SERMON IV. FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT.
On the love of Jesus Christ for us, and on our obligations to love him.
"And all flesh shall see the salvation of God." Luke iii. 6.
The Saviour of the world, whom, according to the prediction of the prophet Isaias, men were one day to see on this Earth " and all flesh shall see the salvation of God," has already come. "We have not only seen him conversing among men, but we have also seen him suffering and dying for the love of us. Let us, then, this morning consider the love which we owe to Jesus Christ at least through gratitude for the love which he bears to us. In the first point we shall consider the greatness of the love which Jesus Christ has shown to us ; and in the second we shall see the greatness of our obligations to love him.
First Point. On the great love which Jesus Christ has shown to us.
1. " Christ," says St. Augustine, " came on Earth that men might know how much God loves them." He has come, and to show the immense love which this God bears us, he has given himself entirely to us, by abandoning himself to all the pains of this life, and afterwards to the scourges, to the thorns, and to all the sorrows and insults which he suffered in his passion, and by offering himself to die, abandoned by all, on the infamous tree of the cross. " Who loved me, and delivered himself for me." (Gal. ii. 20.)
2. Jesus Christ could save us without dying on the cross, and without suffering. One drop of his blood would be sufficient for our redemption. Even a prayer offered to his Eternal Father would be sufficient ; be cause, on account of his divinity, his prayer would be of infinite value, and would therefore be sufficient for the salvation of the world, and of a thousand worlds. "But," says St. Chrysostom, or another ancient author,
