Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the Sunday before Christmas Day, and we are in the fullness of the Advent season, when our thoughts turn to the first coming of our Lord as a babe in a manger. We are also called in this season to anticipate and think on his Second Coming in glory and judgment, when he will set his Kingdom in order on earth. This is the gist of the opening prayer in the call to worship this day - a prayer Robert E. Lee prayed year by year.

Paul's letter to the Philippians is appointed for this Sunday. He called for rejoicing and wrote, " Let your moderation be known unto all men." Moderation, or temperance, is one of the four cardinal virtues, along with prudence, justice and fortitude [Wisdom of Solomon 8:7, KJV]

I feel certain that Lee took this verse to heart. He wrote concerning one of his admitted weaknesses, "I like whiskey. I always did, and that is why I never drink." On another occasion he wrote, "I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself." Finally, he wrote, “My experience through life has convinced me that, while moderation and temperance in all things are commendable and beneficial, abstinence from spirituous liquors is the best safeguard of morals and health.”

His moderation, his code, was known by his men, and because of his great personal attributes of moderation, his gentile manner, and other like characteristics, his officers and men held him in the highest personal esteem.

Paul encourages his readers to stand firm in their faith, to rejoice in the Lord, and to be prepared. He wrote, "The Lord is at hand". Paul, and the Church at that time expected the imminent Second Coming in their generation. We know not when the Lord shall return. We accept our Lord's admonitions to be ready like the five wise virgins who had their lamps full [Matt 25], and to be found like the laborers who were are work when the Lord returned [Luke 12:37]. We ought to always seek a knowledge of ourselves. We need to know those things that hinder us and reform them, and to exercise always the moderation encouraged by Paul and practiced by Lee.

In contemplating these weighty matters, I encourage the reader to join in this prayer which was read immediately after the opening prayer on every Fourth Sunday in Advent. Consider personally how you may be better prepared for our Lord's coming through the practice of moderation, so that it is known to all men, and by being "careful for nothing" in the exercise of those things in which the Lord has clearly called us in Scripture.

Let us pray,

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

Finally, as Paul wrote, the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

I pray your Christmas shall be blessed.

semper vigilante