The fair proportions of their pillared height: O tossed with tempests and not comforted! C. As one gets further on in life it grows in some ways easier. Tribulation worketh experience, and experience, hope;' and this last hope is the happiest. It is of a very different kind from those with which we began life; it comes most fully into our hearts when we look beyond this world, where one has already learnt that most of our other expectations are kindly and wisely disappointed! TWENTY-SIXTH DAY. The Burthen of Self. THEN spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. St. Matt. xxiii. 1-12. And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. St. Luke xvi. 15. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. And they brought unto him also infants, that he would touch them but when his disciples saw it, they rebuked" them. But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein. St. Luke xviii. 9-17. For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. St. John xii. 43. Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than them selves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Phil. ii. 3-8. BISHOP WILBERFORCE. HOW can ye believe, which receive honour one from another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?' In these words our Lord gives the reason for the unbelief of the Jews. 'Whom' the Father hath sent, Him ye believe not,' is the fearful charge which He brings against them, and it is followed by the declaration, 'Ye will not come to me that ye might have life; I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not;' and then follows the statement of the hidden reason of this terrible wilfulness. There was a deep moral incapacity in themselves which made His words powerless and His works unconvincing to them, 'How can ye believe which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh of God only?' Here then surely is a caution of the profoundest significance. . . . That which made belief impossible in them must equally make it impos sible in us. If, with this habit of mind, they could not believe, neither can we believe if it possesses us. Surely, then, we should examine carefully whether it exists in us, and is hindering our believing in Him. In a very few touches He shows us the real character of this evil. Its essence is the allowing man's estimate to become the measure of what is to be honoured; . . . its effect is to promote self-exaltation, by leading each man to try himself by the measure of those around him, and not by the measure of God. For this measuring himself by the measure of God, is for every man the very root of true humility. It is only when we are alone with Him, when we are in the great calm of His presence, and in the searching light and truth of His holiness, that we can see ourselves as we are. Whenever, therefore, men try themselves by lower measures, self becomes great in every heart, and that humility which alone can receive the gospel of Christ becomes impossible. Hence, in whatever degree it acts, this spirit tends in every man to all littleness and failure, whilst the assaults of the temptation are so various, according to our different natural characters, that without the most careful self-examination, we may be altogether its victims, and yet never be conscious of its presence with us. A man may be, even in some true sense, indeed humbled before God; he may be neither a proud, a self-conceited, nor a vain man, and yet he may know well, in his own bitter experience, how, in the still remaining form of a harassing self-consciousness, this evil struggles within him. T |