December 10

Be clothed with humility. - 1 Peter 5:5.

HOWEVER grace may have distinguished and enriched its possessors, if they have an inheritance now, they know they were poor enough once; if now they are clothed with the garments of salvation, they know that once they were naked and in a state of utter spiritual destitution; if they are now nigh, they have been “made nigh by the blood of Christ,” for they were once “far off;” if they are now pardoned, they were once condemned; if they are now renewed in the spirit of their minds, they were once carnally-minded. Christians, therefore, above all others, should not be proud, but humble.

Hence says the prophet to the Jews, “Look to the rock from whence ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from whence ye were digged.” And Christians should not only be humble, but grateful, calling daily upon their soul, and all that is within them, to bless and praise God’s holy name.

There are three dresses mentioned in Scripture in which Christians appear to great advantage; and it may be difficult to determine which becomes them best. One of these is the dress here mentioned by Peter,-the dress of humility. And another is what Jeremiah calls the “garments of praise,” in which also the Christian looks very fair and comely; for, as David says, “praise is comely;” it is becoming in us to be thankful, for we cannot appear to greater advantage than in these garments of praise, and in being “clothed with humility.” Arrayed in these, we shall “adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.” But there is still another dress in which the Christian appears to advantage, and that is zeal. Isaiah speaks of putting on “zeal as a cloak,”-a beautiful garment.

Oh, how well a Christian looks in this, when he is not only humble, and thankful in his own soul, but when he is concerned that others may partake with him, -when he invites them, when he calls upon them, to come forward and hear what God has done for his soul! Oh, may we be distinguished more and more by it, and say, with the first Christians, “That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”