n. It applies to us. The highest
dignity attainable in this world is conformity to Jesus Christ. In what
then does conformity to Jesus Christ consist? In other words, what are
those elements of character and conduct which distinguished Him, and
which are to be copied by us in our daily life?

I. The first which we mention, and which is prominent throughout the
whole of His history is _meekness_ or _humility_. Dignified as was His
character, high as were His claims, glorious as was His mission, He was
never arrogant or boastful, proud or ostentatious. He neither sought the
homage of the multitude, nor the society of the rich and the great. He
accepted these if offered, but He never sought them. It is a fact that
Christ never demanded, yet never declined the worship of men during His
earthly sojourn. The Apostles shrunk from it, Angels rebuked it when
offered to them, Christ never did. It was sometimes given, it was never
declined. He did not obtrude Himself upon the attention of the multitude
as the Saviour of the world; but ate, and drank, and slept, and walked,
and lived amongst them, and was in every respect a man with men. He
sometimes escaped from the society of the rich, that He might mitigate
the sorrows, and promote the interests of the poor. He never sought
human applause, and frequently retired from the scene of the most
astounding miracle, charging the subject of His healing and His blessing
to "tell no man" of Him. He might have taken the throne, and reigned
"King of the Jews," in a political and worldly sense, had He been
covetous of regal honours, or ambitious for worldly power. But He had a
higher mission. His kingdom was "not of this world," and He came "not to
be ministered unto, but to minister."

It cannot, however, be asserted that Jesus was insensible, or altogether
indifferent, to the temptations to popularity and power to which He was
exposed; if so, His example is of no practical utility to us. He did not
feel as we feel, and we can gather no instruction, and no motives from
His history or experience. But we believe that He "was in all points
tempted _like_ as we are;" that as a man He was the subject of all the
emotions, affections, and impulses which we feel. He could weep, and
love, and hate, and fear, and pure as His nature was, He had to battle
with the various temptations of the world and the wicked one, all the
more perhaps because of the sinlessness of His holy humanity