3. The proof of a man's true greatness is found in his humility. True moral greatness is a flower which seeks the shade ; and, like the other works of God, it has to be sought out by them who take pleasure therein. There is a lid for the vessels of the temple. Humility is one of the crowning graces, and it keeps the truly great man from making long prayers at the corners of the streets, from sounding a trumpet when he gives alms, from making broad his phylacteries, or covering his face with the marks of fasting.
^ Humility is the special virtue of Christ, the virtue proper to Him, the virtue most dear to Him, the virtue that brought Him, moved by infinite charity, from the splendour of the eternal glories, into the extremes of poverty and humiliation, so that there is nothing more illustrious in His life and death than this Divine virtue of humility, whereby He redeemed the world, and with which He prepared the medicine that healeth all our infirmities, and bringeth us from all our sin and misery to rest in Him. Here we also learn from Him that that which jjleases Him in souls is humility. And if YIq speaks of meekness as well,
* Josejih Parker. ^ J. I'earoe, Life on the Heiyhts, 46.
3IO GOD'S GENTLENESS
it is because meekness is the most exquisite and delightful fruit of humility, exhibiting the interior strength and fortitude of patience in a gentle sweetness.^
^ There is little doubt that any one who knew Dr. McLaren well would agree with the statement that the most marked feature in his character was his entire freedom from anything approaching to egotism. His deep vein of shyness, as well as refined taste, made egotism, in the way of speaking of his own doings, an impossibility to him. But his want of egotism had a deeper source. It was the result of genuine deep-rooted humility. He knew that in many directions unusual powers had been given him, but that conviction led to no undue elation. Gifts brought responsibility, and conscience told of failure as to their use. . . . He never perhaps took part in a meeting in the Manchester Pree Trade Hall when the large building was not filled to its utmost capacity, and for years before the close of his career, almost invariably the immense audience rose to receive him and cheered enthusiastically. Once, driving home from one of these meetings, his companion ventured to ask him if he could recall what his thoughts were as he stood waiting till the applause had ceased — a far-away, almost pained expression had been noticed. " Yes," he said, " perfectly ; I all but heard the words, ' It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you, or of man's judgment; he that judgeth me is the Lord.' " ^
One's chiefest duty here below
Is not the seeming great to do,
That the vain world may pause to see;
But in steadfast humility
To walk the common walk, and bear
The thousand things, the trifling care,
In love with wisdom patiently.
Thus each one in his narrow groove
The great world nearer God may move.^
III.
God's Gentleness and Man's Greatness,
In the moral development and perfection of men the gentleness of God discharges the highest function. The strong hand
1 Bishop Ullathorne.
2 E. T. M'^Laren, Dr. iPLarcn of Manchester, 207. ^ M. Hunt.
PSALM XVIII. 35 311
restrains ; the hand of gentleness elicits and fosters. Authority moulds from without ; love inspires from within. The strength of a thing that grows is its life, not the external force which only sways it hither and thither. The essential, the inward, the living energy which animates and perfects the moral and spiritual characters of men is the gentleness of God.
1. Two of the prime elements of personal greatness — nobility of purpose and purity of motive — are directly stimulated by the gentleness of God. Their great enemy is craven fear, perpetual anxious self -consideration ; no man can be great who is always thinking of himself. When we have once apprehended that God is gentle, terrors about ourselves are effectually banished : " perfect love casteth out fear " ; and in its stead there comes a sense of the infinite worthiness of God, the desire to please and "glorify" Him; there is a sense of security in Him and in His dealings with us, nay more, an absolute satisfaction with Him and with His ways, before which all ungracious feeling disappears.
2. It is in gentleness that God wins back to Himself those who have rebelled against Him and revolted from Him, subdues our waywardness, teaches and perfects us. He does not coerce us by His power ; He constrains us by His love. He does not launch His thunderbolt to destroy us ; He solicits penitence and obedience, waits patiently, deals gently with our passion and petulance, our ignorance and unbelief; gives us time for reflexion and experi- ment, for the cooling of passion, the growth of wisdom, the rectifying of mistakes. He " waits to be gracious." Not of Himself and of His insulted majesty does He think, so as to assert His greatness, but of us and of our suicidal alienation from Him, and how He may make us great.