do that, we shall be sure to have our
trials: but we shall be safe, because we are on God's side, and God
on ours. And if God be with us, what matter if the whole world be
against us? For which is the stronger of the two, the whole world,
or God who made it, and rules it, and will rule it for ever?

SERMON XX. THE LOFTINESS OF HUMILITY

1 Peter v. 5. Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the
proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

This is St. Peter's command. Are we really inclined to obey it?
For, if we are, there is nothing more easy. There is no vice so
easy to get rid of as pride: if one wishes. Nothing so easy as to
be humble: if one wishes.

That may seem a strange saying, considering that self-conceit is the
vice of all others to which man is most given; the first sin, and
the last sin, and that which is said to be the most difficult to
cure. But what I say is true nevertheless.

Whosoever wishes to get rid of pride may do so. Whosoever wishes to
be humble need not go far to humble himself.

But how? Simply by being honest with himself, and looking at
himself as he is.

Let a man recollect honestly and faithfully his past life; let him
recollect his sayings and doings for the past week; even for the
past twenty-four hours: and I will warrant that man that he will
recollect something, or, perhaps, many things which will not raise
him in his own eyes; something which he had sooner not have said or
done; something which, if he is a foolish man, he will try to
forget, because it makes him ashamed of himself; something which, if
he is a wise man, he will not try to forget, just because it makes
him ashamed of himself; and a very good thing for him that he should
be so. I know that it is so for me; and therefore I suppose it is
so for every man and woman in this Church.

I am not going to give any examples. I am not going to say,--
'Suppose you thought this and this about yourself, and were proud of
it; and then suppose that you recollected that you had done that and
that: would you not feel very much taken down in your own conceit?'

I like that personal kind of preaching less and less. Those random
shots are dangerous and cruel; likely to hit the wrong person, and
hurt their feelings unnecessarily. It is very easy to say a hard
thing: but not so easy to say it to the right person and at the
right time.

No. The heart knoweth its own bitterness. Almost every one has
s