John xiii. 17. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do
them.
SO little was the virtue of humility understood among the heathen, that neither the Greeks nor Romans had a word whereby to express the idea. The lowliness of mind and poverty of spirit which we admire as the summit of Christian excellence, they would have accounted meanness and pusillanimity. But our blessed Lord has instructed us in a far clearer manner than the philosophers of old could do, and has illustrated every one of his instructions by his own example. The act of condescension that is recorded in the chapter before us, very strongly exemplifies the virtue of which we are speaking : though Jesus was the Lord both of heaven and earth, and his Disciples were no higher than poor fisher- men, he made himself their servant, and performed for them the meanest office, even that of washing their feet : and then told them that such was the spirit which he would have them cultivate, and such the conduct he would have them pursue towards all their fellow-disciples. He declared, moreover, that such views of Christian excellence, attended with a corresponding practice, would prove to them a source of the richest happiness.
We shall not however confine our views to this particular virtue ; but shall take occasion from the words of our text to point out, in a more general manner, the connexion between " knowing and doing" the will of God. We shall shew,
I. Their worthlessness when separate —
As for doing, without knowing, the will of God, that is impossible ; since knowledge is, and must be, the foundation of all practice. No act can be a re- ligious act, unless it be done with a direct reference to the will of God ordering and directing it to be