Men are talking about a Church of the future. They say the old Church is decrepid, her theology is obsolete, she stimulates thought no more. But we know better. The Church of the future is the Church of the past. That Church is ever ancient and ever new. Her truth is not exhausted. Men know not the half nor the hundredth part of her hidden wisdom. O the victory! when men shall understand this—when they shall come confessing to the Holy Church, as the Queen of Saba did to Solomon: "The report is true, which I heard in my own country, concerning thy words and concerning thy wisdom. And I did not believe them that told me, till I came myself and saw with my own eyes, and have found that the half hath not been told me; thy wisdom and thy works exceed the fame which I heard. Blessed are thy men, and blessed are thy servants who stand before thee always, and hear thy wisdom." [Footnote 33]
[Footnote 33: III. Ki. x. 6-8.]
Yes! the history of the Church is not accomplished, her triumphs are not yet all written. Why does she, Advent after Advent, publish again the glowing predictions of the evangelical prophet, but because she knows that they await a still more magnificent fulfilment? Take courage—the cloud that rests on the people shall be lifted off, and the burden taken away. The Ancient Church "shall no more be called forsaken, nor her land desolate." [Footnote 34]
[Footnote 34: Is. lxii. 4.]
"Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Then shalt thou see and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged. And the children of them that afflict thee shall come bowing down to thee, and all that slandered thee shall worship the steps of thy feet, and shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Sion of the Holy One of Israel." [Footnote 35]
[Footnote 35: Isai. lx. 1-14.]
Sermon VI.
The Mission Of St. John the Baptist.
(Second Sunday In Advent.)
"This is he of whom it is written:
Behold I send My messenger before Thy face,
who shall prepare Thy way before Thee."
—St. Matt. xi. 10.