Humility 1

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12

Humility
by Andrew Murray
Chapter 1 2

Chapter 1

Humility: The Glory of the Creature

"They shall cast their crowns before the throne, so saying: Worthy art
Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory, and the honor and the
power: for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they are,
and were created. " --Rev. 4:11

When God created the universe, it was with the one object of making the
creature partaker of His perfection and blessedness, and so showing forth in
it the glory of His love and wisdom and power. God wished to reveal
Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much
of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this
communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could
possess in itself, a certain life or goodness, of which it had the charge and
disposal. By no means. But as God is the ever-living, ever-present,
ever-acting One, who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, and in
whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one
of unceasing, absolute, universal dependence. As truly as God by His
power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment
maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first
beginning of existence, and acknowledge that it there owes everything to
God; its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through
all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel, in which God can dwell and
manifest His power and goodness.

The life God bestows is imparted not once for all, but each moment
continuously, by the unceasing operation of His mighty power. Humility,
the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things,
the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every
virtue.

And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil. It
was when the now fallen angels began to look upon themselves with
self-complacency that they were led to disobedience, and were cast down
Chapter 1 3

from the light of heaven into outer darkness. Even so it was, when the
serpent breathed the poison of his pride, the desire to be as God, into the
hearts of our first parents, that they too fell from their high estate into all
the wretchedness in which man is now sunk. In heaven and earth, pride,
self-exaltation, is the gate and the birth, and the curse, of hell.[1]

Hence it follows that nothing can be our redemption, but the restoration of
the 'lost humility, the original and only true relation of the creature to its
God. And so Jesus came to bring humility back to earth, to make us
partakers of it, and by it to save us. In heaven He humbled Himself to
become man. The humility we see in Him possessed Him in heaven; it
brought Him, He brought it, from there. Here on earth "He humbled
Himself, and became obedient unto death"; His humility gave His death its
value, and so became our redemption. And now the salvation He imparts is
nothing less and nothing else than a communication of His own life and
death, His own disposition and spirit, His own humility, as the ground and
root of His relation to God and His redeeming work. Jesus Christ took the
place and fulfilled the destiny of man, as a creature, by His life of perfect
humility. His humility is our salvation. His salvation is our humility.

And so the life of the saved ones, of the saints, must needs bear this stamp
of deliverance from sin, and full restoration to their original state; their
whole relation to God and man marked by an all-pervading humility.
Without this there can be no true abiding in God's presence, or experience
of His favor and the power of His Spirit; without this no abiding faith, or
love or joy or strength. Humility is the only soil in which the graces root;
the lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure.
Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others; it is the root of
all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God, and allows Him as
God to do all.

God has so constituted us as reasonable beings, that the truer the insight
into the real nature or the absolute need of a command, the readier and
fuller will be our obedience to it. The call to humility has been too little
regarded in the Church because its true nature and importance has been too
little apprehended. It is not a something which we bring to God, or He
Chapter 1 4

bestows; it is simply the sense of entire nothingness, which comes when we

see how truly God is all, and in which we make way for God to be all.
When the creature realizes that this is the true nobility, and consents to be
with his will, his mind, and his affections, the form, the vessel in which the
life and glory of God are to work and manifest themselves, he sees that
humility is simply acknowledging the truth of his position as creature, and
yielding to God His place.

In the life of earnest Christians, of those who pursue and profess holiness,
humility ought to be the chief mark of their uprightness. It is often said that
it is not so. May not one reason be that in the teaching and example of the
Church, it has never had that place of supreme importance which belongs to
it? And that this, again, is owing to the neglect of this truth, that strong as
sin is as a motive to humility, there is one of still wider and mightier
influence, that which makes the angels, that which made Jesus, that which
makes the holiest of saints in heaven, so humble; that the first and chief
mark of the relation of the creature, the secret of his blessedness, is the
humility and nothingness which leaves God free to be all?

