These words of Zacharias will very well indicate the course through which a Christian life passes from its commencement to its close.

I. IT BEGINS IN SPIRITUAL EMANCIPATION. "We being delivered out of the hand of our enemies." In order to "walk in newness of life," we must be rescued from the thraldom of sin. And there is a twofold deliverance that we need. One is from the condemnation of our guilt; for we cannot rest and rejoice in the love of God while we are under a troubled sense of the Divine displeasure, while we feel and know that our "sin has separated between" ourselves and our heavenly Father. The other is from the bondage of evil. So long as we are "held in the cords of our sins," we are helplessly disobedient; it is only when we have learnt to hate sin, and, loathing it, to leave it behind us, that we are free to walk in the path of righteousness. This double emancipation is wrought for us by the Lord whose way the son of Zacharias was to prepare. By faith in him, the great Propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:2), we have full and free forgiveness, so that all the guilty past may be removed from our sight; and in the presence of a crucified Redeemer "the flesh and its affections are crucified," we die to our old self and our old iniquities, the tolerance of sin is slain, we hate that which we loved and embraced before, we are "delivered out of the hand of our enemies."

II. IT PROCEEDS ALONG THE PATH OF FILIAL SERVICE. We "serve him without fear." Here are two elements - obedience and happiness. As soon as we unite ourselves to our Lord and Savior, we live to serve. "None of us liveth to himself;" "We thus judge,... that we who live should not live unto ourselves, but unto him who died for us" (2 Corinthians 5:14, 15). And this is the only true life of man. The animal may live for itself, though even the higher animals live rather for others than for themselves. But all whom we should care to emulate live to serve. It is not the sentence passed, it is the heritage conferred upon us, that in Christ Jesus we live to serve God - to serve him by direct worship and obedience, and also, indirectly, by serving the children of his love and the creatures of his care. And we serve in love; and therefore without fear - without that fear which means bondage; for "perfect love casteth out fear." It is with no hesitating and reluctant step that we walk in the ways of God; it is our joy to do his bidding; we "delight to do his will: yea, his Law is within our heart" (Psalm 40:8). "We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear;" our spirit is the spirit of happy childhood, which runs to fulfill its Father's word.

III. IT MOVES TOWARDS PERFECT EXCELLENCE OF CHARACTER. "In holiness and righteousness before him." Here are three elements of the Christian life.

1. A holy hatred of evil; leading us to condemn it in ourselves and in others, and prompting us to expel and extirpate it to the utmost of our power.

2. The pursuit and practice of all that is equitable; endeavoring to do and to promote that which is just in all the relations in which we stand to others, or they to one another.

3. Piety; doing every right thing as unto Christ our Lord; living consciously "before him;" so that all our rectitude of heart and excellency of behavior is something more than a habit of life; it is a sacrifice unto our Savior.

IV. IT PERSEVERES EVEN TO THE END. "All our days." There is no break in our course. Our upward and onward path may be undulating, but it is continuous, and is ever making for the summit. We do not retire, or resign, or abdicate, in this noblest work, in this sacred office of being "servant of the Lord," "king and priest unto God." Having loved his own, our Master loved them unto the end (John 13:1); and loving him whom we have not seen, and rejoicing in him with unspeakable joy, we are faithful unto death, and we know that

"To him that overcometh
A crown of life shall be;
He with the King of glory
Shall reign eternally." C.

I. A VERY AFFECTING VIEW OF THE STATE OF MANKIND BEFORE CHRIST CAME. "Darkness and the shadow of death."

1. Ignorant of the moral character of God.

2. Ignorant of the purity of God's law.

3. Ignorant as to the evil nature and dreadful consequences of sin.

4. Ignorant as to the true source of happiness.

5. Ignorant regarding the future state.

II. A VERY INTERESTING DESCRIPTION OF THE SAVIOUR. "The Dayspring."

1. The great source of light;

(1)Natural;

(2)intellectual;

(3)rational;

(4)spiritual.

2. The dayspring is gradual and progressive.

(1)Revelation has waked fuller and fuller throughout the ages.

(2)The increasing enlightenment of individuals.

3. The dayspring is certain and irresistible. The darkest moral clouds must eventually succumb to the bright beams shed by the Sun of Righteousness.

4. The day-spring is free, and common to all.

III. A VERY ENCOURAGING REPRESENTATION OF THE DESIGN OF CHRIST'S MISSION.

1. TO give light. He has shown Himself

(1)in the dignity of His person;

(2)in the perfection of His atonement;

(3)in the fulness of His grace;

(4)in the willingness to save which He has manifested;

(5)in the discovery He has made of the means of cleansing from moral guilt.

2. To give peace.

(1)Peace with God;

(2)peace with our fellow-men;

(3)peace with ourselves.Notice in conclusion:

1. The infinite condescension of Jehovah in inter. posing on our behalf.

2. The Christian's duty and privilege.

(1)His duty is to trust in the Lord in time of darkness.

(2)His privilege sometimes is to walk in the light of God's countenance.

3. The miserable state of those who hear the good news, and yet hold aloof.

4. If the pleasures of religion be so great upon earth, what must be the enjoyment of believers in the upper world?

(Dr. Scott.)

The original is, "The mercy of the heart of our God." This seems to mean not only tenderness, but much more. The mercy of the heart of God is, of course, the mercy of His great tenderness, the mercy of His infinite gentleness and consideration; but other thoughts also come forth from the expression, like bees from a hive. It means the mercy of God's very soul. The heart is the seat and centre of life, and mercy is to God as His own life. Mercy is of the Divine essence; there is no God apart from His heart, and mercy lies in the heart of God. Nor is this all; the mercy of God's heart means His hearty mercy, His cordial delight in mercy. Remission of sins is a business into which the Lord throws His heart. He forgives with an intensity of will and readiness of soul. God made heaven and earth with His fingers, but He gave His Son with His heart in order that He might save sinners. The eternal God has thrown His whole soul into the business of redeeming men.

I. God shows His tender mercy in that HE DEIGNS TO VISIT US. He has not merely pitied us from a distance, and sent us relief by way of the ladder which Jacob saw, but He has Himself visited us.

1. God's great visit to us is the incarnation of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2. The proclamation of the gospel in a nation, or to any individual, is a visit of God's mercy.

3. He has visited some of us in a more remarkable manner still, for by the Holy Spirit He has entered into our hearts, and changed the current of our lives. He has turned our affections towards that which is right by enlightening our judgments. He has led us to the confession of sin, He has brought us to the acceptance of His mercy through the atoning blood; and so He has truly saved us.

II. God shows His tender mercy in that HE VISITS US AS THE DAYSPRING FROM ON HIGH He does not come to us in Christ, or by His Spirit, as a tempest, as when He came from Paran, with ten thousand of His holy ones, in all the pomp of His fiery law; but He has visited us as smiling morn, which in gentle glory floods the world with joy. He has come, moreover, not as a blaze which will soon die down, but as a light which will last our day, yea, last for ever. After the long dark and cold night of our misery, the Lord cometh in the fittest and most effectual manner; neither as lightning, nor candle, nor flaming meteor, but as the sun which begins the day.

1. The visitation of the Lord to us is as the dayspring, because it suits our eye. Day, when it first breaks in the east, has not the blaze of burning noon about it; but peeps forth as a grey light, which gradually increases. So did Christ come; dimly, as it were, at first, at Bethlehem, but by and by He will appear in all the glory of the Father. So does the Spirit of God come to us in gradual progress. The revelation of God to each individual is made in form and manner tenderly agreeable to the condition and capacity of the favoured one. He shows us just so much of Himself as to delight us without utterly overwhelming us with the excess of brightness.

