you a party, the mysteries of eternity lie concealed. Life and death, earth and heaven, things present and to come, joys high, immeasurable, and immortal-what shall I say? All are yours; and ye are Christ's, and Christ's is God's.

ESSAY IX.

HUMILITY.

"IN the school of Christ," says the devout Archbishop Leighton, "the first lesson of all is "humility; yea, it is written above the door, as "the rule of entry or admission, LEARN OF ME, "FOR I AM MEEK AND LOWLY OF HEART!" Humility is a grace that is nearly allied to repentance. Repentance respects the nature and aggravation of sin; humility respects the person and character of the sinner. Humility consists in a just view of our own character, and in the disposition to ✔abase ourselves as low as the vileness of our character requires.

A just view of our own character is a view of it as it actually is. The pride of the human heart, naturally casts a veil over the

character of man, and aims to conceal his worthlessness as a creature, and his deformity as a sinner. The humility of the Gospel naturally throws aside the veil, and discovers that native worthlessness which ought to sink the creature in the dust, and that moral deformity which ought to cover the sinner with confusion. Genuine humility is inseparably connected with a sense of our dependance, of our unworthiness, and of our ill-desert.

Although dependance, absolute and universal, is necessarily attached to the very being of creatures; yet a sense of this dependence is a most unwelcome visitant to the unhumbled heart. The spirit of the carnal mind is an independent spirit. It is a spirit in which the pride of man glories. Though men are creatures of yesterday, and know nothing; though they are upheld by the visitation of God's arm, and supplied by the beneficence of His hand; they have no apprehension, that they actually live, and move, and have their being in Him. An abiding sense of His universal presence is what they cannot bear to cherish.

But a sense of perfect dependance is a grateful guest to the broken and contrite heart. To a

humbled sinner it is sweet to feel that he is absolutely dependant on God for all that he is, and all that he has. He is sensible that he is nothing ; that he is a worm, and no man. He realizes that God is every where, and that worms and seraphs are alike at His disposal. He feels with Paul, that he is not sufficient of himself to think any thing as of himself; but his sufficiency is of God. Does he enjoy signal favours? he calls to mind, that he enjoys nothing that he has not received. Life, health, as well as the blessings of both, he sees flowing through a thousand channels from the same exuberant source. As the child hangs upon the kindness of its parent, or as the abject poor depend on the daily bounty of their fellow-men; so do the poor in spirit, conscious of their helplessness, wait only upon God, for their expectation is from Him.

With a sense of their dependance, the humble unite a conviction of their unworthiness. They are unworthy; and they feel that they are so. They are sensible that they are sinners. They have seen the plague of their own hearts. They know, at best, they are unprofitable servants; and at best, ought to be for ever overwhelmed with a sense of their unworthiness. Merit they have none.

Desert of good is not in all their thoughts. Who am I, exclaimed the King of Israel, Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my father's house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? I am not worthy, said the humble Patriarch, I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant! The people of God need not be told that they have forfeited every favour. Much as they need the divine compassion, they are sensible that they do not, and cannot deserve it. Often as they seek the divine face and favour, they do not seek them as the reward of personal worthiness. They turn their thoughts inward, and see and feel that they are less than the least of all saints. They are mere pensioners upon sovereign mercy. There was no distinguishing excellence in them, that made them the objects of favour; there was not the shadow of difference in character, which operated as a reason why God should regard them with the special tokens of His love, rather than the most abandoned wretch that ever lived. "Behold, I am vile! Grace hath made me to differ." When they seek the presence of God, they do it with the humble spirit of the Centurion, Lord, I am NOT WORTHY that Thou shouldest come under my roof!