love. — ^This is one way to be happy in the world, and see good days. Kindness always brings its own reward. The kind person will seldom be without Mends.
We should notice, secondly, in this passage, the humility of the centurion. It appears in his remarkable message to our Lord when He was not far from his house : " I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: — neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee." — Such expressions are a striking contrast to the language used by the elders of the Jews. " He is worthy," said they, " for whom thou shouldest do this." — " I am not worthy," says the good centurion, " that thou shouldesl enter under my roof."
Humility like this is one of the strongest evidences of the indwelling of the Spirit of God. We know nothing of it by nature, for we are all bom proud. To convince us of sin, to shew us our own vileness and corruption, to put us in our right place, to make us lowly and self-abased, — these are among the principal works which the Holy Ghost works in the soul of man. Few of our Lord's sayings are so often repeated as the one which closes the parable of the Pharisee and Publican : " Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke xviii. 14.) To have great gifts, and do great works for God, is not given to all believers. But all believers ought to strive to be clothed with humility.
We should notice, thirdly, in this passage, the centurion* a faith. We have a beautiful example of it in the request that he made to our Lord : " Say in a word, and my ser- vant shall be healed." He thinks it needless for our Lord to come to the place where his servant lay dying. He