PARISH SERMONS FOR THE Advent and Christmas Seasons. BY THE REV. J. R. WEST, M.A., VICAR OF WRAWBY. LONDON: J. MASTERS AND CO., 78, NEW BOND STREET. PREFACE. THE all-absorbing subject for our thoughts during the Advent Season must be, of necessity, the First Coming of GOD in the Flesh. Thoughts of the Second Advent of the LORD from Heaven will come in only incidentally, as they may be suggested to us by the humility of His first Appearance. Some indeed have been accustomed to begin the Christian year with four weeks' consideration of our LORD'S Second Advent. But this is evidently a mistake; this is void of all propriety of arrangement; this is to invert the Order of our Sacred Year; this is to miss the very design for which the Advent Season is appointed. Bishop Sparrow in his "Rationale of the |