her say, 'With me it is a very small
matter to be judged of man's judgment. He that judgeth me is the Lord.'

There are plenty of hands, foremost among them a black one that is not
so much a hand as a claw, ready to snatch the girdle of humility off
you! Buckle it tight about you, brother; and in an immovable temper of
lowly estimate of yourself live and work.

II. The second thought here is, What we are to wear the apron or girdle
for?

The Revised Version makes a little alteration in the reading as well as
in the translation of our text, the previous words to which, in the
Authorised Version stand, 'Yea, all of you be subject one to another.'
There is another reading which strikes out that clause, and adds a
portion of it to the first part of my text, which then runs thus: 'Yea,
all of you gird yourselves with humility to serve one another.' That is
what Christian humility is for. The slave put on his garment, whatever
it was, when he had work to do.

But perhaps there is a deeper thought here. I wonder if it is fanciful
to see in the text one of the very numerous allusions in this epistle to
the events in our Lord's Passion. You remember that Jesus laid aside His
garments, and took a towel, and girded Himself, and washed the
disciples' feet, and then said, 'The servant is not above His master. I
have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.'
Probably, I think, there floated before the memory of the man who had
said, 'Lord, Thou shalt never wash my feet,' and then, with the swift
recoil to the opposite pole which makes us love Him so much, hurried to
say, 'Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head'--some
reminiscence of that upper chamber, and of how the Master had girded
Himself with the slave's apron, or towel, in order that He might serve
the disciples; and then had told them that that was the pattern for all
Christian men, and for all Christian living till the very end.

Service coming from humility, and humility manifested in service, are
the requirements laid down in the text. Humility is the preparation for
service; and service is the test of humility. If a man does not feel
himself to be needy and low, he will never be able, and he will never be
willing, to help those that are. You must go down if you would lift up.
Laces and velvets and the fine feathers that the peacocks of
self-conceit in this world strut about in are terribly in the way of
Christian work. Rough work n