The sermon I have selected is that for the First Sunday in Advent, with which the Feast of St. Andrew coincided. The lessons from each holiday are very happily blended.
Maximilian Deza takes two texts, the first from the twenty-first chapter of St. Luke, Then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory; and the second from the Office for St. Andrew’s Day, “Blessed Andrew prayed, saying, Hail, good Cross! may He receive me by thee, Who by thee redeemed me.”
Introduction.
On this coincidence of holidays two points of consideration are presented to us; the Cross the sign of terror and destruction to the guilty, and the Cross the sign of joy and salvation to the just.
I. The love of the Cross is the characteristic of the elect; whilst the hatred of the Cross is the sign of the reprobate.
α. The Lord knoweth those that are His—by their love of His Cross of suffering. If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
β. But the wicked are called the enemies of the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruction.
The day will come, the great and terrible day of the Lord, when He will call the heavens from above, and the earth, that He may judge His people; when the Cross, the sign of the Son of Man, will appear in the clouds of Heaven.
II. Then God will judge the world with fire, and the Cross alone will be the standard by which all will be tried.