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CHRISTIAN MORALITY, VIZ.
[SERA/.
XXVIII.
and
learning, and
even
grace
itself;
are
no sufficient
ground
for pride.
It
is
a comely
thing to
see a
man
ex-
alted
by
many divine
gifts,
and
yet abasing
himself.
It
is
a lovely sight to behold
a person
well
adorned
with
virtue and
merit, and
glorified in
the mouths
of
all men,
and
yet
concealing
-himself
:
To
see
a
-.man
of
shining
.worth drawing, as
it
were,
a
curtain. before
himself,
that
the world might
not
see
him, while
the world do what
they
can
to do
him
justice, and
draw
aside the
veil
to
make
his
merit
visible.
Not
that
a
man
of
worth
is
al-
ways
bound to practise concealment;
this
would
be
to
rob
mankind
of
the blessing
God
has designed
for
them,
and
to
wrap up
his
talents
in
the unprofitable napkin.
But
there
are
occasions wherein
a
worthy and
illustrious
person
-may be
equally
useful to the world,
and yet
with-
draw
himself
from public applause. This
is
the hour to
make
his
humility
appear.
Flow
graceful and engaging
is
it
in
persons
of
title and
duality
to
stoop
to those
that are of
mean degree,
to
converse freely
at proper
seasons with those
that
are
poor
and despicable
in
the
world, to
give
them leave
to
offer
their
humble requests, or
sometimes to
debate
a
point of
importance
with
them:
Not
all
the
dignity
of
their raiment
can
render
them
half
so
honourable
as
this
condescension
does;
for
nothing
makes them
so
much
like
God. The
high
and Holy
One
who
inhabits
eter-
nity,
stoops
down from
heaven
to
visit the
afflicted;
and
to
dwell with the poor. And surely, when
we
set
our
-
'elves
before
the
divine
majesty,
we
are
meaner and
more
contemptible
in his eyes,
than
it
is
possible for any fel-
low-
creature
to
be in
ours;
he humbles himself to
behold
princes.
It
must
be
allowed
.
indeed,
that
where
God and
the
world
have
placed
any person
in
a superior station, and
given
him
a
sensible
advancement
above
his fellow
-
creatures,
he
is
not
bound to
renounce
the
honours
that
are
his
due,
nor
to
act beneath the
dignity
of
his
charac-
ter
and state. This would be
to
confound
all the
beau
tiful
order
of
things
in
the
natural,
civil,
and
religious
life,
But there
-are
cases
and
seasons
that
often occur, when
great
degrees
of
humilitymay
be
practised without dan-
ger
of
sinking one's
own
character,`
for
doing a dishonour
to
our
station-in
the
world.
There
is
an
art of
maintain-