2. The visits of God are like the dayspring, because they end our darkness. Our night is ended once for all when we behold God visiting us in Christ Jesus. Our day may cloud over, but night will not return.

3. Christ's coming into the world is as the morning light, because He comes with such a largeness of present blessing. He is the Light which lighteneth every man. There is other light.

4. Christ's coming is as the dayspring, because He brings us hope of greater glory yet to come. The dayspring is not the noon, but it is the sure guarantee of it; and so the First Advent is the pledge of the glory to be revealed.

III. There is another instance of great tenderness in this, that THE LORD VISITS US IN OUR WRY LOWEST ESTATE. God comes to us as the morning, which does not wait for man, nor tarry for the sons of men. He gives with gladness to those who have no deservings of any kind (Romans 5:6, 8). He comes to us when we are —

1. In our sins.

2. In darkness.

3. In ruin.

IV. Our God shows His tender mercy, in that HE VISITS US WITH SUCH WONDERFUL AND JOYFUL RESULTS. Imagine a caravan in the desert, which has long lost its way, and is famishing. The sun has long gone down, and the darkness has caused every one's heart to droop. All around them is a waste of sand, and an Egyptian darkness. There they must remain and die unless they can find the track. They feel themselves to be in a fearful case, for hungry and thirsty, their soul fainteth in them. They cannot even sleep for fear. Heavier and heavier the night comes down, and the damps are on the tents, chilling the souls of the travellers. What is to be done? How they watch! Alas, no star comforts them! At last the watchmen cry, "The morning cometh!" It breaks over the sea of sand, and, what is better, it reveals a heap which had been set up as a waymark, and the travellers have found the track. The dayspring has saved them from swift destruction by discovering the way of peace. Conclusion: If the tender mercy of God has visited us; let us exhibit tender mercy in our dealings with our fellow-men.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

Our subject matter is the gradual development of redemption, like the sun, "shining more and more unto perfect day."

I. THERE IS A GRADUALNESS IN ALL THE WORKS OF GOD. In the physical sphere, gradual development is a universal law. At first, all was a chaos of lifeless matter, then vegetable life appeared, then low forms of brute life, then the mammal, and then the man. The world did not reach its present state in a few seconds — the chaos did not become a cosmos in an hour. In the first day's work we only see power; but in the second day's work we see wisdom; and in the third day's work we see goodness; and thus from step to step we advance, until the sixth day brings forth the crowning glory, man, the lord of creation, filled with the harmonies of the skies. Creation is not a fungus-growth, but a gradual oak-growth In the intellectual and moral spheres there is gradualness. Even our consciousness develops. Natural consciousness develops gradually, and the reflective consciousness of the profound thinker is only a further development of the natural. We grow step by step. Our education proceeds gradually. The prince and the pauper must begin with the alphabet and the multiplication table, and then onward, "line upon line, and precept upon precept." Our great discoveries have been gradual. How slowly did the astrology of the ancients develop into our nineteenth-century astronomy! How gradually did the alchemy of the fathers grow into the modern chemistry of a Faraday! And, again, in the moral sphere there is gradual development. The new man in Christ Jesus is not made of full stature all at once. For a time, he is "a little one in Christ," then he "grows in grace," and, finally, he reaches unto "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

II. WE REASON FROM ANALOGY THAT THE GRADUALNESS WE FIND IN NATURE AND MAN MAY ALSO BE EXPECTED IN THE PROGRESS OF REDEMPTION, FOR GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF BOTH. The God of the rock and star is also the Cod of the Bible, and we are not surprised to find this gradual development in Revelation four thousand years intervening between the fall of the first Adam and the advent of the second Adam. Redemption grew as the world grew — it grew as the human grace grew — slowly. As far as we know, God was powerful enough to bring about redemption sooner; but for some wise purpose, He left the world in the dim starlight for forty centuries. Why this slowness? He is never in a hurry, for He "seeth the end from the beginning." The march of the Hebrews from Egypt to Canaan, if they had taken a direct route, would have only occupied them a few months; but the Lord kept them in the lone desert for forty years. The Divine is never in a hurry. Jesus Christ spent thirty years on earth before He performed one miracle — no hurry! And, indeed, we rejoice in this gradualness. We cordially thank God for it. And why? Simply because a full-orbed revelation all at once would overwhelm us. If the natural sun were to reach its meridian at once, the tender green of earth would be reduced to ashes. "O God, how gracious Thou art to reveal Thyself gradually unto us in a manner adapted to our weak capacities. It is no punishment to withhold these mighty mysteries from us, but a mercy." And, besides, friends, we would not be satisfied with a little Christ, that could be fully and completely revealed in a century or two. We are great sinners, and we need a great Christ to save us — a Christ that demands, not six thousand years, but all the countless years of eternity to reveal Him to the full. And, blessed be God, that Christ is to be found in our glorious gospel. And let us not think that the development of relation is yet at an end. No, far from it.

III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF REDEMPTION FROM STAGE TO STAGE.

(J. O. Davies.)

Many a hoary seer longed for the dayspring, but saw it not. A sweet Welsh evangelist has a very striking illustration on this point. About Christmas time, John the elder brother is expected home from London by the midnight train. All the younger children are in ecstasy, and they all wish to stay up until his arrival. "Pray, father, let us stay up to wait John home," is the universal petition. But the reply is, "No, my dear ones, it will be too long for you to wait; you must go to rest; you shall see John in the morning — not sooner." Friends, the ancient prophets expected a Saviour — their Elder Brother Jesus. How delighted they would be to see Him in the flesh; but they were compelled to enter the cold bed of the grave before His arrival. David cried, "Father, let me see the Horn of Salvation of which I sang so well." "No, My child, you must retire." Job implored, "Father, let me see my living Redeemer." "No, My child, you must retire; but you shall see him after you awake on the resurrection morning." Malachi cried, "Father, I am about the last of them all; do let me see the Sun of Righteousness of which I sang so sweetly." "No, My child, you must retire to rest; it will be too long for you to wait." And they silently retired into their cold graves to rest. But at last, hoary-headed Simeon advanced, and earnestly implored, "Oh! my Father, the train is nearly in, according to my brother Daniel's table; do let me stay up to see the Consolation of Israel." "Yes, My child, thy request is granted," said the Father, and the old saint was allowed to see the daybreak, and so delighted was he with its splendour that he prayed for death — (what a strong saint!) — "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people — a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel! "Thank heaven, the Sun has risen, and the world is now enveloped in a glorious day!

(J. O. Davies.)

— A living sense of the tender mercy of God should actuate us in the path of duty, and on the way to heaven. In what respects the tender mercy of God is displayed towards His creatures.

I. IN THE CHARACTER WHICH GOD HAS THOUGHT FIT TO ASSUME TOWARDS HIS DEPENDENT CREATURES. He feels towards us as a parent for His offspring Who but a father would have devised such a scheme of redemption?

