level with the meanest of his subjects. The axe must be laid to the root of all his pride and self-sufficiency, and he must be felled by the operation of the word and Spirit of God. Every man is a sinner before God : every man must be made to feel and acknowledge his guilt : every man must seek lor mercy through the blood and righteousness of that Divine Saviour who died for him. Every man must live altogether in a state of dependence upon God, not merely as a God of providence, but especially as a God of grace ; and must receive continually fresh supplies of grace and strength out of the fulness that is treasured up for him in Christ. This is not the work of the poor only, but of the rich also : the most learned philosopher must in this respect feel himself on a par with the most illiterate of the human race. All must equally be taught of God ; and all " be saved equally by grace through faith in Christ."]
The poor, on the contrary, are raised to an equality with the highest —
[There is not a blessing which the poorest may not obtain, to the full extent that it can be enjoyed by the rich and great. The Apostles themselves were not selected from the higher or more intelligent classes, but from the lowest walks of life. A few poor fishermen were raised up to be the teachers of the whole world. And if it be thought that this was a peculiar case, and that the poor by reason of their disadvantages are greatly inferior to the rich, I must say, that, for the most part, the very reverse of this is true ; and that God yet daily, in ten thousand instances, " reveals to babes the things which he has hid from the wise and prudentV The very circumstance of the poor having so little in this world leads them more simply to depend on God ; and their conscious want of human know- ledge leads them to implore more humbly and more earnestly the teaching of God's Spirit : and hence by coming to God " hungry, they are filled with good things, whilst the rich are sent empty awayc." Thus does God still " take the beggar from the dunghill, to set him among the princesd:" and it is still daily seen, that " the box" occupies a place in the Church of God which the loftiest cedar in Lebanon might envy.
That this is the constitution of the Church of Christ, is not left to be inferred from the figurative language of my text: it is expressly stated by St. James, who says, " Let the brother of low degree rejoice, in that he is exalted; but the rich, in that he is made lowe." Here, I say, the whole of what I have asserted is stated plainly, and without a figure.]
b Matt. xi. 25. c Luke i. 53.
d 1 Sam. ii. 8. e Jam. i. 9, 10.