and envy.  Down, and safe, thank God, from all pride, all high-mindedness, and all stout-heartedness.  Down from the hard and cruel hills, and buried deep out of sight among those meadows where that herb grows which is called Heart’s-ease.  Down, where the green pastures grow and the quiet waters flow.  No, indeed; he that is down into this sweet bottom needs fear no fall.  For there is nowhere here for a man to fall from.  And, even if he did fall, he would only fall upon a fragrance-breathing bed of lilies.  The very herbs and flowers here would conspire to hold him up.  Many a day, as He grew up, the carpenter’s son sat in that same valley and sang that same song to His own humble and happy heart.  He loved much to be here.  He loved also to walk these meadows, for He found the air was pleasant.  Methinks, He often said with Mercy, I am as well in this valley as I have been anywhere else in My journey.  The place, methinks, suits with My spirit.  I love to be in such places where there is no rattling with coaches nor rumbling with wheels.  Methinks, also, here one may without much molestation be thinking what he is, whence he came, and to what his King has called him.

   He that is low, no pride.

Low in his own eyes, that is.  For pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.  Yes; but he who is low enough already—­none of the sure destructions that pride always works shall ever come near to him.  “The proud man,” says Sir Henry Taylor, “is of all men the most vulnerable.  ‘Who calls?’ asks the old shepherd in As You Like It.  ‘Your betters,’ is the insolent answer.  And what is the shepherd’s rejoinder?  ‘Else are they very wretched.’  By what retort, reprisal, or repartee could it have been made half so manifest that the insult had lighted upon armour of proof?  Such is the invincible independence and invulnerability of humility.”

   He that is humble ever shall
      Have God to be his guide.

For thus saith the high and holy One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy:  I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the heart of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones . . .  All those things hath Mine hand made, but to this man will I look, saith the Lord, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembleth at My word . . .  Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly; but the proud He knoweth afar off . . .  Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.  Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble . . .  Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.  Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother:  my soul is even as a weaned child . . .  Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.