whose name is Holy cannot pass them by.  We may elude the vigilance of a human enemy and place ourselves beyond his reach.  God fills all space—­there is not a spot in which His piercing eye is not on us, and His uplifted hand cannot find us out.  Man must strike soon if he would strike at all; for opportunities pass away from him, and his victim may escape his vengeance by death.  There is no passing of opportunity with God, and it is this which makes His long suffering a solemn thing.  God can wait, for He has a whole eternity before Him in which He may strike.  “All things are open, and naked to Him with whom we have to do.”

In the next place we are taught the heavenly character of condescension.  It is not from the insignificance of man that God’s dwelling with him is so strange.  It is as much the glory of God to bend His attention on an atom as to uphold the universe.  But the marvel is that the habitation which He has chosen for Himself is an impure one.  And when He came down from His magnificence to make this world His home, still the same character of condescension was shown through all the life of Christ.  Our God selected the society of the outcasts of earth, those whom none else would speak to.

Brethren, if we would be Godlike, we must follow in the same steps.  Our temptation is to do exactly the reverse.  We are for ever wishing to obtain the friendship and the intimacy of those above us in the world.  To win over men of influence to truth—­to associate with men of talent and station, and title.  This is the world-chase, and this, brethren, is too much the religious man’s chase.  But if you look simply to the question of resemblance to God, then the man who makes it a habit to select that one in life to do good to, and that one in a room to speak with, whom others pass by because there is nothing either of intellect, or power, or name, to recommend him, but only humbleness, that man has stamped upon his heart more of heavenly similitude by condescension, than the man who has made it his business to win this world’s great ones, even for the sake of truth.

Lastly, we learn the guilt of two things of which this world is full—­vanity and pride.  There is a distinction between these two.  But the distinction consists in this, that the vain man looks for the admiration of others—­the proud man requires nothing but his own.  Now, it is this distinction which makes vanity despicable to us all.  We can easily find out the vain man—­we soon discover what it is he wants to be observed, whether it be a gift of person, or a gift of mind, or a gift of character.  If he be vain of his person, his attitudes will tell the tale.  If he be vain of his judgment, or his memory, or his honesty, he cannot help an unnecessary parade.  The world finds him out, and this is why vanity is ever looked on with contempt.  So soon as we let men see that we are suppliants for their admiration,