Transcribed by David Price email ccx074coventryacukSERMONS ON NATIONAL SUBJECTSITHE KING OF THE EARTHFIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENTPreached in 1849Behold thy King cometh unto theeMATTHEW xxi 4This Sunday is the first of the four Sundays in Advent  During thosefour Sundays our forefathers have advised us to think seriously ofthe coming of our Lord Jesus Christnot that we should neglect tothink of it at all times  As some of you know I have preached toyou about it often lately  Perhaps before the end of Advent you willall of you more or less understand what all that I have said aboutthe cholera and public distress and the sins of this nation andthe sins of the labouring people has to do with the coming of ourLord Jesus Christ  But I intend especially in my next four sermonsto speak my whole mind to you about this matter as far as God hasshown it to me taking the Collect Epistle and Gospels for eachSunday in Advent and explaining them  I am sure I cannot do betterfor the more I see of those Collects Epistles and Gospels and theway in which they are arranged the more I am astonished anddelighted at the wisdom with which they are chosen the wise order inwhich they follow each other and fit into each other  It is veryfit too that we should think of our Lords coming at this season ofthe year above all others because it is the hardest seasontheseason of most want and misery and discontent when wages are lowand work is scarce and fuel is dear and frosts are bitter andfarmers and tradesmen and gentlemen too are at their wits end tosquare their accounts and pay their way  Then is the time that theevils of society come home to usthat our sins and our sorrowswhich after all are the punishment of our sins stare us in theface  Then is the time if ever for mens hearts to cry out for aSaviour who will deliver them out of their miseries and their sinsfor a Heavenly King who will rule them in righteousness and dojustice and judgment on the earth and see that those who are in needand necessity have right for a Heavenly Counsellor who will guidethem into all truthwho will teach them what they are and whitherthey are going and what the Lord requires of them  I say the harddays of winter are a fit time to turn mens hearts to Christ theirKingthe fittest of all times for a clergyman to get up in hispulpit as I do now and tell his people as I tell you that JesusChrist your King has not forgotten youthat He is coming speedily tojudge the world and execute justice and judgment for the meek of theearthNow do not be in a hurry and fancy from what I have just said thatI am one of those who think the end of the world is at hand  It maybe for aught I know  Of that day and that hour knoweth no man noteven the angels of God nor the Son but the Father only  If youwish for my own opinion I believe that what people commonly call theend of the world that is the end of the earth and of mankind on itis not at hand at all  As far as I can judge from Scripture andfrom the history of all nations the earth is yet young and mankindin its infancy  Five thousand years hence our descendants may belooking back on us as foolish barbarians in comparison with whatthey know  just as we look back upon the ignorance of people athousand years ago  And yet I believe that the end of this world inthe real Scripture sense of the word world is coming very quicklyand very trulyThe end of this system of society of these presentways in religion and moneymaking and conducting ourselves in allthe affairs of life which we English people have got into nowadaysThe end of it is coming  It cannot last much longer for it isdestroying itself  It will not last much longer for Christ and notthe devil is the King of the earth  As St Paul said to his peopleso say I to you The night is far spent the day is at handThese may seem strange words but almost every one is saying them inhis own way  One large party among religious people in these days iscomplaining that Christ has left His Church and that the cause ofChristianity will be ruined and lost unless some great change takesplace  Another large party of religious people say that theprophecies are on the point of being all fulfilled that the 1260days spoken of by the prophet Daniel are just coining to an endand that Christ is coming with His saints to reign openly upon earthfor a thousand years  The wisest philosophers and historians of lateyears have been all foretelling a great and tremendous change inEngland and throughout all Europe and in the meantimemanufacturers and landlords tradesmen and farmers artisans andlabourers all say that there MUST be a change and will be a changeI believe they are all right every one of them  They put it intheir words I think it better to put it in the Scripture words andsay boldly Jesus Christ the King of the earth is comingBut you will ask What right have you to stand up and say anythingso surprising  My friends the world is full of surprising thingsand this age above all ages  It was not sixty years ago that anobleman was laughed at in the House of Lords for saying that hebelieved that we should one day see ships go by steam and now thereare steamers on every sea and ocean in the world  Who expectedtwenty years ago to see the whole face of England covered with thesewonderful railroads  Who expected on the 22nd of February last yearthat within a single