II. IN THE TEMPORAL GOOD HIS TENDER MERCY IS MANIFEST. The merciful arrangement which marks the course of human life. For instance, an infant is more dependent upon the aid of others than any other creature; to meet this necessity, God has graciously made the strongest of all human instincts that of a mother's affection for her child. Here His tender mercy is abundantly shown. Again, as we advance in life, God's mercy is no less exhibited. It was necessary for Him to mark His disapprobation of sin by what is called a curse. Instead of bodily deformity and constant pain, the curse was that we should labour, which is at once a great source of health and happiness. Even death is so introduced to us that he ceases in his approach to wear the aspect of the king of terrors, and is regarded as a kind friend come to relieve us of weariness and pain. The mercy of God is evident in the affections incident to life; saints, apostles, and martyrs have experienced the blessedness of suffering. Then think of the positive blessings with which God has, in His mercy, chosen to sweeten the cup of mortal existence. We are born in a Christian land; health, &c. How improving to our souls must be a right consideration of the Divine mercies.

(A. Garry, M. A.)

I. THE CONDITION OF THE WORLD PREVIOUSLY TO THE ADVENT OF CHRIST.

1. A state of ignorance.

2. A state of danger.

II. THE MERCY OF GOD TOWARD THE WORLD IN THAT CONDITION.

1. Undeserved.

2. Unsolicited.

3. Seasonable.

III. THE MANNER IN WHICH THE MERCY OF GOD WAS MANIFESTED.

1. He sent His son to enlighten it in its ignorance.

2. He sent His son to guide it in its danger.

(G. Brooks.)

There are beneath the suburbs of the ancient city of Rome many dark and narrow passages, excavated in the soft stone. These are called the catacombs, and were used as burial places by the early Christians. These passages are very many, crossing and re-crossing each other, and stretching for an immense distance underground in a most bewildering manner. So complicated and puzzling is this labyrinth of subterranean galleries that it is most dangerous to explore them without a guide. A young artist once ventured to visit them alone, taking with him a few candles, and ensuring his safe return by a ball of twine, one end of which he fastened securely outside. After a time, he sat down to sketch in one of the gloomy recesses, having, as he thought, made his end of the clue safe under a stone. But rising suddenly to alter his sketch, he overturned and extinguished his candle. He hastened to strike a match, but found that through some forgetfulness only two or three remained, and in his nervous haste he failed to get these to ignite. He now hurriedly sought the line to guide him back to the entrance, but he could nowhere find it. It had slipped from its place. In vain he sought for it; casting himself on the ground, he felt for it in every direction, but could nowhere discover it. He despaired of ever again reaching the daylight; he thought he must die of hunger, wandering through the hopeless maze of those dark passages; but just as he threw himself in utter despondency once more on the earth, he felt something beneath his hand. It was the twine — and he was safe! Thus the Gentiles "sat in darkness"; thus the heathen world groped after truth. They were lost in the gloomy recesses of ignorance and doubt. But the good news of a Redeemer came like a guiding clue, leading them into the warmth and light and sunshine of Christianity.

(W. Hardman, LL. D.)

The dayspring signifies the sun. The worship of the sun was the greatest of the heathen worships. How glorious the sun is! How necessary! An apt emblem of the necessity and the glory of Christ. Without Him we could have no check, no conscience, and therefore no peace, and no confidence. But then, if Christ be so necessary, how is it that men can live in ignorance of Him? Are there not blind men in the world? They are very apt images of unbelievers The sun brings up corn and fruit for them as for us. They feel his warmth, and seek it out, not to see him, but because it is warmer. So men of the world are helped and comforted by the virtues of Christians, and what goes on unseen by themselves. And so they are honest, and so forth, because it is the best policy, and sheds a sunny glow over their lives. And all the while they have never seen or known Him, and have only heard of Him with the hearing of the ear. The blind do not see the sun in summer rising higher in the heavens; they only feel that it is warmer. So these do not see Christ's kingdom enlarging itself, but only rejoice that there is more honesty and kindliness abroad. In this way the world feels and knows that it is the better for Christ's coming. Very different is it with those whose eyes are opened, and who really see. They know in whom they have believed. They are guided into the way of peace.

(Bishop E. Steere.)

We may notice three things in the text: —

I. A DECLARATION OF A MOST BLESSED FACT — "The daypring from on high hath visited us."

II. THE SOURCE AND ORIGIN OF THAT BLESSED FACT "Through the tender mercy of our God."

III. ITS DIVINE FRUITS AND CONSEQUENCES." TO give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace."

I. In looking at these three points connected with, and springing out of the text, I shall rather invert their order; and consider, first, the original spring and source of the blessings mentioned in the text. This is set forth in the words, "Through the tender mercy of our God." Mercy is the source and fountain of all our spiritual blessings. But what is mercy? It embraces several particulars.

1. It embraces a feeling of pity and compassion. But pity and compassion do not fill up the whole idea of mercy; for we read, that God's "tender mercies are over all His works" (Psalm 145:9). Thus the Lord, in sparing Nineveh, "remembered even the cattle (Jonah 4:11). And when He caused the waters of the deluge to assuage it was because he " remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark" (Genesis 8:1). There is in the bosom of their Creator mercy and pity even for the brute creation. As full of mercy, He also "relieveth the fatherless and widow" (Psalm 146:9); and "loveth the stranger, in giving him food and raiment" (Deuteronomy 10:18).

2. We must, therefore, add to the idea of pity and compassion, another mark, that of pardon, in order to show what mercy is as extended to the family of God. For the Lord's people are sinners; and as such, being transgressors of God's holy law, need pardon and forgiveness.

3. But in order to complete the full description of mercy, we must ever view it as flowing through the blood and obedience of Immanuel. Mercy, was not, like creation, a mere display of an attribute of Jehovah. If I may use the expression, it cost the Godhead a price: "Ye are bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20). But there is an expression in the text that heightens, and casts a sweet light upon this mercy. It is there called tender mercy; literally, as it is in the margin, "bowels of mercy." Not mere mercy; but "tender mercy." Not cold and naked mercy; but mercy flowing forth out of the bowels of Divine compassion. Now nothing but " tender mercy" could ever look down with compassion upon the sons of men, or pluck out of the depths of the fall such ruined wretches. But to view mercy in its real character, we must go to Calvary.

II. But we pass on to consider that solemn declaration, that blessed fact contained in the words — " Whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us." There is a connection, you will observe, betwixt the "tender mercy of God," and the visiting of "the dayspring from on high." The "tender mercy of God" is the fountain, and the "visiting of the dayspring from on high" is the stream. Let us then endeavour, if God enable us, to unfold the mind of the Spirit in the words. First. What is meant by the expression "dayspring?" By "dayspring" is meant the day-dawn, the herald of the rising sun, the change from darkness to light, the first approach of morn; in one word, the spring of the day. But what is this "dayspring" spiritually? It is the intimation of the rising of the Sun of Righteousness. It is not the same thing as the Sun of Righteousness; but it is the herald of His approach; the beams which the rising sun casts upon the benighted world, announcing the coming of Jesus, "the King in His beauty." This expression was singularly applicable in the mouth of Zacharias. The Lord of life and glory had not then appeared; He was still in the womb of the Virgin Mary. But His forerunner, John, had appeared as the precursor, the herald of His approach, and was sent to announce that the Sun of Righteousness was about to arise. But there is another, an experimental meaning, connected with the words. "The dayspring from on high" is not to be confined to the approach of the Son of God in the flesh; but it may be extended to signify the appearance of the Son of God in the heart. Now, "the dayspring from on high" visits the soul with the very first Divine intimation dropped into the conscience respecting the Person, work, love, and blood of the Son of God. Until this day-dawn beams upon the soul, it is for the most part ignorant of the way by which a sinner is to be saved. But the first "dayspring from on high" which usually visits the soul is from a view by precious faith of the glorious person of Immanuel. Until we see by the eye of faith the glorious Person of "Immanuel, God with us," there is no day-dawn in the heart. But, in looking at the glorious Person of the Son of God, we catch a faith's view of His atoning blood, and see it to be of infinite dignity. So also with respect to the glorious righteousness of Immanuel. But what a sweetness there is in the expression, "visited us!" What is conveyed by it One idea contained in it is, that it is the act of a friend. If I have a friend, and I visit him, my visit is a mark of my friendship and affection. But another idea connected with the word " visit," is that of unexpectedness. Is it not so sometimes naturally? We have an unexpected visit. We may have been looking for our friend to call; but the time passes away, and no well-known rap is heard at our door. We wonder why our friend delays his coming so long. But perhaps, when we are least expecting it, the form of our friend appears. So spiritually. We may be longing and languishing, hoping, and expecting the visit of the day-spring from on high;" but it does not appear; the Lord delayeth His coming; there is no intimation of His appearing, no putting in of His hand by the hole of the door, no looking in through the lattice, no glimpse nor glance of His lovely countenance, But perhaps, when least expected, and least anticipated; when the mind is so deeply sunk as scarcely to dare to hope, so shut up in unbelief as hardly able to vent forth a sigh, "the dayspring from on high" will visit the soul, and be all the more precious for coming so suddenly and unexpectedly.

