minister,” Matt. xx:  28; and again—­“I am among you as he that serveth,” Luke xxii:  27, he was giving an example of humility.  When he borrowed an ass to make his triumphal entrance into Jerusalem; though he could say in truth, “every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills;”—­(Ps. 1:  10), he was setting an example of humility.  When he hid himself away from the people because he saw that they wanted to take him by force and make him king, he was giving a lesson of humility.  When he allowed himself to be taken prisoner, though he knew that if he had asked his Father in heaven, he would, at once, have sent “more than twelve legions of angels” to deliver him, he was giving an example of humility.  When he kept silence, at the bar of the high-priest, of Herod, of Pontius Pilate, like “a lamb dumb before her shearers,” while his enemies were charging him falsely with all kinds of wickedness; when he allowed the Roman soldiers to scourge him with rods, till his back was all bleeding; to put a crown of thorns upon his head; to array him in a purple robe in mockery of his being a king; to smite him with the palms of their hands, and spit upon him; and then to nail him to the cross, and put him to the most shameful of all deaths—­as if he were a wicked man, who did not deserve to live—­he was giving the most wonderful example of humility that ever was heard of.  Jesus, the Lord of glory hanging on the shameful cross!—­O, this was an example of humility that must have filled the angels of heaven with surprise, and wonder!

And when we think of all that Jesus did and suffered, to set us an example of humility, it should make us ashamed of being proud; and anxious, above all things, to learn this lesson which he did so much to teach us.

“Imitating Christ’s Humility.”  I think I never heard of a more beautiful instance of persons learning to imitate the humility of Christ, than is told of some Moravian Missionaries.  These good men had heard the story of the unhappy slaves in the West Indies.  Those poor creatures were wearing out their lives in hard bondage.  They had very little comfort in this life, and no knowledge of that gracious Saviour who alone can secure, for sinful creatures, such as we are, a better portion in the life to come.  These missionaries offered to go out to the West Indies, and teach those slaves about Jesus, and the great salvation that is to be found in him.  But they were told that the owners of the slaves would not let them go to school or to church.  They would not allow them to take time enough from their work to learn anything about the salvation of their souls.  There was only one way in which those poor slaves could be taught anything about Jesus and his love, and that was, for those who wished to teach them, to go and be slaves on the plantations, to work, and toil, if need be, under the lash, so that they could get right beside them and then tell them about the way of salvation that