u chastenest, and teachest him out of Thy law[7]."
Even the best men require some pain or grief to sober them and keep
their hearts right. Thus, to take the example of St. Paul himself,
even his labours, sufferings, and anxieties, he tells us, would not
have been sufficient to keep him from being exalted above measure,
through the abundance of the revelations, unless there had been added
some further cross, some "thorn in the flesh[8]," as he terms it, some
secret affliction, of which we are not particularly informed, to humble
him, and to keep him in a sense of his weak and dependent condition.

The history of the Church after him affords us an additional lesson of
the same serious truth. For three centuries it was exposed to heathen
persecution; during that long period God's Hand was upon His people:
what did they do when that Hand was taken off? How did they act when
the world was thrown open to them, and the saints possessed the high
places of the earth? did they enjoy it? far from it, they shrank from
that which they might, had they chosen, have made much of; they denied
themselves what was set before them; when God's Hand was removed, their
own hand was heavy upon them. Wealth, honour, and power, they put away
from them. They recollected our Lord's words, "How hardly shall they
that have riches enter into the kingdom of God[9]!" And St. James's,
"Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs
of the kingdom[10]?" For three centuries they had no need to think of
those words, for Christ remembered them, and kept them humble; but when
He left them to themselves, then they did voluntarily what they had
hitherto suffered patiently. They were resolved that the Gospel
character of a Christian should be theirs. Still, as before, Christ
spoke of His followers as poor and weak, and lowly and simple-minded;
men of plain lives, men of prayer, not "faring sumptuously," or clad in
"soft raiment," or "taking thought for the morrow." They recollected
what He said to the young Ruler, "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell
that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven, and come and follow Me." And so they put off their "gay
clothing," their "gold, and pearls, and costly array;" they "sold that
they had, and gave alms;" they "washed one another's feet;" they "had
all things common." They formed themselves into communities for prayer
and praise, for labour and study, for