reason; it sees nothing with the eyes of faith. Even in its attempts to unravel the inscrutable designs of Providence, reason is the criterion by which it judges,

This is the wisdom of the world. The wisdom of God is entirely opposite. In this mystery, in particular, the folly of such calculations as these is made clearly manifest.-The peverty and humiliation of a God-man loudly proclaim that the creature cannot seek to be exalted, but in defiance of the laws of strict justice; and that the greatness, which alone is worthy of his ambition, is to be attained, not by riches and honours, but by walking in the lowly paths which were trodden by his Divine Master: secondly, the voluntary subjection of the Son of God to privations and sufferings, informs us that the sinner has forfeited his right to the enjoyment of worldly pleasures and thirdly, the incomprehensi

bility of this mystery proves, beyond the possibility of doubt, that the mysteries of revelation far surpass the powers of human reason, and consequently, that they are not to be submitted to its investigation. These three points shall form the subject of this discourse.

1. In order to place before your eyes in a proper light the important instructions which may be deduced from this adorable mystery, it will be necessary to describe the principal characteristics of human pride, and their opposition to the humiliation of the Son of God in his union with our nature.

Pride, in the first place, claims an imaginary merit from the possession of wealth, honour, and reputation; and to these it declares that homage is due without any reference either to the virtues or vices of the possessor.

The circumstances which attend the Incarnation of the Eternal Word,

prove, on the other hand, that the glory of the world is vain, and that the grace and friendship of God is the only source from which real honour can be derived.Who would not have supposed but that a mystery, the figures of which had been so splendid, the preparations so grand, and the promises. so magnificent, would have been accomplished in the fulness of time, with every demonstration that could add lustre to the event? and that, when the God of heaven vouchsafed to visit his creatures, he would have appeared surrounded with glory and majesty, which would have ensured to him the homage and submission of the whole universe?-But the designs which the wisdom of God had in view were to be effected by other means. This, the greatest mystery of the Deity, is performed in the greatest obscurity. The chaste Virgin, who is preferred before all others, and in whose womb is

wrought the ineffable secret of the humiliation of a God, is distinguished from the rest of her tribe by her innocence and purity alone. The splendor of her descent from the royal stock of David is veiled in poverty. The heavens are not opened with that awful solemnity, as they formerly were on a less solemn occasion, when the glory of the Lord descended on Mount Sinai the angels are not commissioned to announce his arrival by the sound of trumpets and thunders: the mountains do not re-echo the canticles of the heavenly choirs the clouds hold their accustomed majestic course, and are not suffered to stoop to rain down the Just One. A single messenger from heaven, invisible to the rest of mankind, appears under a human form to Mary in the silence of retirement, and in one of the remotest corners of Judea. Even Joseph himself is not acquainted with the heavenly embassy.

In all the painful mysteries of our redemption, the humiliations of the Son of God are attended with the greatest publicity; in this, all is performed in obscurity because it was the design of Eternal Wisdom to correct the false opinions of mankind, and to substitute the virtues of faith in the place of the former illusions of human wisdom.

It had hitherto been the received opinion, that temporal prosperity was an indubitable testimony of the favours of heaven, that a great name was a real blessing, and that splendid talents were invariably the gift of a propitious Deity. But in this mystery the wisdom of God discloses to us another order of things, other blessings, other honours, other distinctive marks of glory. It informs us that innocence and virtue are the only riches of man : that the merit of the faithful soul is centered in the heart: that the lowest degree of charity exalts the Christian.