ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart." See, my brethren, how, by the lowly station which the Redeemer of the world chose, and by His precepts, the lofty looks of redeemed man are humbled, and his haughtiness is bowed down. Man is by nature lost in sin and misery. Christ comes into the world his Saviour from sin, and the healer of his misery, but He comes in great humility, as the despised and rejected of men. Who, then, among believers in Jesus would be saved? Who would escape everlasting misery, and enjoy everlasting happiness? He must bow his neck; he must take a yoke; he must bend his proud spirit; he must become a learner; meekly must he learn, as a little child; meekness he must learn of Him who is meek. The proud, and the great, and the rich, and the honourable, the learned, and the intellectual, each must humble himself before Him who was poor and despised, and weak in the flesh, and humble in heart, and lowly-minded.*

Humility, then, is the badge of our citizenship, and the condition of our salvation. It was taught us by our Saviour when He was upon earth, both by precept and example; and He has left us abundant opportunities of exercising it. The poor and the lowly, the sick and afflicted, the patient and despised, are His representatives; and by reverencing their sorrows, their meekness, their patience; by humbling ourselves in our own eyes when we see in them "the * St. Matt. v. 3, 4, 5, 11; xviii. 2, 3; xi. 29, 30. Vide Ps. cxxxi. 1, 2.

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marks of the Lord Jesus," we are exercising the grace of humility which Christ has taught us. sure, my brethren, it is not enough that any of us who are honourable in the world, respected for station, or for intellectual culture, or for wealth, should humble ourselves before Him who was despised and rejected of men, but at the same time the mighty God, the Ruler and the Judge of men: to humble ourselves before our Saviour and Judge, this is not enough, unless we also reverence the poor and needy, and despise ourselves in comparison of those holy ones of Christ whom the world, from the accident, so to speak, of their station, despises; unless we really in some true sense take the lowest place till Christ shall call us higher.

Would we then, my brethren, be saved by the lowly Jesus? We must humble ourselves: first, we must kneel humbly before Him who, by humbling Himself to death, even the death of the cross, rescued us from sin and its miserable consequences; beg pardon humbly of Him; meekly beseech the aid of His grace; and humbly obey His holy rules; and next, we must think meanly of ourselves compared with others; bear to be reproved; bear to be slighted; let others take the lead of us, be esteemed above us, or attract the notice which we think our due; condescend to men of low estate, or of mean abilities; care for the poor, converse with them, minister to them for Christ's sake, and think ourselves honoured in being permitted to do so.

What room is left here, my brethren, for lofty looks or haughtiness of spirit? If we look proudly on

those who seem to be too familiar, or if we hold ourselves high and keep apart from our humble brethren; or if we are offended with those who reprove us for our faults; or if we treat coldly those who seem to have supplanted us, then we lose our salvation—we are cast out of the kingdom-we fall away from Christ, who is no longer to us, abiding wilfully in such a state, our Saviour, but our Judge.

Now it is the glory of true Christian humility that it is a free-will offering. We bow our necks freely to the yoke; this is our happiness. We glory in our bonds. We exalt the cross that we may humble ourselves before it. "If I must needs glory," says St. Paul, "I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities;" and again, "Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake for when I am weak, then am I strong.' Nor was St. Paul singular in his delight in selfhumiliation. We find that throughout the Church's history, the holiest saints have ever thus taken pleasure in humiliations; humbling themselves, in what the world would call abject submission, before the Lamb, anticipating, as it were, the glorious vision of the Apocalypse; and delighting to honour the lowliest and most despised of the members of Christ on earth. Thus, then, for our great happiness may the prophecy of the text be fulfilled in us, my brethren, if we will submit ourselves freely and willingly to the Lord 52 Cor. xi. 30; xii. 9, 10.

Jesus, honouring Him cheerfully in His own person, and in His representatives.

But should any refuse by willing submission so to learn humility that it may work their happiness and final glory, there remains for them a more awful fulfilment of the prophecy. For, before our exalted Saviour, "the lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,” whether they will or not.

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We read in the parable of the nobleman who went into a far country, that those wicked men who hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us," were miserably slain when their Lord returned. So in the last day, the wilful and the proud, and the unbelieving and the hardhearted; those who like the Jews reject Christ, or like the Pharisees deride Him, or like Judas sell Him, or like Demas forsake Him, or like Simon Magus turn His gifts into self-aggrandizement, or like Ananias withhold what is dedicated to Him; these in the last day "shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of His Majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth."" Then their humiliation shall be consummated; but in the meantime the terms of the prophecy have from the very time of Christ's first coming been receiving a partial fulfilment, of which we may here observe a few tokens.

When Christ, as a poor Man, surrounded by His chosen disciples, fishermen, and others of similar rank, went from place to place in Judea or Galilee, St. Luke, xix. 12, &c. Isaiah, ii. 19.

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and drew around Him the sick, and the needy, and the ignorant, and the unhappy, He gained the attention and incurred the opposition and enmity of the great men of His nation, who disbelieved or explained away His miracles, despised His doctrines, and thought it would be easy for them with their hardearned wisdom to silence Him who had, as they supposed, "never learnt." Accordingly they sought to entangle Him in His talk, and asked Him subtle questions tempting Him, and sought of Him signs from heaven. But always with a few simple words, He who was meek and lowly vindicated the truth, and put them to shame, so that they frequently could not answer Him a word, neither durst any man after awhile ask Him any more questions. Thus the pride of knowledge, and the pride of anger, and hatred, and scorn, fell before His calm and gentle words, in which was a hidden force that all His adversaries could neither gainsay nor resist.

And to those who went forth afterwards in His name He gave like power, though in a different measure for ever in the Church the calm words of the lovers of truth, of those who were seeking when they spoke no selfish end, have had a secret power which worldly men cannot understand. Thus not only have hard hearts been softened and humbled, and perverse wills been bent and changed by the preaching of the Gospel, but the sneers and objections and revilings of the unbelieving world against the Gospel, have been in great part silenced. Martyrs have tamed their persecutors, confessors have shamed their tormentors, the adversaries have been