The Condescension of Christ.
When the Saviour appeared among men, it was not as one lifted up from the ranks to procure station for Himself, but as one who descended from the heavens to convey blessings to the people. The ignorant and the illiterate find in Him their best friend. He is no stern law-giver, who, wrapped up in His own integrity, looks upon the transgressor with the eye of justice; neither is He simply the bold enunciator of penalty and punishment, nor the pitiless denouncer of crime and iniquity. He is the gentle lover of our souls; the good Shepherd coming forth, not so much to slay the wolf, as to save the sheep. As the nurse tenderly watches over her child, so He watches for the souls of men; and like as a father pitieth his children, so does Jesus pity poor sinners. It is not so much drawing sinners up to Him, as coming down to them; not standing on the mountain-top and bidding them ascend, but coming down from the mountain, and mingling in social intercourse with them; coming down from the high pastures after His sheep in the glens, and in the ravines, that He may lay hold of them, lift them on His mighty shoulders, and bear them up to the place where He shall fold them in purity, bless them with all grace, and preserve them unto future glory.