III. But this "day-spring from on high" visits the soul to produce certain effects. Two of them are specified in the text. "To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death;" that is one: "to guide our feet in the way of peace;" that is the other.

1. "To give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death." Is this what "the dayspring from on high" visiting us is to do? Must we not then know something of the experience here described to be blest with the visit? But let us look at the words a little more closely. "To such as sit in darkness." What is the darkness here spoken of? Is it merely what I may call moral darkness? Natural darkness? No; it is not the darkness of unregeneracy; it is not the darkness of sin and profanity; nor is it the darkness of a mere empty profession. These things are indeed darkness, gross darkness; but those who are thus blinded by the god of this world never sit experimentally in darkness. They are like the Jews of old, who said, "We see; therefore their sin remaineth." "We dark? we ignorant? we scorn the idea." Such is the language of empty profession. Bat the Lord's own quickened, tender-hearted family often painfully know what it is to sit in darkness. But whence does this darkness arise. Strange to say, it arises from light. Darkness as darkness is never seen. Darkness as darkness is never felt. Light is needed to see darkness; life is required to feel darkness. There are children in Hungary born and bred at the bottom of a mine. Do these children ever know what darkness is, like one who comes down there out of the broad light of day? Were they not told there was a sun above — did not some tidings of the light of day reach their ears, they might live and die ignorant that there was a sun in the heavens. So spiritually. Man, born and bred in the depths of nature's mine, does not know that he is dark; but when Divine light enters into his soul, that discovers to him his darkness; for it is the light which makes manifest all things; as the apostle says, "But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light; for whatsoever doth make manifest is light" (Ephesians 5:13). Thus, it is the light of God's teaching in a man's conscience that makes him know his darkness; and Divine life in his soul makes it felt. But what does darkness imply? The absence of everything that brings light and peace into the heart. But there is one word in the text which conveys to my mind much, that is, "sitting in darkness." They are not represented as standing; that might imply a mere momentary transition from light to darkness. They are not represented as running; that might imply they would soon get out of the darkness. They are not represented as lying down; that might lead to suppose they were satisfied with their darkness. But they are represented as sitting in darkness. Then surely they are not dead. Nor do they sit at ease and at rest; but are in that posture, because they can neither move backward or forward, nor turn either to the right hand or to the left. In ancient medals that were struck when Jerusalem was led captive by the Romans, she is represented as sitting on the ground. The same thing is intimated in Psalm 137:1, 2. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea we wept, when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof." Sitting was with the ancients the posture of mourning. Job "sat down among the ashes;" (Job 2:8); and his friends " sat down with him upon the ground" (verse 13). "Her gates," says Isaiah (Isaiah 3:26), "shall lament and mourn; and she, being desolate, shall sit on the ground." Sitting implies also a continuance in the state; a waiting, a watching, a desiring, a looking out for the light to come. But again. There is another word added, which throws light upon the character of those who are visited from time to time with "the dayspring from on high." They sit not only in darkness, but in the shadow of death. How expressive this word is — "the shadow of death!" There are several ideas, in my mind, connected with the word. We will look, first, at the idea contained in the expression "death." Death with respect to the family of God wears two aspects. There is death experimental in their hearts, that is, deadness in their frames; and there is death temporal — the separation of soul from the body. Each of these kinds of death casts at times a gloomy shadow over the souls of God's people. The word is very expressive. They are not sitting in death: were they sitting there, they would be dead altogether; but they are sitting in the shadow of death. Observe, death has lost its reality to them; it now can only cast a shadow, often a gloomy shadow, over their souls; but there is no substance. The quickening of the Spirit of God in them has destroyed the substance of death spiritually; and the death and resurrection of Jesus has destroyed the substance of death naturally. Yet, though the gloomy monster, deadness of soul, and that ghastly king of terrors, the death of the body, have been disarmed and destroyed by "Immanuel, God with us;" yet each of them casts at times a gloomy, darkling shadow over the souls of those that fear God. Is not your soul, poor child of God, exercised from time to time with this inward death? Deadness in prayer, deadness in reading the word, deadness in hearing the truth, deadness in desires after the Lord, deadness to everything, holy, spiritual, heavenly, and divine? Do you not feel a torpidity, a numbness, a carnality, a worldliness, that seem at times to freeze up every desire of your soul? I do. O how this cold, clammy monster death seems to wrap its benumbing arms around a man's soul! I have read of a voyager, who, whilst looking for shells on a desert rock, was suddenly caught in the arms of a huge polypus, a sea monster. The sickening sensation produced by this cold and clammy monster clasping him with his huge suckers, and drawing him to his jaws to devour him, he describes as being unutterable, and he was only rescued by the captain's coming to his aid with a knife. I may compare, perhaps, our frequent deadness of soul clasping its arms around every desire of our heart, to the clasping of this poor man in the clammy arms of the sea monster. How it benumbs and paralyzes every breathing of our soul Godward! How all prayer, all panting desire, all languishing affection, all spirituality and heavenly-mindedness, all solid worship, all filial confidence, all the fruits and graces of the Spirit are blighted and withered by the deathliness that we so continually feel!

2. But there is another word added, another result of the visiting of "the dayspring from on high" — "to guide our feet into the way of peace." The way of peace? Does not that comprehend all? Do those that fear God want anything but peace? What do we want? The way of war, of enmity, of rebellion, of restlessness? No. We want the way of peace. But what is implied in the expression? Peace implies two things. It implies, first, reconciliation from a state of enmity; and secondly, the felt enjoyment of this reconciliation in the heart. But we want guiding in the way. And when "the dayspring from on high" visits the soul, it guides the feet into the way. There is something very sweet in the expression. It does not drive, does not force, but opens a door, and enables the soul to enter in; discovers the way, and gives the soul faith to walk in it.

(J. C. Philpot.)

