hich
thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in--great _humility_."

If Jesus had come into our world as an angel, it would have been an
act of humility. If he had come as a great and mighty king, it would
have been an act of humility. But when he was born in a stable, and
cradled in a manger; when he could say of himself, "the foxes have
holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath
not where to lay his head;" when there never was an acre, or a foot
of ground that he called his own, although he made the world and all
things in it; when he sailed in a borrowed boat, and was buried in a
borrowed tomb; how well it might be said that he was teaching
humility all the days of his life on earth! Yet he did not think that
_this_ was enough. And so he gave his disciples a special lesson on
this subject.

We have an account of this lesson in St. John xiii: 4-15. It is
taught us in these words:--"He riseth from supper, and laid aside his
garments; and took a towel and girdled himself. After that he poureth
water into a bason, and began to wash his disciples' feet, and to
wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded." Then occurs the
incident about the objection which Peter made to letting Jesus wash
his feet, and the way in which that objection was overcome. And then
the story goes on thus:--"So after he had washed their feet, and had
taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, 'Know
ye what I have done unto you? Ye call me Master, and Lord; and ye say
well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your
feet; ye ought also to wash one another's feet. For I have given you
an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.'"

This was a very surprising scene. How astonished the angels must have
been when they looked upon it! They had known Jesus in heaven, before
he took upon him our nature, and came into this fallen world. They
had seen him in "the glory which he had with the Father, before the
world was." They had worshipped him in the midst of all that glory.
And then, when they saw him, girded with a towel and washing the feet
of poor sinful men whom he came from heaven to save, how surprising
it must have seemed to them! And when Jesus told his disciples that
his object in doing this was to set them an example, that they should
do as he had done to them, he did not mean that they should literally
make a practice of washing each other's feet; but that they should