I am sure there are many Christians who will confess that their experience
has been very much like my own in this, that we had long known the Lord
without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart are to be the
distinguishing feature of the disciple as they were of the Master. And
further, that this humility is not a thing that will come of itself, but that it
must be made the object of special desire and prayer and faith and practice.
As we study the word, we shall see what very distinct and oft-repeated
instructions Jesus gave His disciples on this point, and how slow they were
in understanding Him. Let us, at the very commencement of our
meditations, admit that there is nothing so natural to man, nothing so
insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as
pride. Let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering
waiting on God and Christ will discover how lacking we are in the grace of
humility, and how impotent to obtain what we seek. Let us study the
character of Christ until our souls are filled with the love and admiration of
His lowliness. And let us believe that, when we are broken down under a
sense of our pride, and our impotence to cast it out, Jesus Christ Himself
Chapter 1 5

will come in to impart this grace too, as a part of His wondrous life within
us.
Chapter 2 6

Chapter 2

Humility: The Secret of Redemption

"Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who emptied
Himself; taking the form of a servant; and humbled Himself; becoming
obedient even unto death. Wherefore God also highly exalted Him. "Phil. 2:
5-9.

No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang. Through all its
existence it can only live with the life that was in the seed that gave it
being. The full apprehension of this truth in its application to the first and
the Second Adam cannot but help us greatly to understand both the need
and the nature of the redemption there is in Jesus.

The Need. -- When the Old Serpent, he who had been cast out from heaven
for his pride, whose whole nature as devil was pride, spoke his words of
temptation into the ear of Eve, these words carried with them the very
poison of hell. And when she listened, and yielded her desire and her will
to the prospect of being as God, knowing good and evil, the poison entered
into her soul and blood and life, destroying forever that blessed humility
and dependence upon God which would have been our everlasting
happiness. And instead of this, her life and the life of the race that sprang
from her became corrupted to its very root with that most terrible of all sins
and all curses, the poison of Satan's own pride. All the wretchedness of
which this world has been the scene, all its wars and bloodshed among the
nations, all its selfishness and suffering, all its ambitions and jealousies, all
its broken hearts and embittered lives, with all its daily unhappiness, have
their origin in what this cursed, hellish pride, either our own, or that of
others, has brought us. It is pride that made redemption needful; it is from
our pride we need above everything to be redeemed. And our insight into
the need of redemption will largely depend upon our knowledge of the
terrible nature of the power that has entered our being.

No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang. The power that
Satan brought from hell, and cast into man's life, is working daily, hourly,
Chapter 2 7

with mighty power throughout the world. Men suffer from it; they fear and
fight and flee it; and yet they know not whence it comes, whence it has its
terrible supremacy. No wonder they do not know where or how it is to be
overcome. Pride has its root and strength in a terrible spiritual power,
outside of us as well as within us; as needful as it is that we confess and
deplore it as our very own, is to know it in its Satanic origin. If this leads us
to utter despair of ever conquering or casting it out, it will lead us all the
sooner to that supernatural power in which alone our deliverance is to be
found--the redemption of the Lamb of God. The hopeless struggle against
the workings of self and pride within us may indeed become still more
hopeless as we think of the power of darkness behind it all; the utter despair
will fit us the better for realizing and accepting a power and a life outside of
ourselves too, even the humility of heaven as brought down and brought
nigh by the Lamb of God, to cast out Satan and his pride.

No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang. Even as we need
to look to the first Adam and his fall to know the power of the sin within
us, we need to know well the Second Adam and His power to give within
us a life of humility as real and abiding and overmastering as has been that
of pride. We have our life from and in Christ, as truly, yea more truly, than
from and in Adam. We are to walk "rooted in Him," "holding fast the Head
from whom the whole body increaseth with the increase of God." The life
of God which in the incarnation entered human nature, is the root in which
we are to stand and grow; it is the same almighty power that worked there,
and thence onward to the resurrection, which works daily in us. Our one
need is to study and know and trust the life that has been revealed in Christ
as the life that is now ours, and waits for our consent to gain possession and
mastery of our whole being.

In this view it is of inconceivable importance that we should have right

thoughts of what Christ is, of what really constitutes Him the Christ, and
specially of what may be counted His chief characteristic, the root and
essence of all His character as our Redeemer. There can be but one answer:
it is His humility. What is the incarnation but His heavenly humility, His
emptying Himself and becoming man? What is His life on earth but
humility; His taking the form of a servant? And what is His atonement but
Chapter 2 8

humility? "He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death." And
what is His ascension and His glory, but humility exalted to the throne and
crowned with glory? "He humbled Himself, therefore God highly exalted
Him." In heaven, where He was with the Father, in His birth, in His life, in
His death, in His sitting on the throne, it is all, it is nothing but humility.
Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature; the Eternal Love
humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to
win and serve and save us. As the love and condescension of God makes
Him the benefactor and helper and servant of all, so Jesus of necessity was
the Incarnate Humility. And so He is still in the midst of the throne, the
meek and lowly Lamb of God.

