And now you have an expedition to make; a sort of Polar expedition to the unvisited wilds at the north end of the altar. Nothing is ever said or done there, except for the reading out of the words of life, extracts from those precious fragments which tell us what happened when God came to earth. Accordingly, we brace ourselves for this unaccustomed journey by a special dedication of our lips, those unclean lips of ours which are responsible, all day long, for so much gossip, uncharity, unkindness, grousing, flattery, boasting, and perhaps even profanity; they need a kind of salve before we take the words of life on them. And not only our lips, you will notice, but our hearts.