God is not only energetic, but tender also in action. He is the God of the dewdrops, as well as the God of the thundershowers; the God of the tender grass blade, as much as of the mountain oak. We read of great machines which are able to crush iron bars, and yet they can touch so gently as not to break the shell of the smallest egg; as it is with them, so it is with the hand of the Most High: He can crush a world, and yet bind up a wound. And great need have we of tenderness in our low estate; a little thing would crush us; we have such bruised and feeble souls, that unless we had One who would deal tenderly with us, we must soon be destroyed. There are many soul diseases to which a tender hand alone can minister; just as there are many states of body which need tender and patient nursing, and which cannot otherwise be successfully dealt with, even by any amount of skill. This tenderness we see continually in action, in woman's ministrations in ordinary life. Her voice has notes more sweet and soft than can be distilled from any instrument of music; her hand has a touch more delicate and fine than ever the breath of any summer's breeze; it is to her that man carries the stories of his sorrows; it is she that has to soothe his heavy, aching head; well as he thinks he can do without her, in the more exciting scenes of life, he finds he is not independent when the time comes for suffering and grief. And what makes woman equal to sustaining the heavy burden thus cast upon her? How comes the ivy to be able to sustain the oak around which it used to cling, ornamenting it, while it owned its lordship and strength I She does all in the power of the tenderness of her nature; rugged and uncouth would life indeed be if such tenderness were withdrawn. But pass away to Divine things — from woman, to Him that was born of woman, and what do we find but tenderness of action in Him? That tenderness which in any of mankind is but a spark from the fire, is perfect in His bosom; its fulness is there; and it is continually being shown to them.

(P. B. Power, M. A.)

A caravan misses its way, and is lost in the desert; the unfortunate pilgrims, overtaken by night, are sitting down in the midst of this fearful darkness, expecting death. All at once a bright star rises in the horizon and lights up the plain: the travellers, taking courage at this sight, arise, and by the light of this star find the road which leads them to the end of their journey.

(F. Godet, D. D.)

It may seem strange that we should call the condition of our race before Christ's appearance night — darkness and shadow of death. But what is the meaning of its being night? It is night where the light is wanting that lightens our way, in whose brightness we are able to distinguish and understand the value of the things around us; that light that shows us where there are ways to walk in, the aims which we should pursue, and the means by which we may attain them. Where there is such certainty of knowledge and work there is day; where that is wanting, the light can only be a dim one; even with open eyes, all knowledge is only fancy, all work only groping in the dark. There no life can bring forth fruit; it may be filled with all kinds of beautiful dreams, but only with dreams; but upon the dream follows an awakening with more bitter pain the more beautiful the dreams were Was it really night upon the earth, before the Saviour came? Yes, we dare not judge otherwise: it was night. Men had indeed attempted to make artificial light, but it did not really illuminate. The focus in which at last all rays must converge, in order to show themselves as truth, was wanting. It was really night — cold, dark, unlovely night.

(R. Rothe, D. D.)

This splendid figure of speech is taken from the dawn of morning on the night. And in order to understand fully the force of the rhetoric, we must bear in mind one of the natural phenomena of those eastern regions. So pure is the atmosphere there, so far south, that clouds in the sky are not usual save in the rainy season. There seems really nothing to hinder the sun's going down, nothing to get in the way of his rising again. When he sets, he goes abruptly behind the adjacent hill; when he rises, he comes up unannounced, and in a quick moment is altogether on hand for his daily work — that is to say, there is positively no twilight, as we describe it, in those latitudes. The instant the day reaches its natural close, the sun appears to slide down the sky without any leave-taking. Just so when the dawn starts. When yesterday's monarch dismisses himself, and it is time for to-day's to succeed him, there he is, unheralded and serenely unhurried, calmly seated in his shining pavilion of clear Mr. Zacharias seizes this astonishing figure, and turns it to account. For four centuries it had been dark — dark with sin, ignorance, oppression — and now in one excited instant of disclosure, the Sun of Righteousness had risen with healing in His wings. No wonder his heart was full; no wonder his dumbness gave way, and his glad voice lifted such a song! Let us keep singing on, and always singing on about the dayspring from on high which has visited us. The light of the gospel is a gleam of the light of heaven. Oh, what will the full splendour of the noon be by and by? When the Gauls had tasted the wine of Italy, they began to ask where the grapes grew, and they would never be quiet till they came there.

(C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

The sun is the fountain of light to this lower world. Day by day it rises on us with its gladdening beams, and with the return of light is connected the sense of reviving power in ourselves; invigorated health and cheerfulness; renewed and willing application to appointed duties. God Himself has made it the ruler over the day. All nature seems to own its influence. The flowers that drooped, or closed their leaves during the night, expand themselves again when the sun arises. The gorgeous colours with which the clouds that were lately dark are now illuminated, bespeak the return of the absent king; and the clouds themselves are scattered at his approach. The loathsome or savage creatures that love darkness now "get them away together, and lay down in their dens. Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening." Christ is to the moral world what the sun is to the natural world; the source of life, and health, and motion. He is the "Sun of Righteousness," because the robe of righteousness in which His people "shine" is the light from Him which they reflect; and on this account His Church is said to be "clothed with the sun." And the inward righteousness also, in which they are created anew after the image of God, is derived from His illuminating presence in their hearts. And He rises on us "with healing in His wings," because He brings with Him, day by day, spiritual health to those who are diseased in soul, comfort to those who mourn, rest to the weary and heavy-laden. The world had long lain in darkness and the shadow of death, waiting with earnest expectation for the first tokens of the "dayspring from on high," even as travellers in a starless night, or as they that watch in loneliness and weariness, wait with eager longing for the burst of morning. At length the Sun of Righteousness arose, when He who was with the Father from all eternity was born at Bethlehem, and took our nature upon Him. And as the light from the morning sun travels with inconceivable speed to the remotest corners of the earth, and penetrates into the darkest recesses, so did the light from the Sun of Righteousness penetrate the dark places of the earth. It scattered the mists of ignorance and sin, and called forth from the garden of God's Church those fruits and flowers which it could never otherwise have borne. Nor is His power to heal and comfort diminished by the lapse of years. As the sun in the heavens has the same quickening and cheering power over the material world, as in the day when God first formed it and set it in the heavens; so have the beams of the Sun of Righteousness the same efficacy to heal the wounded conscience, and to comfort the afflicted soul, as when they first shone upon His humble followers.

(Bishop Trower.)

A band of fugitives were crossing an eastern desert. The night was dark, but they determined to push on. Soon they lost their way, and had to spend the night in anxiety and fear. It seemed as if the night would never pass. But almost all at once the sun arose, bringing daylight and showing the way of safety. Not one of them ever forgot that sun-rising. So to us, in our wanderings, the Dayspring has arisen, pointing out the way of safety. Illustrate by the case of a man in an open boat, or a traveller crossing a moor at night, and uncertain of his way A cloud passes from the sky, and the polestar is seen. Then he knows the way of safety.

(Sunday School Times.)

How pertinent is that question of the Almighty as it breaks from the whirlwind, "Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days, and caused the dayspring to know his place?" He who has adjusted the movements of all the orbs of light, brings the glow of the newborn day to gladden those who wait for the retiring darkness. Christ our dayspring burst upon the world in the prophetic period of the Divine arrangement. Our spiritual sun-rising, so long waited for, came for the banishment of sin, and the introduction of all righteousness. Christ is the only dayspring of light to the darkened soul. The visible creation, conveying by symbols and material manifestations the thoughts of God, can bring to rest to a soul in which there is a constant strife between conscience and passion The political aspects of society will afford little hope; success in measures of reform will seem hardly valuable enough to compensate for their outlay of exertion, science, in all its departments, will appear but as a perplexing maze, till our dayspring, knowing its place in the counsels of Infinite Wisdom is seen above them all, heralding the splendours of redemption. Agnosticism would be the sad inheritance of all, just leading us to know that we could not know; that the secrets of the universe could never be explained; that we, ourselves, were but perplexities and contradictions, if our dayspring, shining above all science, over all human wants and industries, above all human ignorance, will, and pride, could not be seen by faith, verified by fact, and relied upon by experience.