If this be the root of the tree, its nature must be seen in every branch and
leaf and fruit. If humility be the first, the all-including grace of the life of
Jesus,--if humility be the secret of His atonement,--then the health and
strength of our spiritual life will entirely depend upon our putting this grace
first too, and making humility the chief thing we admire in Him, the chief
thing we ask of Him, the one thing for. which we sacrifice all else.[2]

Is it any wonder that the Christian life is so often feeble and fruitless, when
the very root of the Christ life is neglected, is unknown? Is it any wonder
that the joy of salvation is so little felt, when that in which Christ found it
and brings it, is so little sought? Until a humility which will rest in nothing
less than the end and death of self; which gives up all the honor of men as
Jesus did, to seek the honor that comes from God alone; which absolutely
makes and counts itself nothing, that God may be all, that the Lord alone
may be exalted,--until such a humility be what we seek in Christ above our
chief joy, and welcome at any price, there is very little hope of a religion
that will conquer the world.

I cannot too earnestly plead with my reader, if possibly his attention has
never yet been specially directed to the want there is of humility within him
or around him, to pause and ask whether he sees much of the spirit of the
meek and lowly Lamb of God in those who are called by His name. Let
him consider how all want of love, all indifference to the needs, the
feelings, the weakness of others; all sharp and hasty judgments and
Chapter 2 9

utterances, so often excused under the plea of being outright and honest; all
manifestations of temper and touchiness and irritation; all feelings of
bitterness and estrangement, have their root in nothing but pride, that ever
seeks itself, and his eyes will be opened to see how a dark, shall I not say a
devilish pride, creeps in almost everywhere, the assemblies of the saints not
excepted. Let him begin to ask what would be the effect, if in himself and
around him, if towards fellow-saints and the world, believers were really
permanently guided by the humility of Jesus; and let him say if the cry of
our whole heart, night and day, ought not to be, Oh for the humility of
Jesus in myself and all around me! Let him honestly fix his heart on his
own lack of the humility which has been revealed in the likeness of Christ's
life, and in the whole character of His redemption, and he will begin to feel
as if he had never yet really known what Christ and His salvation is.

Believer! study the humility of Jesus. This is the secret, the hidden root of
thy redemption. Sink down into it deeper day by day. Believe with thy
whole heart that this Christ, whom God has given thee, even as His divine
humility wrought the work for thee, will enter in to dwell and work within
thee too, and make thee what the Father would have thee be.
Chapter 3 10

Chapter 3

Humility in The Life Of Jesus

"I am in the midst of you as he that serveth." Luke 22: 27

In the Gospel of John we have the inner life of our Lord laid open to us.
Jesus speaks frequently of His relation to the Father, of the motives by
which He is guided, of His consciousness of the power and spirit in which
He acts. Though the word humble does not occur, we shall nowhere in
Scripture see so clearly wherein His humility consisted. We have already
said that this grace is in truth nothing but that simple consent of the creature
to let God be all, in virtue of which it surrenders itself to His working
alone. In Jesus we shall see how both as the Son of God in heaven, and as
man upon earth, He took the place of entire subordination, and gave God
the honor and the glory which is due to Him-- And what He taught so often
was made true to Himself: "He that humbleth him: shall be exalted." As it
is written, "He humbled Himself, therefore God highly exalted Him."

Listen to the words in which our Lord speaks of His relation to the Father,
and how unceasingly He uses the words not, and nothing, of Himself. The
not I, in which Paul expresses his relation to Christ, is the very spirit of
what Christ says of His relation the Father.

"The Son can do nothing of Himself" (John 5: 19) "I can of My own self do
nothing; My judgment is just, because I seek not Mine own will" (John 5:
30) "I receive not glory from men" (John 5: 41) "I am come not to do Mine
own will" (John 6:38) "My teaching is not Mine" (John 7:16) "I am not
come of Myself" (John 7:28) "I do nothing of Myself" (John 8:28) "I have
not come of Myself, but He sent Me" (John 8: 42). "I seek not Mine own
glory" (John 8:50) "The words that I say, I speak not from Myself" (John
14: 10). "The word which ye hear is not Mine" (John 14: 24).

