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are possible. To Him then let us first and continually apply for aid, and beseech Him daily to beat down in us the power of pride, and to clothe us with humility; to implant "that mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus;" and to teach us so to "learn of Him," who is "meek and lowly of heart," that we may "find rest unto our souls."

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Secondly, we should accustom ourselves to meditate on our own sinfulness and vileMuch of the influence of vanity and pride may be attributed to neglect of selfconsideration. We look on the faults of others, and on our own good deeds, and thus become uncharitable at once and proud. We should, on the contrary, judge others in a spirit of love, conceal all things, believe all things, hope. all things. In ourselves we should probe the evil to the bottom, endeavour to gain a true knowledge of ourselves, and of our real weakness, worthlessness, and guilt. Oh, if we could see our hearts as they must appear to God, surely

vanity would be impossible, and our only attitude, humiliation and shame!

We should meditate also on our distance from God, till we learn to know our own littleness. He in heaven, we on earth; He infinite, we minutest atoms in a universe itself minute to him; He eternal, we the creatures of a day; He all mighty, we weak and helpless; He inexpressibly and inconceivably holy, we sinful by birth, by will, by practice. Thus may our swelling thoughts be taught to shrink within the limits of our own insignificance, and our vanity be checked by the question of the son of Sirach, "Why is earth and ashes proud ?"1

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But, above all, we should meditate much and often on the humility of our Divine Redeemer. God made man for us; the Lord of glory born in a stable and cradled in a manger; the Creator of the world, mocked, scourged, crucified by His creatures :— surely pride should be impossible to those

1 Eccles. x. 9.

who contemplate such truths as these. And as man, His whole life is a lesson of true humility to be studied by us, admired and imitated; that in this, as in all the other lovely features of His character, "with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we may be changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”1

And lastly, we must be strictly watchful over ourselves to detect the secret foe, and to check the rising thought of vanity at once. We must shun, as much as may be consistently with duty, the scenes and employments which experience teaches us are most apt to foster pride. The world has many such, which it calls innocent. We must take disappointments and reverses, shame, ridicule, and contempt, as sent by God to aid us in our struggle with ourself, and must patiently and thankfully turn them to good account. Nay, we must

1 2 Cor. iv. 18.

mortify ourselves; denying ourselves honour, respect and praise, and satisfied to lose the approbation of men, if He regards us who seeth in secret. We shall not labour for nought. The reward is well worth the contest. True humility is real glory; the mother of peace and the sister of happiness. It is the Christian's badge, the image of Christ, the chosen habitation of the Holy One who inhabiteth eternity. It is the robe of heaven's inhabitants, the symbol of their dignity; and if there be a cherub nearer than others to the throne of glory, it is humility which has exalted him.

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SERMON IV.

SINS OF THE THOUGHTS.

ECCLESIASTES, xii. 14.

For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil.

Or the many practical errors which tend to deaden our sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and thus to indispose us to real repentance, not the least dangerous is that which estimates the guilt of an offence almost entirely by the outward act, neglecting or underrating the internal processes from which it proceeds. In this way, indeed, we are to a certain extent obliged to form our judgment of the merits and de

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