(John Waugh.)

My proclamation certifies to thee, O trembling heart, that this mercy is tender mercy. Thy bones are broken to-night, thy heart is wounded, thy spirits are dried up, and thou art ready to despair; but I tell thee that God has tender mercy for such as thou art. As I sat in the hospital, yesterday, and saw the many cases of maimed limbs and gushing wounds, I could but think how tender the nurses ought to be, and how downy should be the surgeon's finger as he set the broken bone or bound up the sore. Doubtless there are some persons who have iron bands and hard hearts, and so, while they are bone-setting or binding up wounds, they do it roughly, and cause the patient much pain. But, O sinner, therein is the tender mercy of our God set forth, which, like a dayspring from on high, hath visited us; "a bruised reed will He not break, nor quench the smoking flax." He crowneth us with loving-kindnesses, and with tender mercies; He bindeth up the broken in heart, and healeth all their wounds. Like as a mother comforteth her children, even so doth the Lord comfort His people, and like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. My Lord is as gracious in the manner of His mercy as in the matter of it. Glory be to His name! O sinner, come to the gentle Jesus and live.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

We think that all our city folk ought somehow to get every week a few hours in the clear, unmixed sunshine as the Lord pours it out of the heavens. Last Sabbath was a day of unusual duties, and Monday morning, with loud-clamouring work all about us, we said our call this morning is to the fields. We made a bold dash, and at a speed that no one dared halt, we were soon beyond the city limits. As we hastened past, a brother clergyman shouted, "Whither away?" We answered — "In quest of sunshine!" And was there ever a brighter luxury? The cup of the morning had been washed out by a shower; the leaves, autumn-turned, shivered their fiery splendour across the path; the hum of the city became fainter, and we found what we wanted floating on the lake, tangled in the bushes, rippling among the green grass, dripping from the sky — sunshine. Glorious sunshine! With it we filled our eyelids, our mouth, our hands. We opened our entire physical capacity to take it in. We took out our soul and saturated it in the lush light. We absorbed it in all our pores, and rolled it around our nerves; and after we could hold no more inside, lifted our face and held it so aslant that it ran down over us — the sunshine. What do the blind do without seeing it? How can the factory employees get on without feeling it? Let all the ministry on Monday morning be turned out into it. By the following Saturday night it will ripen all the acidity out of the sermons. The world wants more sunshine in its disposition, in its business, in its charities, in its theology. For ten thousand of the aches, and pains, and irritations of men and women, we commend the sunshine. It soothes better than morphine. It stimulates more than champagne. It is the best plaister for a wound. The good Samaritan poured out into the fallen traveller's gash more of this than wine and oil. Florence Nightingale used it on Crimean battle-fields. Take it into all the alleys, on board all the ships, by all the sick-beds. Not a phial full, nor a cup full, nor a decanter full, but a soul full. It is good for spleen, for liver complaint, for neuralgia, for rheumatism, for failing fortunes, for melancholy. We suspect that heaven itself is only more sunshine.

(Dr. Talmage.)

Philosophy, in the night of Paganism, was like the fire-fly of the tropics making itself visible, but not irradiating the darkness. But Christianity, revealing the Sun of Righteousness, sheds more than the full sunlight of those tropics on all that we need to see, whether for time or eternity.

(Coleridge.)

I have read that near the North Pole, the night lasting for months and months, when the people expect the day is about to dawn, some messengers go up on the highest point to watch; and when they see the first streak of day they put on their brightest possible apparel, and embrace each other and cry, " Behold the sun!" and the cry goes through all the land, "Behold the sun!" Some of you have been trudging on in the darkness of sin. It has been a long and wearisome night for your soul; but now I cry, "Behold the Sun of Righteousness rising with healing in His wings!" or, to quote from the chapter that I read at the beginning, "The Dayspring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that are in darkness." Behold the sun! Behold the sun! Would God that every blinded eye might now see it!

(Dr. Talmage.)

A steamboat was once carrying a load of passengers up one of the Western rivers. It was a very dark night. The waters were dark, the soil was black, and not a star was to be seen. The air was full of sleet and mist, and altogether it made a night when "the darkness could be felt." The steamboat had struck a snag, and was leaking very fast and beginning to sink. The captain at once ran her ashore and lashed her to the bank. The plank was thrust out, and everybody was requested to go ashore just as quickly as possible. It was thought that if all could only lighten the boat they might save it, while if all remained on board, all would soon go down together. But it was so dark, the passengers could not see either the plank or the shore. The sleet was falling thick and covering everything with ice. The cold wild waters of the river were rushing past beneath, and not offering a very warm reception to any who might fall over. So the company all stood still, not daring to move. Like Paul, they chose "to stay with the ship." They seemed to feel that it was better to stay and share the fate of the boat than to step off — they knew mot where; "better to endure the ills they had, than to fly to those they knew net of." The captain was as much perplexed as the people. To urge them to hurry off might produce a panic, and make them rush off and push one another into the river. Yet he knew they could not remain long on deck without danger. But he was equal to the emergency. Calling from the upper deck, he told them to be quiet and wait, and he would land them all safe on shore. He then leaped on to the bank with some of his men, and, taking a basket of pitch coal and arranging it in a proper place, he struck a match and lit it. In a few moments it blazed up bright and clear, and, in the words of John Hay.

The whole hillside, and bank, and boat, and river, just glowed in the brightness. It was a wild but beautiful scene — darkness everywhere but just there where they needed light. All excitement and fear ceased, and the people calmly and safely passed one by one over the plank to the solid shore. Never did light seem so grateful and so beautiful as it did shooting up there in that dark place. The expression, "light in a dark place," gained a new meaning to all who felt its blessedness on that dark and perilous night. The Bible speaks of Christ as a "light to them that sit in darkness," and His truth as a "light that shineth in a dark place." There are a great many dark places in our life, but there is no darker place than our sins. Everybody has been troubled about these, and nobody ever knew what to do with them. A great many people don't think anything about them. So those men on that steamboat might have lain down and gone to sleep. They might say, "We cannot see the way off, and we may just as well take our ease." So men often forget their sins and feel easy about them. But whenever they do think of them, they are troubled and don't know what to do with them. They don't know how to get rid of them, and the wisest men have been just as much in the dark as the most ignorant. This has always been a very dark place. The river is very wild, the shore is unseen and the way to it is unknown. A great many people have stood here, like those men on the steamboat, waiting for light and not knowing what to do. Christ lets light shine right on this dark place. He shows how men can get rid of their sins and be forgiven. He shows us the way. He is the way. The river is just as deep, and the shore is just as far off as it was before, but we can see it all, and find our way to where it is safe and solid. When we come to see how fearful it is to be in the dark, and not know what to do, we can then know how beautiful and grateful it is to have a "light shining in a dark place."

(R. Cordley, D. D.)