These words open to us the deepest roots of Christ's life and work. They tell
us how it was that the Almighty God was able to work His mighty
redemptive work through Him. They show what Christ counted the state of
Chapter 3 11

heart which became Him as the Son of the Father. They teach us what the
essential nature and life is of that redemption which Christ accomplished
and now communicates. It is this: He was nothing, that God might be all.
He resigned Himself with His will and His powers entirely for the Father to
work in Him. Of His own power, His own will, and His own glory, of His
whole mission with all His works and His teaching, of all this He said, It is
not I; I am nothing; I have given Myself to the Father to work; I am
nothing, the Father is all.

This life of entire self-abnegation, of absolute submission and dependence

upon the Father's will, Christ found to be one of perfect peace and joy. He
lost nothing by giving all to God. God honored His trust, and did all for
Him, and then exalted Him to His own right hand in glory. And because
Christ had thus humbled Himself before God, and God was ever before
Him, He found it possible to humble Himself before men too, and to be the
Servant of all. His humility was simply the surrender of Himself to God, to
allow Him to do in Him what He pleased, whatever men around might say
of Him, or do to Him.

It is in this state of mind, in this spirit and disposition, that the redemption
of Christ has its virtue and efficacy. It is to bring us to this disposition that
we are made partakers of Christ. This is the true self-denial to which our
Savior calls us, the acknowledgment that self has nothing good in it, except
as an empty vessel which God must fill, and that its claim to be or do
anything may not for a moment be allowed. It is in this, above and before
everything, in which the conformity to Jesus consists, the being and doing
nothing of ourselves, that God may be all.

Here we have the root and nature of true humility. It is because this is not
understood or sought after, that our humility is so superficial and so feeble.
We must learn of Jesus, how He is meek and lowly of heart. He teaches us
where true humility takes its rise and finds its strength--in the knowledge
that it is God who worketh all in all, that our place is to yield to Him in
perfect resignation and dependence, in full consent to be and to do nothing
of ourselves. This is the life Christ came to reveal and to impart--a life to
God that came through death to sin and self. If we feel that this life is too
Chapter 3 12

high for us and beyond our reach, it must but the more urge us to seek it in
Him; it is the indwelling Christ who will live in us this life, meek and
lowly. If we long for this, let us, meantime, above everything, seek the holy
secret of the knowledge of the nature of God, as He every moment works
all in all; the secret, of which all nature and every creature, and above all,
every child of God, is to be the witness,--that it is nothing but a vessel, a
channel, through which the living God can manifest the riches of His
wisdom, power, and goodness. The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith
and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we
receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it.

It was because this humility was not only a temporary sentiment, wakened
up and brought into exercise when He thought of God, but the very spirit of
His whole life, that Jesus was just as humble in His intercourse with men as
with God. He felt Himself the Servant of God for the men whom God made
and loved; as a natural consequence, He counted Himself the Servant of
men, that through Him God might do His work of love. He never for a
moment thought of seeking His honor, or asserting His power to vindicate
Himself. His whole spirit was that of a life yielded to God to work in. It is
not until Christians study the humility of Jesus as the very essence of His
redemption, as the very blessedness of the life of the Son of God, as the
only true relation to the Father, and therefore as that which Jesus must give
us if we are to have any part with Him, that the terrible lack of actual,
heavenly, manifest humility will become a burden and a sorrow, and our
ordinary religion be set aside to secure this, the first and the chief of the
marks of the Christ within us.

Brother, are you clothed with humility? Ask your daily life. Ask Jesus. Ask
your friends. Ask the world. And begin to praise God that there is opened
up to you in Jesus a heavenly humility of which you have hardly known,
and through which a heavenly blessedness you possibly have never yet
tasted can come in to you.
Chapter 4 13

Chapter 4

Humility in the Teaching of Jesus

"Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart. "--Matt. xi. 29.
"Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the
Son of Man came to server." Matt.10:27.

We have seen humility in the life of Christ, as He laid open His heart to us:
let us listen to His teaching. There we shall hear how He speaks of it, and
how far He expects men, and specially His disciples, to be humble as He
was. Let us carefully study the passages, which I can scarce do more than
quote, to receive the full impression of how often and how earnestly He
taught it: it may help us to realize what He asks of us.

