gers. Oh! is it not a glorious revenge to convince our enemies of their error, and turn them into friends? Yet it is a triumph none but the meek can achieve; for to set about showing kindness, with the selfish aim of mortifying those who have done us evil by a proud display of superior virtue, will, instead of putting coals of fire on their heads, only burn our own hands. Meekness is the conquering charm.

The spirit of meekness must be assiduously cultivated. It is one of the hardest lessons in the school of Christ, where, indeed, nothing can be learned but by hard study and diligent practice. It is not a virtue by itself, but a sweet consequence of many others.

If we would be meek, we must not be ambitious after worldly good. Ambition is an aspiring to be above others, and, therefore, a struggle with them, for none are willing to be undermost. Hence come envy, hate, slander, malice, revenge. We must root out the bramble, if we

would not have its thorns; and when thistles are once in a field, it requires no small husban

dry to get rid of them. But a meek Christian,

with his hopes set upon a better country, will never be so anxious about the distinctions of this; and being content to be quiet, others will let him enjoy what he asks. "Such a man," says the excellent Leifchild, "walks in a calm and sequestered vale, and hears only at a distance the clashing of ambitious interests in the regions above him. He hears, but he is not attracted thither."

There is much of true though quaint philosophy in this page of John Bunyan: "We will come again to this Valley of Humiliation. It is the most fruitful piece of ground in all these parts. It is a fat ground, and as you see consisteth much in meadows. Behold how green the valley is, and how beautiful with lilies! I have known many labouring men who have got good estates in this valley (for God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble). Some also have

wished that the next way to their Father's house might be here, that they might be troubled no more with hills or mountains to go over; but the way is the way, and there is an end.

"Now as they were walking along and talking, they espied a boy feeding his father's sheep. The boy was in very mean clothes, but of a fresh and well-favoured countenance, and as he sat by him

"There, said the guide, do you hear him? I will dare to say this boy lives a merrier life, and wears more of the herb called heart's-ease, in his bosom, than he that is clothed in silk and velvet. And so we will proceed with our discourse."

It is this very freedom from worldly ambition to which our Saviour refers when he says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Surely they who live in quiet get more good of the earth, than those who are in continual trouble, and struggling to get more.

Vanity, which is a base form of ambition, must also be laid aside if we would be meek. For they, who are continually anxious to get the admiration of others, can never seem meek or amiable in their eyes. To desire the praise of God is noble, but the praise of men is not worth its cost. It is at this the apostle strikes, when speaking of Christian women; for in his day, as now, it seems they were fond of attracting notice by gay dresses. A strange, though common, error; since if a wo

man have beauty she impairs it by decoration, and if she have it not, the decoration makes her homeliness the more remarkable. Brilliants are always set plain, and all the tinsel in the world cannot turn paste into a diamond. "Whose adorning," says he, "let it not be the outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart in that which is not corruptible; even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price." Meekness is thus more than the cestus of Venus, charming God and man. What is true of that form of vanity which he particularly rebukes, is true of every other.

We must study also the great examples of triumphant meekness, which are written for our learning in the word of God; for there we find meekness the rarest, as well as the most excellent character; and we can never hope to keep company with Abel, and Noah, and Isaac, and Moses,