I. THE ORIGIN OF OUR REDEMPTION — "the tender mercy of our God." But though it be true that all the attributes of God were engaged in planning and in executing the work of our redemption, it must be observed, that the mercy of God appears by far the most conspicuous. What is its nature? Mercy is the pity of the heart; that I believe will be admitted by all to be a fair and correct rendering of the word. Is there not misery enough on the part of man to excite the mercy and compassion of God? We ask, again, to what extent was the mercy of God exercised in the work of human redemption? It extends to the utmost limits of the human family. Mercy then, originated the plan of human salvation. Let us consider —

II. ITS PROGRESS. This plan was not developed all at once; it was communicated under different dispensations and by progressive degrees, as the minds of men were prepared to receive it. The dayspring from on high, the great light, the great luminary of our world, is come. Now, light is remarkable for the power of communication: everything, you know, is tinged and irradiated by the light of the sun. The light which the sun sends forth, as the great medium of light, diffuses itself everywhere; and here we have a fair representation of the power of communication which Jesus Christ possesses, in reference to the knowledge which is essential to the happiness of man; for wherever He is, there is light; wherever His word is, there is truth; and it is said of this word of His, "the entrance of it giveth light." Light, again, is remarkable for the rapidity of its flight. Display but a glimmering taper on the summit of a mountain, and it reaches the eye, placed at any given distance, in a moment. And here we may be reminded of the rapidity of the flight of mercy, to meet the misery of man. And we may be reminded here, too, of another important fact, connected with this part of our subject — the disposition there ever is, on the part of the Saviour, to meet the case of a poor penitent sinner, or an afflicted believer. But again, light is remarkable for its purity and grateful influence. The influence of light is the most agreeable, notwithstanding the velocity with which it moves, to that most delicate of all our organs, the eye. It is a pleasant thing to behold the sun. When this light directed you to the Lamb of God, and when, in the exercise of your faith, you availed yourselves of the benefits resulting from His redeeming acts, how grateful was its influence! It communicated light to your understanding, and peace and joy unspeakable to your hearts. But the text tells us that it came "from on high." Why, then, Jesus Christ Himself must have existed before He came into this world; and if He existed before He came into the world, He must have existed as God Almighty. Now, that this was the case, is very clear, from various parts of Scripture. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made." But, in the text, we read of Him in regard to His human nature. The dayspring from on high assumed the nature of man below, and in that nature became man's suffering substitute. He came from on high — He visited us for this purpose. I stated before, and I must now recur to it, that the light to which our text alludes, was gradual in its communication. There was a ray of it to shine on the patriarchs, a brighter ray still shone on the minds of the prophets; but it was when the types received their accomplishment in the plains of Bethlehem — that the words of this text were literally verified. "The dayspring from on high visited us," coming to this world of ours to diffuse His light and life, and liberty, and salvation, from one end of the earth to another.

III. THE GRAND DESIGN OF THIS AMAZING EVENT — "To give light," says the inspired writer — to whom? "to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." By this darkness we arc to understand the ignorance which is common to man; and, by death, we are to understand that moral death which reigns in the minds and spirits of men, together with that eternal death, to which, as sinners, we are exposed. Now, where a shadow is, the substance cannot be far off. We need not here go into the state of the heathen world, at the time of our Saviour's advent, for it must be generally known to every one now hearing me: it was indeed a state of darkness and death; nor into the state of the Jewish people, for it. too, was a state of ignorance. But, on what subjects does He enlighten men? First of all, touching the being and perfections of God. If you go into the records of the wisest and best of the heathen philosophers, whether of Egypt, Greece, or Rome, you find no clear and distinct revelation existing respecting God. tie came, next, to enlighten men touching their own moral state and condition. Now, that all is not right with man must be obvious. Is man happy? He is not — he is miserable as well as wicked. Well, then, there must be something wrong; something must have happened to our world. Let us, then, thank God that, in the midst of darkness and misery, we have the great light shining upon us, telling us how sin entered our world, the end to which it would lead, and the extent to which it would prevail, if we were not delivered from its power. But He came to give light upon another subject — He came to give the light of salvation. If He had merely discovered to us our disease and left us to perish in it, we should have been the worse, in place of being bettered, by our knowledge. But we come, brethren, to the light; and here we find mercy and truth met together, and righteousness and peace embracing each other — truth inflexible as a rock, and mercy, tender as a parent's tears, yearning over you with infinite compassion. He came to give light upon another subject — namely, the rule of our duty. What, then, must be the rule? Take it, first, in reference to God, it commands us to love Him supremely; take it in reference to man, and it enjoins thus much upon us — "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets." But Christ came to give light on another subject — a future state. But Jesus Christ came to give more than light: He came to give peace — "to guide our feet into the way of peace." I can merely mention particulars here. To procure peace was the grand object of our Saviour's advent. He was to be called "the repairer of the breach — the restorer of the paths to dwell in." And as He came to procure peace, He came also to apply it. You will easily perceive a difference between peace procured and peace applied. He came to give peace — He came also to maintain it in the hearts of His people, causing it to grow and increase more and more, until the subject of it is, at last, brought home to himself to be one with the Lord. Did our salvation, then, originate in the mercy of God? Let us learn from it a lesson of humility. But again, were the developments of this mercy gradual? Did it not all shine out at once? What lesson ought we to derive from this circumstance? Mark this, then; your Christianity ought to be progressive — purer, and having more of principle to-day than yesterday; and more of principle, purity, and disinterestedness to-morrow than to-day. It should be gradual and progressive in its progress, both as to principle and practice. Lastly: Was this light sent for the good of the whole world? Then let us endeavour to diffuse it universally throughout the world.

(W. Toase.)

Aaron, Abia, Abijah, David, Elias, Elijah, Elisabeth, Gabriel, Herod, Jacob, Jesus, John, Joseph, Mary, Theophilus, Zacharias, ZechariahGalilee, Jerusalem, Judea, NazarethAccount, Bowels, Compassion, Dawn, Daybreak, Dayspring, Day-spring, Heaven, Loving, Mercies, Mercy, Rising, Sunrise, Tender, Visit, Visited, Whereby, Wherein1. The preface of Luke to his whole gospel.
5. The conception of John the Baptist;
26. and of Jesus.
39. The prophecy of Elisabeth and of Mary, concerning Jesus.
57. The nativity and circumcision of John.
67. The prophecy of Zachariah, both of Jesus,
76. and of John.

Luke 1:78

     2015   Christ, compassion
     2203   Christ, titles of
     5036   mind, of God
     5946   sensitivity
     5966   tenderness
     6687   mercy, God's

Luke 1:62-80

     5686   fathers, examples

Luke 1:68-79

     7927   hymn

Luke 1:76-79

     5724   offspring

Luke 1:76-80

     5098   John the Baptist

Luke 1:78-79

     4284   sun
     4811   darkness, symbol of sin
     4835   light, spiritual
     4918   dawn
     4954   morning

July 19 Morning
He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.--LUKE 1:49. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?--Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.--Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy.--Hallowed be thy name. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people. Who is this …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

August 3 Morning
His mercy is on them that fear Him.--LUKE 1:50. Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men! Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues. If ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.--The Lord …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

September 9 Morning
He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.--LUKE 1:53. Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods and have need of nothing: and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore and repent. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.--When …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

March 24 Morning
Abraham believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.--GEN. 15:6. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him: but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

True Greatness
He shall be great in the sight of the Lord.'--LUKE i. 15. So spake the angel who foretold the birth of John the Baptist. 'In the sight of the Lord'--then men are not on a dead level in His eyes. Though He is so high and we are so low, the country beneath Him that He looks down upon is not flattened to Him, as it is to us from an elevation, but there are greater and smaller men in His sight, too. No epithet is more misused and misapplied than that of 'a great man.' It is flung about indiscriminately …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Magnificat
'And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47. And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48. For He hath regarded the low estate of His hand-maiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 49. For He that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is His name, 50. And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. 51. He hath shewed strength with His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52. He hath put down …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Elijah Come Again
'There was, in the days of Herod the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth. 6. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. 7. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren; and they both were now well stricken in years. 8. And it came to pass, that, while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Zacharias's Hymn
'And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, 69. And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; 70. As He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began; 71. That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

