Have we not need, in such a time as this, of
that divine humility which is the elder sister of divine charity?
Have we not need of some of that God-inspired modesty of St. Paul's:
'I think as a child, I speak as a child. I see through a glass
darkly'? Have we not need to listen to his warning: 'he that
regardeth the day, to the Lord he regardeth it; and he that regardeth
it not, to the Lord he regardeth it not. Who art thou that judgest
another? To his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, and he
shall stand; for God is able to make him stand'? Have we not need to
hear our Lord's solemn rebuke, when St. John boasted how he saw one
casting out devils in Christ's name, and he forbade him, because he
followed not them--'Forbid him not'? Have we not need to believe St.
James, when he tells us that every good gift and every perfect gift
cometh from above, from the Father of lights, and not (as we have too
often fancied) sometimes from below, from darkness and the pit? Have
we not need to keep in mind the canon of the wise Gamaliel?--'If this
counsel or this work be of man, it will come to nought: but if it be
of God, we cannot overthrow it, lest haply we too be found fighting
even against God.' Have we not need to keep in mind that 'every
spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of
God;' and 'no man saith that Jesus is the Christ, save by the Spirit
of God;' lest haply we, too, be found more fastidious than Almighty
God himself? Have we not need to beware lest we, like the Scribes
and Pharisees, should be found keeping the key of knowledge, and yet
not entering in ourselves, and hindering those who would enter in?
Have we not need to beware lest, while we are settling which is the
right gate to the kingdom of heaven, the publicans and harlots should
press into it before us; and lest, while we are boasting that we are
the children of Abraham, God should, without our help, raise up
children to Abraham of those stones outside; those hard hearts, dull
brains, natures ground down by the drudgery of daily life till they
are as the pavement of the streets; those so-called 'heathen masses'
of whom we are bid to think this day.
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