and hard-handed as they
were, were ladies in the sight of that Heavenly Father, who is no
respecter of persons; and felt how truly a wise ancient has said,--
'It is virtue, yea, virtue, gentlemen, which maketh gentlemen; which
maketh the poor rich, the strong weak, the simple wise, the base-
born noble. This rank neither the whirling wheel of Fortune can
destroy, nor the deceitful cavillings of worldlings separate;
neither sickness abate, nor time abolish.' No; for it is written,
that though prophecies shall fail, tongues cease, knowledge vanish
away, and all that we now know is but in part, yet charity shall
never fail those who are full of the Spirit of Love, but abide with
them for ever and ever, bringing forth fruit through all eternity to
everlasting life.

But what sort of virtue? Do not mistake that. Not what the world
calls virtue; not mere legal respectability, which says, I do unto
others as they do unto me; which is often merely the whitening
outside the sepulchre, and leaves the heart within unrenewed,
unrighteous, full of pride and ambition, conceit, cunning, and envy,
and unbelief in God: not that virtue, but the virtue which the
Apostle tells us to add to our faith, the virtue from above, which
is the same as the wisdom from above, which is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated; in one word, the Holy
Spirit of God, the Spirit of Divine Love and Charity, which seeketh
not its own, which St. Paul has described to us in this epistle; the
Holy Spirit of God, with which the Lord Jesus was filled without
measure, and which He manifested to all the world in His most
blessed life and death.

Ah, my friends, this is not an easy lesson to learn. Christ's
disciples and apostles could not learn it all at once. They tried
to hinder little children from coming to Him. They rebuked the
blind man who called after Him. How could the great Prophet of
Nazareth stoop to trouble Himself about such poor insignificant
people? They could not conceive, either, why the Lord Jesus should
choose to die shamefully, when He might have lived in honour: it
seemed unworthy of Him. They were shocked at His words. 'That be
far from Thee, Lord,' said Peter. Afterwards, when they really
understood what that word 'Lord,' meant, and what sort of a man a
true and perfect Lord ought to be, then they saw how fit, and
proper, and glorious, Christ's self-sacrifice was. When, too, they
learnt to look on Him, not