ulous, than his own weak, ignorant, foolish, and, perhaps,
ridiculous self. Not he; but the man who is always looking upwards
to goodness, to good men, and to the all-good God: filling his soul
with the sight of an excellence to which he thinks he can never
attain; and saying, with David, 'All my delight is in the saints
that dwell in the earth, and in those who excel in virtue.'

But I do not say that he cannot attain to that excellence. To the
goodness of God, of course, no man can; but to the goodness of man
he may. For what man has done, man may do; and the grace of God
which gave power to one man to rise above sin, and weakness, and
ignorance, will give power to others also. But only to those who
look upward, at better men than themselves: not to those who look
down, like the Pharisee, but to those who look up like the Publican;
for, as the text says, 'God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to
the humble.'

And why does God resist and set himself against the proud? To turn
him out of his evil way, of course, if by any means he may be
converted (that is, turned round) and live. For the proud man has
put himself into a wrong position; where no immortal soul ought to
be. He is looking away from God, and down upon men; and so he has
turned his face and thoughts away from God, the fountain of light
and life; and is trying to do without God, and to stand in his own
strength, and not in God's grace, and to be somebody in himself,
instead of being only in God, in whom we live and move and have our
being. So he has set himself against God; and God will, in mercy to
that foolish man's soul, set himself against him. God will humble
him; God will overthrow him; God will bring his plans to nought; if
by any means he may make that man ashamed of himself, and empty him
of his self-conceit, that he may turn and repent in dust and ashes,
when he finds out what those proud Laodicaean Christians of old had
to find out--that all the while that they were saying, 'I am rich,
and increased with goods, and have need of nothing,' they did not
know that they were wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked.

And how does God give grace to the humble? My friends, even the
wise heathen knew that. Listen to a heathen; {328} a good and a
wise man, though; and one who was not far from the kingdom of God,
or he would not have written such words as these,--

'It is our duty,' he says, 'to turn our minds to the best