had the world taken out of him,
he loves--he strives to love, he goes to his knees every day he lives to
love--those who not only do not think well of him, but who both think ill
of him and speak ill of him. "Humility," says William Law, "does not
consist in having a worse opinion of ourselves than we deserve, or in
abasing ourselves lower than we really are. But as all virtue is founded
in truth, so humility is founded in a true and just sense of our
weakness, misery, and sin. He who rightly feels and lives in this sense
of his condition lives in humility. And, it may be added, when our
hearts are wholly clothed with humility we shall be prompt to approve the
judgment and to endorse the sentence of those who think and speak the
least good of us and the most evil."

6. "'Twas she," so the guide at last wound up, "that set Absalom against
his father, and Jeroboam against his master. 'Twas she that persuaded
Judas to sell his Lord, and that prevailed with Demas to forsake the
godly pilgrim's life. None can tell all the mischief that Madam Bubble
does. She makes variance between rulers and subjects, between parents
and children, 'twixt neighbour and neighbour, 'twixt a man and his wife,
'twixt a man and himself, 'twixt the flesh and the heart." Now, I shall
leave that last indictment and its lessons and its applications to
yourselves, my brethren. You will get far more good out of this
accumulated count against Madam Bubble if you explain it, and open it up,
and prove it, and illustrate it to yourselves. Explain, then, in what
way this sorceress set Absalom against his father and Jeroboam against
his master. Point out in what way she makes variance between a ruler and
his subjects, and give illustrations. Put your finger on a parent and on
a child between whom there is variance at this moment on her account.
And, if you are that parent or that child, what have you done to remove
that variance? Name two neighbours that to your knowledge Madam Bubble
has come between; and say what you have done to be a peacemaker there.
Set down what you would say to a man and his wife so as to put them on
their guard against Madam Bubble ever coming in between them. And, last
and best of all, point out to yourself at what times and in what ways
this wicked witch tries to make variance between God's Holy Spirit
striving within you and your own evil heart still strong within you. When
you are weary and sleepy and hungry as a h