shines with a borrowed light and has varied from the new to the full with the vicissitudes of time — the moon, alas! was at that moment small indeed, and shed abroad but little of that light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. Or perhaps it was Mary, fair as the moon, Queen of angels and of men, whose glory was on that night dimmed, an unhonored outcast, in the dark recesses of the stable. The stars fell from heaven: one to guide the Magi, and those others, brighter still, the angels, to lead the shepherds Bethlehemwards. The world of sinners, of which the sea is such a perfect figure, was agitated, for Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him, and there was distress of nations when the Holy Family fled in terror to Egypt, and the Magi returned in fear by another way, and the royal soldiers slew the Innocents. So striking, then, is the parallel between Christ's first and second coming that the Church considers the dread judgment, time's end, and the beginning of eternity, to be a salutary thought both for the closing and the opening of her year.
Brethren, the details of to-day's Gospel would seem as unreal and incredible as a horrible dream were it not that Christ has sworn that all these things shall come to pass, and that though heaven and earth shall pass away His word shall not go unfulfilled. That the day of doom will come, and come suddenly, is certain, for as lightning cometh out of the east and flasheth even unto the west, so shall the coming of the Son of man be. But beyond this, when it shall
