d, when, side by side with this intense love for His own, there had
been so vivid a sense of oneness with His Father, of His unity with the
source of Infinite Purity and Blessedness. We might have supposed that
this would have alienated Him from His poor friends, but in this our
thoughts are not as His. Just because of His awful holiness, He was
quick to perceive the unholiness of His friends, and could not endure
it, and essayed to rid them of it. Just because of His Divine goodness
He could detect the possibilities of goodness in them, and be patient
enough to give it culturing care.

The most perfect musician may be most tortured by incompetence; but he
will be most likely to detect true merit, and give time to its
training. "The powerfullest magnet will pick out, in the powdered dust
of the ironstone, fine particles of metal that a second or third-rate
magnet would fail to draw to itself." Do not dread the awful holiness
of Jesus; it is your hope. He will never be content till He has made
you like Himself; and side by side with His holiness, never fail to
remember His gentle, tender love.

III. THE DIVINE HUMILITY, THAT COPES WITH HUMAN SIN.--"He riseth from
supper, and layeth aside His garments; and He took a towel and girded
Himself." This is what the apostle calls taking upon Himself the form
of a servant. The charm of the scene is its absolute simplicity. You
cannot imagine Christ posturing to the ages. There was no aiming at
effect, no thought of the beauty or humility of the act, as there is
when the Pope yearly washes the feet of twelve beggars, from a golden
basin, wiping them with a towel of rarest fabric! Christ did not act
thus for show or pretence, but with an absolutely single purpose of
fulfilling a needed office. And in this He set forth the spirit of our
redemption.

_This is the key to the Incarnation_.--With slight alteration the words
will read truly of that supreme act. He rose from the throne, laid
aside the garments of light which He had worn as His vesture, took up
the poor towel of humanity, and wrapped it about His glorious Person;
poured His own blood into the basin of the Cross, and set Himself to
wash away the foul stains of human depravity and guilt.

As pride was the source of human sin, Christ must needs provide an
antidote in His absolute humility--a humility which could not grow
beneath these skies, but must be brought from the world where the
lowliest are the grea