1. Look at the commencement of His ministry. In the Beatitudes with

which the Sermon on the Mount opens, He speaks:"Blessed are the poor in
spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek; for they
shall inherit the earth." The very first words of His proclamation of the
kingdom of heaven reveal the open gate through which alone we enter. The
poor, who have nothing in themselves, to them the kingdom comes. The
meek, who seek nothing in themselves, theirs the earth shall be. The
blessings of heaven and earth are for the lowly. For the heavenly and the
earthly life, humility is the secret of blessing.

2. "Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest for
your souls."Jesus offers Himself as Teacher. He tells what the spirit both is,
which we shall find Him as Teacher, and which we can learn and receive
from Him. Meekness and lowliness the one thing He offers us; in it we
shall find perfect rest of soul. Humility is to be a salvation.

3. The disciples had been disputing who would be the greatest in the
kingdom, and had agreed to ask the Master (Luke 9:46; Matt. 18:3). He set
a child in their midst and said, "Whosoever shall humble himself as this
little child, shall be exalted. " "Who the greatest in the kingdom of
heaven?" The question is indeed a far-reaching one. What will be the chief
Chapter 4 14

distinction in the heavenly kingdom? The answer, none but Jesus would
have given. The chief glory of heaven, the true heavenly-mindedness, the
chief of the graces, is humility. "He that is least among you, the same shall
be great."

4. The sons of Zebedee had asked Jesus to sit on His right and left, the
highest place in the kingdom. Jesus said it was not His to give, but the
Father's, who would give it to those for whom it was prepared. They must
not look or ask for it. Their thought must be of the cup and the baptism of
humiliation. And then He added, "Whosoever will be chief among you, let
him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came to serve. " Humility, as
it is the mark of Christ the heavenly, will be the one standard of glory in
heaven: the lowliest is the nearest to God. The primacy in the Church is
promised to the humblest.

5. Speaking to the multitude and the disciples, of the Pharisees and their
love of the chief seats, Christ said once again (Matt. 23:11), "He that is
greatest among you shall be your servant." Humiliation is the only ladder to
honor in God's kingdom.

6. On another occasion, in the house of a Pharisee, He spoke the parable of

the guest who would be invited to come up higher (Luke 14:1-11), and
added, "For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted." The demand is inexorable; there is no
other way. Self-abasement alone will be exalted.

7. After the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, Christ spake again
(Luke18: 14), "Everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted." In the temple and presence and worship
of God, everything is worthless that is not pervaded by deep, true humility
towards God and men.

8. After washing the disciples' feet, Jesus said (John 13:14), "If I then, the
Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one
another's feet." The authority of command, and example, every thought,
either of obedience or conformity, make humility the first and most
Chapter 4 15

essential element of discipleship.

9. At the Holy Supper table, the disciples still disputed who should be
greatest (Luke 22:26). Jesus said, "He that is greatest among you, let him be
as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. I am among you
as he that serveth." The path in which Jesus walked, and which He opened
up for us, the power and spirit in which He wrought out salvation, and to
which He saves us, is ever the humility that makes me the servant of all.

How little this is preached. How little it is practiced. How little the lack of
it is felt or confessed. I do not say, how few attain to it, some recognizable
measure of likeness to Jesus in His humility. But how few ever think, of
making it a distinct object of continual desire or prayer. How little the
world has seen it. How little has it been seen even in the inner circle of the
Church.

"Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." Would God
that it might be given us to believe that Jesus means this! We all know what
the character of a faithful servant or slave implies. Devotion to the master's
interests, thoughtful study and care to please him, delight in his prosperity
and honor and happiness. There are servants on earth in whom these
dispositions have been seen, and to whom the name of servant has never
been anything but a glory. To how many of us has it not been a new joy in
the Christian life to know that we may yield ourselves as servants, as slaves
to God, and to find that His service is our highest liberty,--the liberty from
sin and self? We need now to learn another lesson,--that Jesus calls us to be
servants of one another, and that, as we accept it heartily, this service too
will be a most blessed one, a new and fuller liberty too from sin and self. At
first it may appear hard; this is only because of the pride which still counts
itself something. If once we learn that to be nothing before God is the glory
of the creature, the spirit of Jesus, the joy of heaven, we shall welcome with
our whole heart the discipline we may have in serving even those who try
to vex us. When our own heart is set upon this, the true sanctification, we
shall study each word of Jesus on self-abasement with new zest, and no
place will be too low, and no stooping too deep, and no service too mean or
too long continued, if we may but share and prove the fellowship with Him
Chapter 4 16

who spake, "I am among you as he that serveth".

