perhaps I should add, that the second is altered from a version which I prepared some years since for a church where I then officiated. ADESTE FIDELES.* Tune, 100th Psalm, Old Version. FROM tents of Shem, from Japhet's isles, True God of God, pure light of light, "Glory to God," ye angels sound, Ye choirs that soar on seraph's wing; In the third line of the third stanza of the Latin, as given at p. 696, for verbi read verbum. |