Parochial Author:John Henry Newman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SERMON V. EQUANIMITY. (christmas.) Phil. iv. 4. " Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, Rejoice." TN other parts of Scripture the pr... more »ospect of Christ's coming is made a reason for solemn fear and awe, and a call for watching and prayer, but in the verses connected with the text a distinct view of tlre Christian character is set before us, and distinct duties urged on us. " The Lord is at hand," and what then ? -- why, if so, we must " rejoice in the Lord; " we must be conspicuous for " moderation ; " we must be " careful for nothing;" we must seek from God's bounty, and not from man, whatever we need; we must abound in " thanksgiving;" and we must cherish, or rather we must pray for, and we shall receive from above, " the peace of God which passeth all understanding," to " keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Now this is a view of the Christian character definite and complete enough to admit of commenting on, -- andit may be useful to show that the thought of Christ's coming not only leads to fear, but to a calm and cheerful frame of mind. Nothing perhaps is more remarkable than that an Apostle, -- a man of toil and blood, a man combating with powers unseen, and a spectacle for men and Angels, and much more that St. Paul, a man whose natural temper was so zealous, so severe, and so vehement, -- I say, nothing is more striking and signi ficant than that St. Paul should have given us this view of what a Christian should be. It would be nothing wonderful, it is nothing wonderful, that writers in a day like this should speak of peace, quiet, sobriety, and cheerfulness, as being the tone of mind that becomes a Christian ; but considering that St. Paul was by birth a Jew, and by education a Pharisee, that he wrote at a time when, if at any t...« less