II. THAT HE WHO NOW PLEADS BEFORE THEM WILL BE THEIR JUDGE. An astonishing reversal of circumstances is about to take place: the Advocate is about to ascend the judicial bench, and those before whom He pleads are about to stand at His bar. He has announced beforehand the principles upon which then He will proceed. +1. He will have no regard to rank.+ He will "enter into judgment with the ancients and princes." In many countries, great criminals have been able to defy the judge; but none shall be able to defy this Judge.[1] +2. He will pronounce mere indifference to want and suffering a crime+ (Matt. xxv. 42-45). +3. Those who have inflicted suffering He will judge upon the strict rule of retribution, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"+ (James ii. 13). By these truths let us be guided in our use of whatever power over others that may have been entrusted to us. Let us hear God proclaiming that the poor are _His_ people, and let us so comport ourselves towards them, that in the end we may come to know the fulness of the meaning of the Master's declaration, that "_blessed_ are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." FOOTNOTES: [1] Justice, when equal scales she holds, is blind, Nor cruelty nor mercy change her mind. When some escape for that which others die, Mercy to those, to these is cruelty: A fine and slender net the spider weaves: Which little and slight animals receives; And if she catch a summer bee or fly, They with a piteous groan and murmur die; But if a wasp or hornet she entrap, They tear her cords, like a Sampson, and escape; So, like a fly, the poor offender dies; But like the wasp, the rich escapes and flies. --_Sir John Denham._ In the corrupted currents of this world, Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice, And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above: There is no shuffling, there the action lies In its nature: and we ourselves compell'd, Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, To give in evidence.--_Shakespeare._ HAUGHTINESS. iii. 16, 17. _Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, . . . therefore the Lord will smite._ A terrible doom is here denounced against the Jewish women, not because they were vicious, but because they were haughty. Haughtiness is found also in men, though in them its manifestations are somewhat different. It is therefore a question of universal interest. In what respects is haughtiness sinful?