For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

A successor to the faith of the apostles delights to feel that he is a layman; that he is one of the flock; and of the best of the sheep it contains, because his sole anxiety is to know and obey the great shepherd's voice (Heb. 13:20; John 10:27). He is not a wolf, nor a dog, rending and devouring the flock, and investing himself with its wool; but one who would be the servant of the least, that he may be exalted to an unfading crown of glory, when the good shepherd shall appear to give life to all his sheep for evermore.