Advent Readings FROM THE FATHERS. SELECTED FROM THE LIBRARY OF THE FATHERS." OXFORD: JOHN HENRY PARKER; AND 377, STRAND, LONDON. M DCCCLIII. 1:0. d. 4. PREFACE. IN the season of Lent, 1852, a small Volume was put forth, entitled, "Lent Readings from the Fathers," and a promise was then given that it should be followed by similar selections for Advent. This promise is now fulfilled, and "Readings" suited to each day of Advent are here put together, for the benefit, it is hoped, of such devotional minds as may wish to find the Church's teaching in the earlier ages. There is a double sense attached to this holy season, which the Church Services plainly set. forth, and therein a double duty in its commemoration. The one of joy, as contemplating the Redemption of the world, which is past; the other of awfulness, as contemplating the coming of Christ to Judgment, which is future. In the former we call to mind what the world was; in the latter we anticipate what it is to be. We may indeed dwell in wonder upon the past ungodliness of men, when Christ was not yet among them in the flesh; but we are also called upon to consider whether, although Christ has come in the flesh once, and has taught us by His Life, and redeemed us by His Death, we ourselves are now in such a state of readiness for His second coming-such a state of advancement in His Faith, as might be expected from the privileges of His Teaching. The object of Christ's future coming is before the mind, namely, to judge; and therein finally and for all eternity to appoint every man's place in the Resurrection either of the just or of the unjust; while the subject is before us equally momentous and fearful, namely, our own readiness to meet Him. It is this readiness to meet Him which embraces all else, filling us with dread in the thought of unrepented sin, but at the same time cheering us on in the labours of our holy calling, when we think that in His very Presence, amid the Saints and Angels, and Heavenly Host, there will at "that day" be manifested our exceeding great reward. Are we ready to meet Him at His coming? How do our lives, our actions, our words, our thoughts, our tempers, our daily ways, our goings out and comings in-how do they all practically agree with a faith which abstractedly teaches us that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night? Our bodies may sleep in death for ages, awaiting His coming in the grave, or He may anticipate our death, and find us quick upon the earth. But in either case there will be the same judgment, and that judgment will embrace the very same things done in the flesh by us. Are we ready for either of these cases? It will be found that the passages here selected from the Fathers, bear on these points. Whatever is involved in human sin, its causes by temptation, or its effects in punishment, is analysed and exposed. The certainty of punishment. The Eternity of punishment. The judgment by which the punishment will be awarded. Who the Judge is to be that is to pronounce the judgment. The warnings which He has vouchsafed concerning it. What He is to judge. When He is to judge, and How He is to judge. Hell contrasted with Heaven. The wicked with the good. Man with God. Time with Eternity. Of all this the Fathers delighted to speak; and through all, the heart of man is laid bare with an unsparing probe; and even as our Lord taught without respect of persons, so they imitating Him, bring out into light the secrets of all hearts; and the sins and follies of the great ones of the earth, as well as those of the poor and simple ones, are faithfully exposed, so that all may see them, and seeing them, hate and loathe them, and while yet in God's mercy they are spared, forsake them. |