The Dayspring from on High
'The day-spring from on high hath visited us, 79. To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.'--LUKE i. 78, 79. As the dawn is ushered in by the notes of birds, so the rising of the Sun of Righteousness was heralded by song, Mary and Zacharias brought their praises and welcome to the unborn Christ, the angels hovered with heavenly music over His cradle, and Simeon took the child in his arms and blessed it. The human members of this …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions Of Holy Scripture

Fourteenth Day. The Holy one of God.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.'--Luke i. 35. 'We have believed and know that Thou art the Holy One of God.'--John vi. 69. 'The holy one of the Lord'--only once (Ps. cvi. 16) the expression is found in the Old Testament. It is spoken of Aaron, in whom holiness, as far as it could then be revealed, had found its most complete embodiment. The title waited for its fulfilment in Him who alone, in His own person, could perfectly show forth …
Andrew Murray—Holy in Christ

The Angel's Greeting
THE ANGEL'S GREETING St Luke i. 28.--"Hail, thou that art highly favoured among women, the Lord is with thee." Here there are three things to understand: the first, the modesty of the angel; the second, that he thought himself unworthy to accost the Mother of God; the third, that he not only addressed her, but the great multitude of souls who long after God. I affirm that had the Virgin not first borne God spiritually He would never have been born from her in bodily fashion. A certain woman said …
Johannes Eckhart—Meister Eckhart's Sermons

Jesus Born the Son of God.
(Christmas Sermon.) "Glory to God in" the Highest, on earth peace; goodwill towards men. Amen." TEXT: LUKE i. 31, 32. "Behold, . . . thou shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High." THESE were the words of promise spoken by the angel to Mary, that Ho whom she should bear should be called the Son of the Highest; and as this promise is after wards brought into direct connection with the statement that the power of the Highest …
Friedrich Schleiermacher—Selected Sermons of Schleiermacher

The Key-Note of a Choice Sonnet
But now, having introduced to you her magnificat, we will dwell upon these words, "My soul doth magnify the Lord," and I do earnestly hope that many of us can adopt the language without being guilty of falsehood: we can as truly say as Mary did, "My soul doth magnify the Lord." If there are any of you present to-night who cannot say it, get to your chambers, fall upon your knees, and cry to the Lord to help you to do so; for as long as a man cannot magnify God he is not fit for heaven, where the …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 26: 1880

"The Tender Mercy of Our God"
"His heart is made of tenderness, His bowels melt with love." The main point of this morning's sermon will be to bring out into prominence those few words, "the tender mercy of our God." To me they gleam with kindly light: I see in them a soft radiance, as of those matchless pearls whereof the gates of heaven are made. There is an exceeding melody to my ear as well as to my heart in that word "tender." "Mercy" is music, and "tender mercy" is the most exquisite form of it, especially to a broken heart. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 32: 1886

A Harp of Ten Strings
IT IS VERY CLEAR that Mary was not beginning a new thing; for she speaks in the present tense, and in a tense which seems to have been for a long time present: "My soul doth magnify the Lord." Ever since she had received the wonderful tidings of the choice which God had made of her for her high position, she had begun to magnify the Lord; and when once a soul has a deep sense of God's mercy, and begins magnifying him, there is no end to it. This grows by what it feeds upon: the more you magnify God, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

The Judgment Upon Zacharias
UNBELIEF is everywhere a great sin, and a grievous mistake. Unbelief has proved the ruin of those countless multitudes who, having heard the gospel, rejected it, died in their sins, have been consigned to the place of torment, and await the fiercer judgment of the last day. I might ask the question concerning this innumerable host, "Who slew all these?" The answer would be, "Unbelief." And when unbelief comes into the Christian's heart, as it does at times--for the truest believer has his times of …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 62: 1916

Of Fervent Love and Vehement Desire of Receiving Christ
The Voice of the Disciple With the deepest devotion and fervent love, with all affection and fervour of heart, I long to receive Thee, O Lord, even as many Saints and devout persons have desired Thee in communicating, who were altogether well pleasing to Thee by their sanctity of life, and dwelt in all ardent devotion. O my God, Eternal Love, my whole Good, Happiness without measure, I long to receive Thee with the most vehement desire and becoming reverence which any Saint ever had or could have. …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Prayer and Consecration
"Eudamidas, a citizen of Corinth, died in poverty; but having two wealthy friends, Arctæus and Carixenus, left the following testament: In virtue of my last will, I bequeath to Arctæus my mother and to Carixenus my daughter to be taken home to their houses and supported for the remainder of their lives. This testament occasioned much mirth and laughter. The two legatees were pleased and affectionately executed the will. If heathens trusted each other, why should not I cherish a far greater …
Edward M. Bounds—The Essentials of Prayer

Luke's Preface and Dedication.
^C Luke I. 1-4. [1] ^c 1 Forasmuch as many [of whom we know nothing and have even no tradition] have taken in hand to draw up a narrative concerning those matters which have been fulfilled [completed, or accomplished according to the divine will] among us, 2 even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses [the apostles were necessarily such and there were some few others--Acts i. 21-23] and ministers of the word [the apostles were ministers, and not ecclesiastical …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Annunciation of the Birth of Jesus.
(at Nazareth, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke I. 26-38. ^c 26 Now in the sixth month [this is the passage from which we learn that John was six months older than Jesus] the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth [Luke alone tells us where Mary lived before the birth of Jesus. That Nazareth was an unimportant town is shown by the fact that it is mentioned nowhere in the Old Testament, nor in the Talmud, nor in Josephus, who mentions two hundred four towns and cities of Galilee. The …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Mary, Future Mother of Jesus, visits Elisabeth, Future Mother of John the Baptist.
(in the Hill Country of Judæa, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke I. 39-56. ^c 39 And Mary arose in these days [within a week or two after the angel appeared to her] and went into the hill country [the district of Judah lying south of Jerusalem, of which the city of Hebron was the center] with haste [she fled to those whom God had inspired, so that they could understand her condition and know her innocence--to those who were as Joseph needed to be inspired, that he might understand--Matt. i. 18-25], into a city …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Annunciation to Zacharias of the Birth of John the Baptist.
(at Jerusalem. Probably b.c. 6.) ^C Luke I. 5-25. ^c 5 There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judæa [a Jewish proselyte, an Idumæan or Edomite by birth, founder of the Herodian family, king of Judæa from b.c. 40 to a.d. 4, made such by the Roman Senate on the recommendation of Mark Antony and Octavius Cæsar], a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course [David divided the priests into twenty-four bodies or courses, each course serving in rotation one week in the temple …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Birth and Early Life of John the Baptist.
(Hill Country of Judæa, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke I. 57-80. ^c 57 Now Elisabeth's time was fulfilled that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son. 58 And her neighbors and her kinsfolk heard that the Lord had magnified his mercy towards her [mercy in granting a child; great mercy in granting so illustrious a child] ; and they rejoiced with her. 59 And it came to pass on the eighth day [See Gen. xvii. 12; Lev. xii. 3; Phil. iii. 5. Male children were named at their circumcision, probably …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

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