class="x-ebookmaker-pageno" title="[Pg 23]"/> and unalterable affection. “Go tell my brethren,” is the first message He sends; “Peace be unto you,” is the salutation at the first meeting; “Children!” is the word with which He first greets them on the shores of Tiberias. Even Joseph, (the Old Testament type and pattern of generous forgiveness,) when he makes himself known to his brethren, recalls the bitter thought, “Whom ye sold into Egypt.” The true Joseph, when He reveals Himself to His disciples, buries in oblivion the memory of by-gone faithlessness. He meets them with a benediction. He leaves them at His ascension with the same—“He lifted up His hands and blessed them!”

Reader! follow in all this the spirit of your Lord and Master. In rising from the study of His holy example, seek to feel that with you there shall be no such name, no such word, as enemy! Harbor no resentful thought, indulge in no bitter recrimination. Surrender yourself to no sullen fretfulness. Let “the law of kindness” be in your heart. Put the best construction on the failings of others Make no injurious comments on their frailties; no uncharitable insinuations. “Consider thyself, lest thou also be tempted.” When disposed at any time to cherish an unforgiving spirit towards a brother, think, if thy God had retained His anger for ever, where wouldst thou have been? If He, the Infinite One, who might have spurned thee for ever from His presence, hath had patience with thee, and forgiven thee all, wilt thou, on account of some petty grievance which thy calmer moments would pronounce unworthy of a thought, indulge in the look of cold estrangement, the unrelenting word, or unforgiving deed? “If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”

“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”

MEEKNESS.

“I am meek and lowly in heart.”—Matt. xi. 29.

There is often a beautiful blending of majesty and humility, magnanimity and lowliness, in great minds. The mightiest and holiest of all Beings that ever trod our world was the meekest of all. The Ancient of Days was as the “infant of days.” He who had listened to nothing but angel-melodies from all eternity, found, while on earth, melody in the lispings of an infant’s voice, or in an outcast’s tears! No wonder an innocent lamb was His emblem, or that the annointing Spirit came down upon Him in the form of the gentle dove. He had the wealth of worlds at His feet. The hosts of heaven had only to be summoned as His retinue. But all the pageantry of the world, all its dreams of carnal glory, had, for Him, no fascination. The Tempter, from a mountain-summit, showed Him a wide scene of “splendid misery;” but He spurned alike the thought and the adversary away! John and James would call down fire from heaven on a Samaritan village; He rebukes the vengeful suggestion! Peter, on the night of the betrayal, cuts off the ear of an assassin; the intended Victim, again, only challenges His disciple, and heals His enemy!

Arraigned before Pilate’s judgment-seat, how meekly He bears nameless wrongs and indignities! Suspended on the cross—the execrations of the multitude are rising around, but He hears as though He heard them not; they extract no angry look, no bitter word—“Behold the Lamb of God!” Need we wonder that “meekness” and “poverty of spirit” should stand foremost in His own cluster of beatitudes; that He should select this among all His other qualities for the peculiar study and imitation of His disciples, “Learn of Me, for I am meek;” or that an apostle should exhort “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ!”

How different the world’s maxims, and His! The world’s—“Resent the affront, vindicate honor!” His—“Overcome evil with good!” The world’s—“Only let it be when for your faults ye are buffeted that ye take it patiently.” His—“When ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.” (1 Pet. ii. 20.)

Reader! strive to obtain, like your adorable Lord, this “ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which, in the sight of God, is of great price.” Be “clothed” with gentleness and humility. Follow not the world’s fleeting shadows that mock you as you grasp them. If always aspiring—ever soaring on the wing—you are likely to become discontented, proud, selfish, time-serving. In whatever position of life God has placed you, be satisfied. What! ambitious to be on a pinnacle of the temple—a higher place in the Church, or in the world?—Satan might hurl you down! “Be not high-minded, but fear.” And with respect to others, honor their gifts, contemplate their excellences only to imitate them. Speak kindly, act gently, “condescend to men of low estate.”

Be assured, no happiness is equal to that enjoyed by the “meek Christian.” He has within him a perpetual inner sunshine, a perennial well-spring of peace. Never ruffled and fretted by real or imagined injuries, he puts the best construction on motives and actions, and by a gentle answer to unmerited reproach often disarms wrath.

“ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND.”

THANKFULNESS.

“I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.”—Matt. xi. 25.

A thankful spirit pervaded the entire life of Jesus, and surrounded with a heavenly halo His otherwise darkened path. In moments we least expect to find it, this beauteous ray breaks through the gloom. In instituting the memorial of His death, He “gave thanks!” Even in crossing the Kedron to Gethsemane, “He sang an hymn!”

We know in seasons of deep sorrow and trial that every thing wears a gloomy aspect. Dumb Nature herself to the burdened spirit seems as if she partook in the hues of sadness. The life of Jesus was one continuous experience of privation and woe—a “Valley of Baca,” from first to last; yet, amid accents of plaintive sorrow, there are ever heard subdued undertones of thankfulness and joy!

Ah, if He, the suffering “Man of sorrows,” could, during a life of unparalleled woe, lift up His heart in grateful acknowledgment to His Father in heaven, how ought the lives of those to be one perpetual “hymn of thankfulness,” who are from day to day and hour to hour (for all they have, both temporally and spiritually) pensioners on God’s bounty and love!

Reader! cultivate this thankful spirit; it will be to thee a perpetual feast. There is, or ought to be, with us no such thing as small mercies; all are great, because the least are undeserved. Indeed, a really thankful heart will extract motive for gratitude from every thing, making the most even of scanty blessings. St. Paul, when in his dungeon at Rome, a prisoner in chains, is heard to say,