24 THE .BltUIStD :REED and without spot.'' Let us look on out imperfect beginning, only to enforce fur... ther strife to perfection and to keep us low in our own eyes. Otherwise, in case of discouragement, we must consider ourselves as Christ doth, who looks us to be such as he intendeth to fit for himself. Christ valueth us by what we shall be. We call a little plant a tree, because it is growing up to be so. "Who is he that despiseth the day of little things?" Christ would nqt have us despise little things. The glorious angels disdain not attendance on little ones : little in their own eyes, and little in the eyes of the world. Grace, though little in quantity, yet is much in vigour and worth. It is Christ that raiseth the worth of little and mean places and persons. Bethlehem the least, and yet not the least: the least in itself, not the least because Christ was born there. The second temple came short of the outward magnificence of the former : yet more glorious than the first, because Christ came into it. The Lord of the temple came into his own temple. The pupil of the eye is very
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