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THE HUMILITY
OP
CHRIST.
[SECT.
Art;
Let
us follow
and
observe
him
in
the
progress
of
life,
when
he
appeared
as
a
young carpenter, when he sweat
and
laboured
in
the trade
of
his
Father Joseph,
when he
assisted
him,
as
ancient
history informs us,
to
make yokes
for
oxen, and
lived
in a
lowly
cottage, suited
to
those
circumstances. No
rooms
of state,
no rich
hangings,
no
carpets
or
furniture
of
silk
and gold,
no costly and
glit-
tering
things about him.
And
when
he
began
his mi-
nistry, he travelled through
the
country
on foot to
preach
his
divine
gospel,
when
he
might
have
been
borne on
the
wings
of
angels.
He
was
content
with mean lodging
in the tents
of fishermen, and sometimes
the Lord of
glory had
not where
to lay his
head. He never
accepted
but
of
one
gaudy
day
in
the period
of
his life,
and
then
his highest triumph
was
to
ride
upon
the colt
of
an ass
into Jerusalem
:
his
way was
strewed with branches
of
trees,
and the garments of the poor, and
he was
attended
with
a
shouting train of the
lower ranks
of
the people
But
his more
constant dwelling
was
in
cottages,
and
his
accoutrements betrayed universal
poverty and meanness
:
An
obscure
life on
earth veiled the majesty
of
the
King
of
heaven: Contempt
and
scorn, infamy
and
reproach,
were
his daily
companions
in
the streets
of
Jerusalem;
and
his
table
and his
lodging were with
poor fishermen
in
Galilee, the
most
contemptible part
of
all
the country
of
the
Jews.
And
let
it
he observed
here,
that
every instance
of
meanness and
poverty
in
the
life
and
circumstances
of
the
blessed
Jesus
was a
distinct token
of
the
humility
of
his
soul,
for
it
was chosen poverty,
it
was
assumed
meanness:
When
he
was rich
in
the glories
and splen-
dors
of
his
Father's court
in
heaven,
he laid
them all
aside
for
our
sakes, and
became poor
on
earth,
that
through
his
poverty we
might
be
made
rich
;
2
Cor.
viii. 9.
What
a
shameful dimness and disgrace,
what
divine con-
tempt
has the
Son
of God
cast
on all
the lustre and glory
of
this
world,
by his
choice
of
so
mean accommodations
and
so
poor
an
equipage? What
a
holy
disdain of
all
earthly
grandeur
and magnificence should we learn
from
the incarnation and the
life
of
the
holy
Jesus
?
Even
meanness and poverty should
lose
their disgraceful ap-
pearances, and
seem almost an
amiable
sort
of apparel