Westminster Abbey, First Sunday in Advent, 1873.

Romans vii. 22-25. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

This is the first Sunday in Advent. To-day we have prayed that God would
give us grace to put away the works of darkness, and put on us the armour
of light. Next Sunday we shall pray that, by true understanding of the
Scriptures, we may embrace and hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting
life. The Sunday after that the ministers and stewards of God's
mysteries may prepare His way by turning the hearts of the disobedient to
the wisdom of the just--the next, that His grace and mercy may speedily
help and deliver us from the sins which hinder us in running the race set
before us. But I do not think that we shall understand those collects,
or indeed the meaning of Advent itself, or the reason why we keep the
season of Advent year by year, unless we first understand the prayer
which we offered up last Sunday, "Stir up, O Lord, the wills of Thy
faithful people,"--and we shall understand that prayer just in proportion
as we have in us the Spirit of God, or the spirit of the world, which is
the spirit of unbelief.

Worldly people say--and say openly, just now--that this prayer is all a
dream. They say God will not stir up men's wills to do good any more
than to do harm. He leaves men to themselves to get through life as they
can. This Heavenly Father of whom you speak will not give His holy
spirit to those who ask Him. He does not, as one of your Collects says,
put into men's minds good desires--they come to a man entirely from