honour before ourselves'^," and being ready in all places, and on all occasions, to " take the lowest place ^" It is not indeed necessary that we should accuse ourselves of sins which we have not committed, or deny the superiority of virtue to vice : but we should have such a sense of the pecvdiar advantages we have enjoyed, and the infinite obligations we lie under, and the consequent aggravations that have attended the many evils which we have committed, that we should account our- selves "less than the least of all saints V yea, the very "chief of sinners^."
Nor must we be offended if we be treated by others as deserving of this character. It is only from pride and a con- ceit of something good in us, that we are induced to lay to heart the contempt and ignominy that are cast upon us. If we are sincere in abhorring ourselves, it will be a small matter to us that we are abhorred by others. David deserved not the reproaches of his wife Michal : but, when he heard them, he was not moved with indignation against her, but meekly replied, " I will be yet more vile than thus, and will be base in my own sight ^." It was but a small matter to the holy Apostles, that they were considered " as the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things' :" they knew that they deserved nothing but wrath and indignation at the hands of God; and, having obtained mercy of the Lord, they cared not what treatment they met with at the hands of men. To be rendered conformable to our Divine Master in the bitterest reproaches, or the most ignominious death, will, if we be truly humble, be a matter rather of. joy and gratitude than of mourning and complaint.
At the same time, we must be willing to take on ourselves the lowest offices. To become "the servant of all*"" must be our highest ambition. Even the Lord of Glory himself, in the days of his flesh, came not to be ministered unto, but to mi- nister: and this he did, even to the " washing of his Disciples' feet^:" yea, " though he was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet he took upon him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." " This is the mind that should be in US'":" and this is the example which, as far as circumstances will admit of it, we should follow.
Here is the perfection of humility: and this is the grace which every one of us should be putting on from day to day.]
Nothing can more strongly mark the importance of this duty, than,
II. The
•* Rom. xii. 10. • Luke xiv. 10. ^ Eph. iii. S.
^iTim. i.l5. '' 2Sam. vi. 22. 'iCor. iv. 13.
" Mark X. 44. • John xi, 13, 14. "Uniil. ii.5— 8.