" Trust, therefore, in the Lord, and do good, and He will give thee the request of thy heart." (Ps. xxxvi. 3, 4.)
II. " He shall be called John" (Luke 1. 60), which signifies grace ; for no Saint whatever, Christ's blessed mother alone excepted, possessed such an abundance of grace. He was by his office and by the purity of his life an angel; he was an Elias in spirit; he was more than a prophet; he was sanctified in his mother's womb ; and, as Christ Himself tells us, " a greater than he never rose from a woman." Reverence this Saint, so singularly beloved and so nearly allied to our Lord, and endeavor to imitate his heroic virtues.
III. Consider what happened at his birth : 1. His mother, by divine inspiration, gives him his name. 2. His father writing the same name, "his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed ; and he spoke, blessing God." 3. He was "filled with the Holy Ghost." 4. " Fear came upon all their neighbors : and all these words were divulged over the mountainous country of Judea." 5. " All they who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, What kind of child think you shall this be? For the hand of the Lord was with him." (Luke i. 64 to 66.) Do you, in like manner, lay these things up in your heart by serious meditation, and pray that the hand of the Lord may be also with you.
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT.
Christ the Guest of your Soul.
"Zacheus, make haste and come down; for to-day I must abide in thy house." — (Luke xix. 5.)
I. Christ, although He be the King of glory, whom myriads of angels attend in heaven, ardently desires, notwithstanding, to become the guest of your soul. Hence
