r my good." He had learned the
lesson we are now considering, and we see what comfort it gave him.
And the thought of the comfort which this lesson gives, should be a
good reason with us all for learning it.

_A fourth reason why we should learn the lesson of humility is
because of the_--USEFULNESS--_connected with it_.

Jesus tells us, by his apostle, that "God resisteth the proud, but
giveth grace to the humble." St. James iv: 6. If we have the grace of
God we can be useful in many ways, but, without that grace we cannot
be useful at all. And this is what our Saviour taught his disciples,
when he said to them--"without me ye can do nothing." St. John xv: 5.
By the words "without _me_" he meant without my help, or without my
grace; or without the help of my grace. And it was of this grace that
St. Paul was speaking when he said--"I can do all things through
Christ who strengtheneth me." Phil, iv: 13.

And we could not possibly have a stronger reason for trying to learn
the lesson of humility than this, that our receiving the grace of
God, and consequently our usefulness, depends upon it. God will not
give us his grace to enable us to be truly good and to make ourselves
useful, unless we learn this lesson. And unless we have the grace of
God, we cannot be useful. Like barren fig-trees we shall be useless
cumberers of the ground.

Now let us look at one or two illustrations which show us how pride
hinders the usefulness of men, while humility helps it.

"The Fisherman's Mistake." An English gentleman was spending his
summer holidays in Scotland. He concluded to try his hand at fishing
for trout in one of the neighboring streams. He bought one of the
handsomest fishing rods he could find, with line and reel, and
artificial flies, and everything necessary to make a perfect outfit
for a fisherman. He went to the trout stream, and toiled all day, but
never caught a single fish.

Towards the close of the day he saw a ragged little farmer boy, with
a bean pole for a rod, and the simplest possible sort of a line, who
was nipping the fish out of the water about as fast as he could throw
his line in. He watched the boy in amazement for awhile, and then
asked him how it was that one, with so fine a rod and line, could
catch no fish, while he with his poor outfit was catching so many.
The boy's prompt reply was:--"Ye'll no catch ony fish Sir, as lang as
ye dinna keep yersel' oot o' sicht."

The gentleman was proud of his h