I love to contemplate this glorious feature of our blessed religion.  The docile, teachable disposition of the little child, coupled with the honest confession of Peter:  “I am a sinful man, O Lord,” is the low plane of feeling upon which the Savior enters the soul.  It was declared by a prophet respecting his first advent into the world:  “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low.”  Mountains and hills in this passage signify the proud and self-exalted desires and lusts of the wicked man, which are to be laid low because such states of heart and life forever oppose themselves to the meekness and gentleness of Christ.  But the principle of humility, signified by a valley, is to be exalted:  not that humility exalteth or can exalt itself; but this truly humble state of mind prepares man to receive the Lord’s saving truth, and this exalts a man.  “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

For myself, Brethren, I can say with the Apostle Paul, that “in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing:  for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not.  For the good which I would I do not:  but the evil which I would not, that I do....  I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  but I perceive a different law in my members, warring against the will of my spirit, and bringing me into captivity to the sway of sin in my members.”  Paul here speaks of the inward man, and of the members or outward man.  This takes my thought to the tabernacle in the wilderness.  It had an outer court and an inner sanctuary.  The tables of God’s holy law were placed in this most holy place.  It was right in this most holy place, over the mercy seat, which was the golden cover to the ark that contained the tables of the law, that Jehovah had his dwelling place.  It was there he talked with Moses.  The outer court was for offerings, and served as a place for the confession of sin and its forgiveness.  Brethren, I am glad to think we are like this tabernacle, that we have a most holy place, an inner sanctuary, in the inmost of our heart, where Jesus has his dwelling place with us, and where his voice alone is heard.  In this holy of holies we feel his love, and it is there we see his face.  It is there that he appears to us the fairest among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely.  It is here that we sing: 

  “Jesus, I love thy charming name;
    ’Tis music in mine ear;
  Fain would I sound it out so loud
    That earth and heaven might hear.

  “Yes, thou art precious to my soul;
    My transport and my trust: 
  Jewels to thee are gaudy toys,
    And gold is sordid dust.

  “I’ll speak the honors of thy name
    With my last fleeting breath: 
  And, dying, clasp thee in my arms,
    The antidote of death.”