That the mind may be formed into a susceptibility of these great truths, the temper of a little child must first be implanted in it. For, while its natural pride and enmity remain, there is nothing to which a sinner is so averse, as to that of renouncing self, and being dependant for his whole salvation upon the Lord Jesus Christ. From hence arose the unwillingness of the Jews to “submit themselves unto the righteousness of God;” Rom. x. 3; and from the same bitter root sprung self-righteous Saul’s “confidence in the flesh.” Phil. iii. 4. But, as soon as the power of God brought that once-elated Pharisee to the dust, and effectually broke his heart, he who thought that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus, is made to cry out to that very person, whom he once blasphemed, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” From that moment, the lofty self-justiciary became a little child, and ever after gloried only in the cross. He learned to “count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus the Lord;” Phil. iii. 8; esteemed himself nothing, and Jesus all; and “the life which he lived in the flesh, was by the faith of the Son of God.” Gal. ii. 20. The idol of self-righteousness in his heart was pulled down, that Christ, and Christ alone, might ever after possess, in all things, the pre-eminence; as he must, in ours also, if ever we would enjoy a well-grounded hope of entering the kingdom of heaven. Which leads me to consider, III. How much every individual is concerned in the subject, since our Lord declares, that, without conversion, in the scriptural light in which it has been represented, none can be partaker of his glory. This awful declaration rests upon the veracity and power of God, and upon the nature of that work of the Spirit, “which makes us _meet_ to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” Col. i. 12.