or the worst scholar here to
understand.

"God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." Now, this
saying is an old one. It had been said, in different words, centuries
before St Peter said it. The old prophets and psalmists say it again and
again. The idea of it runs through the whole of the Old Testament, as
anyone must know who has read his Bible with common care. But why should
it be true? What reason is there for it? What is there in the character
of God which makes it reasonable, probable, likely to be true? That God
would give grace to the humble, and reward men for bowing down before His
Majesty, seems not so difficult to understand. But why should God resist
the proud? How does a man's being proud injure God, who is "I AM THAT I
AM;" perfectly self-sufficient, having neither parts nor passions, who
tempteth no man, neither is tempted of any? "Why should God go out of
His way, as it were, to care for such a paltry folly as the pride of an
ignorant, weak, short-sighted creature like man?

Now, let us take care that we do not give a wrong answer to this
question--an answer which too many have given, in their hearts and minds,
though not perhaps in words, and so have fallen into abject and cruel
superstitions, from which may God keep us, and our children after us.
They have said to themselves, God is proud, and has a right to be proud:
and therefore He chooses no one to be proud but Himself. Pride in man
calls out His pride, and makes Him angry. They have thought of God as
some despotic Sultan of the Indies, who is surrounded, not by free men,
but by slaves; who will have those slaves at his beck and nod. In one
word, they have thought of God as a tyrant. They have thought of God,
and, may God forgive them, have talked of God as if He were like
Nebuchadnezzar of old, who, when the three young men refused to obey him,
was filled with rage and fury, and cast them into a burning fiery
furnace. That is some men's God--a God who must be propitiated by
crouching and flattery, lest he should destroy them--a God who holds all
men as his slaves, and therefore hates pride in them. For what has a
slave to do with pride?

But that is not the God of the Bible, my friends, nor the God of Nature
either, the God who made the world and man. For He is not a tyrant, but
a Father. He wishes men not to be His slaves, but His children. And if
He resists the proud, it i