out alleviation! Terror without excuse! Damnation without gainsaying! The example He gave us in our own nature shall close our lips and clearly prove to us that we could and should have kept the divine commandments and lived according to them.
Christ will confound and convict the sinner by His examples. Come now, O sinner, and imagine with me that you hear the and convict dread sound of the last trumpet calling you before the tribunal of this Man: Arise, ye dead, and come to judgment! “Give an account of thy stewardship.”[1] Where did you get the audacity with which you wantonly trampled My law under foot? Who has given you the courage to persecute and insult even to death Me, your Creator, your Redeemer, your Sovereign Benefactor? Give an account! Answer Me!—Now sigh forth again: Ah, Lord, remember that I am a poor mortal clothed with flesh, and subject to many weaknesses and frailties! Thy law was altogether too hard for me, and therefore Thou shouldst forgive me for not having observed it! What! the Judge will reply, am I a stock or a stone? Am I not a Man like you and clothed with flesh as you are? It is true that as Man I could not sin because I had a full knowledge of the Godhead which was united to My humanity; but were you obliged to sin because you were at liberty to do so? Was My grace, My help, ever wanting to you? Was it not always ready to assist your weakness in temptations? “Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together: tell if thou hast anything to justify thyself.”[2]
The proud man. Wilt thou still try to excuse thyself, proud man? I, the Sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, have not disdained to become like to thee; but thou, wretched worm of earth, wert ashamed to resemble Me. I took the form of a servant to teach thee humility: “Learn of Me, because I am meek and humble of heart;”[3] but thou hast not been content to remain in the limits of the station allotted thee. I have lived for thirty whole years hidden in the cabin of a poor carpenter, although I might have made a great name for Myself before the world by My preaching and miracles; I fled from the people when they wished to make Me king; but thou wert not satisfied to remain as thou wert; thou didst not spare any effort to extol thyself above others, and to treat with contempt and scorn thy fellow-men. I have worn during My whole life a poor garment; but nothing could content
