crowded round the crib of Jesus, land your praises, like theirs, are caught up by the angel choir and wafted to the ears of God. You follow Him with Mary and the pious women of Jerusalem, to wipe His agonized face like Veronica, or like Simon, to help Him carry His cross. Your faithfulness and perseverance, I predict, will gain for you the privilege of being among the first to meet Him at the general resurrection: among the first to reenter with Jesus and Mary into the kingdom of heaven.
Third Sunday of Advent.
John the Baptist.
" Amen, I say to you, there hath not arisen among them that are born of woman, a greater than John the Baptist." —
Matt xi. ii.
SYNOPSIS.
I. 1. Prophet and subject of prophecy. 2. Hidden and public life. 3. His temptation and victory.
II. 1. Words and deeds. 2. Sinful world, and process of regeneration. 3. John's last duty and death.
III. 1. John's message to Christ. 2. Its meaning. 3. Christ's reply.
Per. : The messenger of Death, and our answer.
SERMON.
Such was John's eulogy, pronounced by Truth incarnate. Higher praise was never given to mortal man. In dignity, in sanctity, he was less than Christ or Christ's Mother, but in the catalogue of the saints
