h. When the tide is out, the little
rock-pools on the shore lie separated by stretches of slimy weeds,
but the great sea, when it rushes up, buries the divisions, and
unites them all. Our Christian unity is unity in Christ, and the only
sure way 'to be of the same mind one toward another' is, that 'the
mind which was in Christ Jesus be in us also.'

II. The divisive power of selfish ambition.

'Set not your mind on high things, but condescend to things that are
lowly.' The contrast here drawn between the high and the lowly makes
it probable that the latter as well as the former is to be taken as
referring to 'things' rather than persons. The margin of the Revised
Version gives the literal rendering of the word translated
'condescend.' 'To be carried away with,' is metaphorically equivalent
to surrendering one's self to; and the two clauses present two sides
of one disposition, which seeks not for personal advancement or
conspicuous work which may minister to self-gratulation, but
contentedly fills the lowly sphere, and 'the humblest duties on
herself doth lay.' We need not pause to point out that such an ideal
is dead against the fashionable maxims of this generation. Personal
ambition is glorified as an element in progress, and to a world which
believes in such a proverb as 'devil take the hindmost,' these two
exhortations can only seem fanatical absurdity. And yet, perhaps, if
we fairly take into account how the seeking after personal
advancement and conspicuous work festers the soul, and how the flower
of heart's-ease grows, as Bunyan's shepherd-boy found out, in the
lowly valley, these exhortations to a quiet performance of lowly
duties and a contented filling of lowly spheres, may seem touched
with a higher wisdom than is to be found in the arenas where men
trample over each other in their pursuit of a fame 'which appeareth
for a little time, and then vanisheth away.' What a peaceful world it
would be, and what peaceful souls they would have, if Christian
people really adopted as their own these two simple maxims. They are
easy to understand, but how hard they are to follow.

It needs scarcely be noted that the temper condemned here destroys
all the concord and amity which the Apostle has been urging in the
previous clause. Where every man is eagerly seeking to force himself
in front of his neighbour, any community will become a struggling
mob; and they who are trying to outrun one another and who grasp at
'hig