fulfilled his. When the pressure of the daily cross is experienced in this direction may it open your eyes to the conviction that you were "verily guilty concerning your brother, and therefore is this distress come upon you." Nothing that has been said on the present subject has direct relation to those who are in authority, in a superior instead of a subordinate position. For it would be almost surely a useless waste of words. Those who have not learned to subdue self-will during their youthful years are never likely even to perceive the duty afterwards; while the established indulgence of self-will becomes as fatal to their success and their character when rulers, as it was fatal to their happiness when dependents. Even according to worldly wisdom it is a fact that "qui ne saura obéir ne saura commander." For subjugation of the will * Genesis, xlii. 21. Chant de la Guerre. E is the only means by which dependents can acquire that habit of command, without which it is never exercised safely either for ourselves or for our neighbour. "He who governs himself, governs also even when he must obey others." 39 SECOND DAY. PRIDE. "Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord."— PROVERBS, Xvi. 5. PRIDE is, perhaps, the most subtle, therefore the most dangerous, of all sins. By it angels fell, by it our first parents fell. Where lies the strength by which our fallen nature can resist the temptation the sinless nature did not resist? Only in the consciousness of our weakness, of our helplessness; only in the confidence that God, who denounces pride as "an abomination," will give His children grace to see the evil thing, and to flee from it. But to see it; there is the difficulty. Pride assumes, alternately, the most noble, the most dignified, the most engaging forms. Never will it allow us to view it in its real nature; not only as a wicked thing, but as a mean thing. Humility alone is never guilty of meanness; humility alone maintains unvarying self-respect. If the grace of humility-the sin of pride - could be seen in their true forms, the most difficult part of the conflict against the sin would be already over. A refined nature would shrink from the meanness of pride; but until that fearful or glorious hour, when we shall see sin in the light issuing from the throne of God, pride can never be viewed in its real hatefulness. Here below, your aim and hope can only be to see clearly the particular forms in which you yourself are most frequently assailed by its temptations. It is as an aid in this scrutiny, that the discipline of daily life is wisely and skilfully adapted. You have prayed this morning to be kept from sin,-to be kept especially on your guard against the particular sin in tended to be the subject of this day's selfexamination. You have not, therefore, ventured into the cares and temptations. of social life without being forewarned forearmed. Did you then resist them, or did you yield? Can you even hope, on reflection, that you have experienced the comparative "safety of the stretch and energy of continual strife?” I have before said that the temptations of pride often assume the forms of nobleness of mind, independence of spirit, &c. ; and to you it will probably never appear in the form of a weakness or a meanness, for then it would lose its power to tempt. It is not, therefore, to what you know to have been wrong in your conduct during the day that you are to look for the exhibition of this subtle sin. No; -it was when you felt yourself to be in the right—when your eye brightened and your cheek flushed with the consciousness of desert. It was then you were tempted; |