SERMON XIX. ON HUMILITY. MATT. XVIII. 10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. If there be one moral virtue which, in contradistinction to the virtues of the heathen world, can be said to be more strongly characteristic of the spirit of Christianity than others, it is the virtue of humility. The first and damning sin of the angelic race was pride; and that which wrought the fall of angels was equally destructive to man whom it tempted in the early history of the species to transgress the divine commandment, in the fond and vain imagination of acquiring the attributes of God. There may indeed be many vices which wear an uglier aspect and assume a more disgusting appearance than pride, and it is not till we trace it to its consequences, till we observe all the evil passions which it stimulates; all the virtuous dispositions which it destroys; and all the criminality in which it results; that we can be brought to coincide with the scriptural judgment upon it, and to acknowledge it in its proper character as a flagrant wickedness before God and man. There is no passage throughout all the Scriptures in which this word, dear as it is to both the pagan and the modern world, is used in a virtuous sense; and charity must bid us hope that when we do hear enlightened and Christian men apply the term to what is laudable and honest; when we hear them talk of the pride of virtue, the pride of honour, the pride of integrity, and so forth; they intend by their language a very different passion from that, which has been so hostile to heaven, and so baneful to humanity, as to draw down upon the latter the severest condemnation of insulted Omnipotence. The text, which is a verse of the Gospel, I fear, too seldom alluded to, contains an admonition against this vice, and the strongest reason for repressing it. Our Saviour being asked by his disciples, who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven; seeing the operation of this dark principle in the question, illustrated his answer by placing a little child in the midst of them, and telling them, that, unless they were converted and became as little children, they should not even enter the kingdom of heaven. The proper, the necessary qualification for the highest honour to which a mortal can attain, is the innocence, the meekness, the simplicity of a child. It is in this respect that human nature must undergo the most decided change. It must lay aside the ambitious and rebellious thoughts inherent in it, and, imitating the humility of an infant, submit to be taught by the Scriptures the mode of inheriting eternal life. The unconverted have much to lay aside as well as to take up; much to unlearn as well as to acquire; they may be so heavily laden with the cares of this world, they may have so much of its business to transact, and its honors to acquire, that there may be need of their being relieved from some of these things before they can take upon them the burthen of Christ. They may be too deeply initiated in the rudiments of science falsely so called, they may be spoiled by philosophy and vain deceits, and be therefore under the necessity of forgetting and foregoing much that they have learned, before they can submit to the law as a schoolmaster to bring them unto Christ. And perhaps, My Brethren, one of the greatest, and certainly one of the earliest, obstacles which we meet with in the road to grace, is created by the proud and erroneous opinion which we entertain concerning our own capabilities and acquirements. The man of genius, enchanted by the brilliancy of his own conceptions, shedding of belief and penitence, that the condemnation of eternal justice will be withheld; that over all this auditory the clouds of death even now are gathering; that the warner and the warned will soon lie down in undistinguished dust, where all further admonition will be impotent, and where the voice of redeeming benevolence itself will be for ever hushed to the careless ears, that have in this life vainly received his benediction, to go, and sin no more. SERMON XIX. ON HUMILITY. MATT. XVIII. 10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven. If there be one moral virtue which, in contradistinction to the virtues of the heathen world, can be said to be more strongly characteristic of the spirit of Christianity than others, it is the virtue of humility. The first and damning sin of the angelic race was pride; and that which wrought the fall of angels was equally destructive to man whom it tempted in the early history of the species to transgress the divine commandment, in the fond and vain imagination of acquiring the attributes of God. There may indeed be many vices which wear an uglier aspect and assume a more disgusting appearance than pride, and it is not till we trace it to its consequences, till we observe all the evil passions which it stimulates; all the virtuous |