s piercing eye is not on us, and His uplifted hand cannot
find us out. Man must strike soon if he would strike at all; for
opportunities pass away from him, and his victim may escape his
vengeance by death. There is no passing of opportunity with God, and
it is this which makes His long suffering a solemn thing. God can
wait, for He has a whole eternity before Him in which He may strike.
"All things are open, and naked to Him with whom we have to do."

In the next place we are taught the heavenly character of
condescension. It is not from the insignificance of man that God's
dwelling with him is so strange. It is as much the glory of God to
bend His attention on an atom as to uphold the universe. But the
marvel is that the habitation which He has chosen for Himself is an
impure one. And when He came down from His magnificence to make this
world His home, still the same character of condescension was shown
through all the life of Christ. Our God selected the society of the
outcasts of earth, those whom none else would speak to.

Brethren, if we would be Godlike, we must follow in the same steps.
Our temptation is to do exactly the reverse. We are for ever wishing
to obtain the friendship and the intimacy of those above us in the
world. To win over men of influence to truth--to associate with men of
talent and station, and title. This is the world-chase, and this,
brethren, is too much the religious man's chase. But if you look
simply to the question of resemblance to God, then the man who makes
it a habit to select that one in life to do good to, and that one in
a room to speak with, whom others pass by because there is nothing
either of intellect, or power, or name, to recommend him, but only
humbleness, _that_ man has stamped upon his heart more of heavenly
similitude by condescension, than the man who has made it his business
to win this world's great ones, even for the sake of truth.

Lastly, we learn the guilt of two things of which this world is
full--vanity and pride. There is a distinction between these two. But
the distinction consists in this, that the vain man looks for the
admiration of others--the proud man requires nothing but his own. Now,
it is this distinction which makes vanity despicable to us all. We can
easily find out the vain man--we soon discover what it is he wants to
be observed, whether it be a gift of person, or a gift of mind, or a
gift of character. If h