11. Let us, therefore, most fervently beseech the Lord, to give us true faith and sincere love; a love not defiled with any desire of vain honor, profit, and glory. Whenever this divine temper is obtained and established in the heart, it is followed with this happy effect, that thereby not only great and illustrious endowments and works are made acceptable to God, but also the least and meanest of all, even the gift of a cup of cold water. Matt. 10:42. For a small work proceeding from sincere love and humility, is far more excellent than all the splendid works that are raised on no other foundation than pride and self-love. Chapter XXXII. Great Gifts Do Not Demonstrate A Man To Be A Christian, But Faith That Works By Love. _The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power._—1 COR. 4:20. St. Paul, intending to describe a Christian in a few words, says: “The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” 1 Tim. 1:5. As if he had said: To be a Christian, and to render ourselves acceptable in the sight of God, requires nothing hard and lofty; no worldly wisdom, no human learning, no great parts, no gift of prophesying, no eloquence, no knowledge of tongues, no miracles: but only that a man have faith in Christ; that he do all things in love, and with a mind wholly resigned to God; and that he suffer himself to be led and governed by the good Spirit of God. 2. We should not, therefore, regard how many languages a man speaks, or how eloquent he is in his delivery; but how he shows forth his faith by love, and by the mortification of the flesh. “For they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal. 5:24): under which are included self-esteem, self-love, covetousness, vain-boasting, ambition, self-interest, and all else that is carnal. To which purpose also St. Paul says, that “the kingdom of God is not in word,” or in great gifts and endowments, “but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20); that is, in a living exercise of Christian virtues, of faith, love, meekness, patience, and humility. 3. Therefore, no man is in favor with God, or is saved, because he is endued with brighter gifts than others; but because he is found in Christ Jesus by faith, and lives in him as a new creature. 2 Cor. 5:17. Great gifts do not make us happy. If a man had attained to gifts so extraordinary and marvellous as never any possessed before, yet would he be certainly cast away, unless he lived at the same time in the exercise of daily repentance in Christ, in a ready abnegation of the world, and in a denial of himself, and of all his selfish desires. Nay, if he did not hate and forsake himself, so as to place his whole confidence in God alone, and to cleave to his grace, as an infant to the breast of the mother, he would be forever banished from the presence of God, notwithstanding all his gifts and all his endowments.