ferocious
natures are soothed and tamed by innocence. And so with human beings,
there is a delicacy so pure, that vicious men in its presence become
almost pure; all of purity which is in them is brought out; like
attaches itself to like. The pure heart becomes a centre of
attraction, round which similar atoms gather, and from which
dissimilar ones are repelled. A corrupt heart elicits in an hour all
that is bad in us; a spiritual one brings out and draws to itself all
that is best and purest. Such was Christ. He stood in the world, the
Light of the world, to which all sparks of light gradually gathered.
He stood in the presence of impurity, and men became pure. Note this
in the history of Zaccheus. In answer to the invitation of the Son of
man, he says, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor,
and if I have done wrong to any man I restore him fourfold." So also
the Scribe, "Well, Master, thou hast well said, there is one God, and
there is none other than He." To the pure Saviour, all was pure. He
was lifted up on high, and drew all men unto Him.

Lastly, all situations are pure to the pure. According to the world,
some professions are reckoned honourable, and some dishonourable. Men
judge according to a standard merely conventional, and not by that of
moral rectitude. Yet it was in truth, the men who were in these
situations which made them such. In the days of the Redeemer, the
publican's occupation was a degraded one, merely because low base men
filled that place. But since He was born into the world a poor,
labouring man, poverty is noble and dignified, and toil is honourable.
To the man who feels that "the king's daughter is all glorious
within," no outward situation can seem inglorious or impure.

There are three words which express almost the same thing, but whose
meaning is entirely different. These are, the gibbet, the scaffold,
and the cross. So far as we know, none die on the gibbet but men of
dishonourable and base life. The scaffold suggests to our minds the
noble deaths of our greatest martyrs. The cross was once a gibbet, but
it is now the highest name we have, because He hung on it. Christ has
purified and ennobled the cross. This principle runs through life. It
is not the situation which makes the man, but the man who makes the
situation. The slave may be a freeman. The monarch may be a slave.
Situations are noble or ignoble, as we make them.

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