True Words for Brave Men | Page 4

promises which God made, ages since, to the men of Judea of old; promises which are all true still, and will continue true, in every country of the world, till the world's end.
"Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good; dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
The Lord knoweth the doings of the righteous; and their inheritance shall endure for ever.
They shall not be confounded in the perilous time; and in the days of dearth they shall have enough.
The Lord ordereth a good man's going; and maketh his way acceptable to himself.
Though he fall, he shall not be cast down; for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
I have been young, and now I am old; yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread.
Flee from evil, and do the thing that is good; and dwell for evermore.
For the Lord loveth the thing that is right; He forsaketh not his that are godly, but they are preserved for ever." Amen.

II. CHRIST IS COME. A CHRISTMAS SERMON.
"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever."--ISAIAH ix. 6, 7.
It is now more than three thousand years ago that God made to Abraham the promise, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Again the promise was renewed to Moses when he was commanded to tell the Jews, "a prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, like unto me. Hear ye him . . ." In David's Psalms, again, this same strange person was spoken of who was already, and yet who was to come. David calls him the Son of God, the King of kings. Again, in the Prophets, in many strange and mysterious words, is this same being spoken of as a virgin's child--"Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, God with us;" and again, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God--the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." And again, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,--the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And with righteousness shall He judge the poor," &c.
And again, "Thou Bethlehem, though thou be little among the princes of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth He that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from everlasting. And He shall be great unto the ends of the earth."
But time would fail me if I tried to repeat to you half the passages wherein the old Jewish prophets foretold Him who was to come, and in whom all the nations of the earth should be blessed, more and more clearly as the time drew nigh.
Well, my friends, surely you know of whom I have been speaking--of whom Moses and the prophets spoke--of Him who was born of a village maiden, laid in a manger, proclaimed of angels to the shepherds, worshipped with hymns of glory by the heavenly host on the first Christmas day eighteen hundred and seventy-eight years ago, as we count time. Aye, strange as it may seem, He is come, and in Him all the nations of the earth are blessed. He is come--the Conqueror of Evil--the desire of all nations--the Law-giver--the Lamb which was to suffer for our sins--the King of kings--the Light which should lighten the heathen--the Virgin's child, of wondrous wisdom, whose name should be God as well as man--whom all the heathens, amid strange darkness and mad confusions, had still been fearing and looking for.
He is come--He came on that first Christmas-tide. And we here on each Christmas-tide can thank God for His coming, and say before men and angels, "Unto us a child is born--the Prince of Peace is ours--to His kingdom we belong--He has borne about on Him a man's body, a man's soul and spirit--He was born like us--like us He grew--like us He rejoiced and sorrowed--tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin--able to the uttermost to understand and help all who come to God by Him. He has bruised the serpent's head--He has delivered