ourselves of the fancy that we can be accounted righteous before God for
any works or deservings of our own. Those in whom that fancy lingers
must have but a paltry standard of what righteousness is, a mean
conception of moral--that is, spiritual--perfection. But those who look
not inwards, but upwards; not at themselves, but at Christ and all
spiritual perfection--they become more and more painfully aware of their
own imperfections. The beauty of Christ's character shows them the
ugliness of their own. His purity shows them their own foulness. His
love their own hardness. His wisdom their own folly. His strength their
own weakness. The higher their standard rises, the lower falls their
estimate of themselves; till, in utter humiliation and self-distrust,
they seek comfort ere alone it can be found--in FAITH--in utter faith and
trust in that very moral perfection of Christ which shames and dazzles
them, and yet is their only hope. To trust in Him for themselves and all
they love. To trust that, just because Christ is so magnificent, He will
pity, and not despise, our meanness. Just because He is so pure, and
righteous, and true, and lovely, He will appreciate, and not abhor, our
struggles after purity, righteousness, truth, love, however imperfect,
however soiled with failure--and with worse. Just because He is so
unlike us, He will smile graciously upon out feeblest attempts to be like
Him. Just because He has borne the sins and carried the sorrows of
mankind, therefore those who come to Him He will in no wise cast out.
Amen.



SERMON V. ADVENT LESSONS