in this he imitated the preaching and example of his Master. Our Saviour, as has been well remarked, who estimated virtues by their solid utility, and not by their fashion or popularity, prefers the forgiveness of injury to every other. He enjoins it oftener; with more earnestness; under a greater variety of forms; and with this weighty and peculiar circumstance, that the forgiveness of others is the condition on which we are to ask from God forgiveness for ourselves. Of him who hopes to be forgiven, it is indispensably required that he should forgive. Can it then be possible that any human being should be found, who remembers how much he has to be forgiven, and who yet has no charity, no pity, no forgiveness, for his offending fellow-sinner! Can we remember how many offences God has endured from us without blotting us from the earth; that He has endured our insensibility, our ingratitude, our numberless sins; and yet cannot we endure the slightest injury from our neighbour, but we must burn with anger and revenge, and perhaps think it necessary to wipe out the offence in his blood! My friends, let us pray God to forgive us, if we have ever felt this spirit. Let us, as we value his favour, extinguish our unholy animosities, and learn charity for each other's failings. Let us seek to love one another as Christ loved us; that we may not be wholly unworthy to be admitted at last to those blissful mansions, where peace and love abide eternally.

SERMON IX.

HUMILITY.

PROVERBS, Xv. 33.

Before honour is humility.

ALTHOUGH it has undoubtedly been the effect of the diffusion of christianity, to refine and elevate the standard of morals throughout the world, it is still not to be denied, that the christian estimates many characters and events very differently from the man of the world. Some of the virtues, which christianity esteems of the highest value, and to which she promises her richest rewards, are unhonoured if not despised by the world; and in return, many of those qualities which the world considers of the highest dignity, christianity pronounces to be among the most dangerous and detestable vices. The world, for example, binds its wreath of glory around the brow of the sanguinary conqueror of empires; but christianity looks down on his triumphs with horror and disdain; and reserves her brightest laurel for the lowly, unassuming conquer

or of himself. The world gives its admiration to the successful cultivator of science, even though he may be destitute of some of the fairest of the virtues; but christianity gives him none of her respect, however rich may be his powers, and however illuminated his understanding, if he have neglected to cultivate that knowledge which she values above all others, the knowledge of God and of his own heart. In the estimation of the world, wealth is allowed to compensate for the absence of almost every amiable quality; but christianity regards affluence, unsanctified by goodness, with abhorrence, and pronounces the poorest being that walks the earth, blessed and honourable, if his heart be rich in piety and virtue. The world praises him as a man of spirit and of honour, who bears no injury without instant and ample revenge; but christianity crowns him with her highest honours, who can pity and forgive, and do good to his most deadly foe. The world, in fine, gives its homage to the splendid exterior of pride and vain-glory; but christianity approves and acknowledges the man of sincere humility alone. "Whosoever exalteth himself," saith Jesus, "shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

There is no subject on which the christian, and the man of the world, are more completely at issue than on this. Our Saviour, by all his words and actions, raises the virtue of humility to a rank which no teacher of morals ever before

gave it. The man of the world esteems it a mean and poor-spirited quality; at best, only the virtue of feeble minds.

Let us consider, my brethren, the reasons why so much importance is given to humility in the christian system, and see, whether instead of being, as the world regards it, unworthy of a noble and generous mind, it may not be shown to be in its origin among the most exalted, and in its nature among the most indispensable of all the virtues.

The reason why the true dignity of the christian grace of humility is not universally acknowledged, is, that men do not attend to its origin. Humility supposes an act of comparison, and does, I admit, imply a sense of inferiority and unworthiness. But how broad and evident is the distinction between this quality, and every thing like meanness and abjectness of mind. A man is not humble because he submits patiently to disgrace, which he has not dignity enough to avoid, nor spirit enough to resent. He is not humble because all his desires, when compared with those of his fellow-men, are grovelling and low, and all his powers narrow and debased. The very reverse of this is true. A christian is made humble, not so much by comparing himself with others, as by comparing himself with his duty; not by thinking of what he is, but of what he ought to be; not by considering whether he is little or great, when compared with others, but remembering that he is nothing, when compared with

perfect excellence. A christian, then, is humbler than another man, not because his views are meanspirited and low, but because he measures himself by a high standard; because his ideas of excellence are lofty and distinct; because his conceptions of duty are noble and exalted; because, in fine, he measures himself, not so much with the frail beings around him, as with that image of perfection, which his spotless Master has left for his imitation.

But

True it is, that a man of genuine humility often makes a lowly contrast of himself with his fellowmen, and esteems others better than himself. this is rather the effect of his humility, than the original cause, and arises also from the superiority of his views. It is because he knows himself better than he can know any other man; because he is so deeply impressed with his own unworthiness; because he values so little all that he has already attained, compared with that after which he aspires; because he is willing to believe the hearts of others purer, and their views of religion more sublime, than his own. His humility however does not blind him to his real character, and still less does it lead him to an affected ignorance of what every one else perceives. He is not insensible of the real elevation which his talents or virtues may give him; but this conviction of superiority is only the calm inference of his understanding, and not, like vanity or pride, a busy importunate passion of the heart.