Brethren, here is the path to the higher life. Down, lower down! This was
what Jesus ever said to the disciples who were thinking of being great in
the kingdom, and of sitting on His right hand and His left. Seek not, ask not
for exaltation; that is God's work. Look to it that you abase and humble
yourselves, and take no place before God or man but that of servant; that is
your work; let that be your one purpose and prayer. God is faithful. Just as
water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds the
creature abased and empty, His glory and power flow in to exalt and to
bless. He that humbleth himself -- that must be our one care -- shall be
exalted; that is God's care; by His mighty power and in His great love He
will do it.

Men sometimes speak as if humility and meekness would rob us of what is

noble and bold and manlike. Oh that all would believe that this is the
nobility of the kingdom of heaven, that this is the royal spirit that the King
of heaven displayed, that this is Godlike, to humble oneself, to become the
servant of all! This is the path to the gladness and the glory of Christ's
presence ever in us, His power ever resting on us.

Jesus, the meek and lowly One, calls us to learn of Him the path to God.
Let us study the words we have been reading, until our heart is filled with
the thought: My one need is humility. And let us believe that what He
shows, He gives; what He is, He imparts. As the meek and lowly One, He
will come in and dwell in the longing heart.
Chapter 5 17

Chapter 5

Humility in the Disciples of Jesus

"Let him that is chief among you be as he that doth serve." --Luke 22:26.

We have studied humility in the person and teaching of Jesus; let us now
look for it in the circle of His chosen companions-the twelve apostles. If, in
the lack of it we find in them, the contrast between Christ and men is
brought out more clearly, it will help us to appreciate the mighty change
which Pentecost wrought in them, and prove how real our participation can
be in the perfect triumph of Christ's humility over the pride Satan had
breathed into man.

In the texts quoted from the teaching of Jesus, we have already seen what
the occasions were on which the disciples had proved how entirely wanting
they were in the grace of humility. Once, they had been disputing the way
which of them should be the greatest Another time, the sons of Zebedee
with their mother had asked for the first places--the seat on the right hand
and the left. And, later on, at the Supper table on the last night, there was
again a contention which should be accounted the greatest. Not that there
were not moments when they indeed humbled themselves before their
Lord. So it was with Peter when he cried out, "Depart from me, Lord, for I
am a sinful man." So, too, with the disciples when they fell down and
worshiped Him who had stilled the storm. But such occasional expressions
of humility only bring out into stronger relief what was the habitual tone of
their mind, as shown in the natural and spontaneous revelation given at
other times of the place and the power of self. The study of the meaning of
all this will teach us most important lessons.

First,. How much there may be of earnest and active, religion while
humility is still sadly wanting.--See it in the disciples. There was in them
fervent attachment to Jesus. They had forsaken all for Him. The Father had
revealed to them that He was the Christ of God. They believed in Him, they
loved Him, they obeyed His commandments. They had forsaken all to
follow Him. When others went back, they clave to Him. They were ready
Chapter 5 18

to die with Him. But deeper down than all this there was a dark power, of
the existence and the hideousness of which they were hardly conscious,
which had to be slain and cast out, ere they could be the witnesses of the
power of Jesus to save. It is even so still. We may find professors and
ministers, evangelists and workers, missionaries and teachers, in whom the
gifts of the Spirit are many and manifest, and who are the channels of
blessing to multitudes, but of whom, when the testing time comes, or closer
intercourse gives fuller knowledge, it is only too painfully manifest that the
grace of humility, as an abiding characteristic, is scarce to be seen. All
tends to confirm the lesson that humility is one of the chief and the highest
graces; one of the most difficult of attainment; one to which our first and
chiefest efforts ought to be directed; one that only comes in power, when
the fullness of the Spirit makes us partakers of the indwelling Christ, and
He lives within us.

Second, How impotent all external teaching and all personal effort is, to
conquer pride or give the meek and lowly heart.--For three years the
disciples had been in the training school of Jesus. He had told them what
the chief lesson was He wished to teach them: "Learn of Me, for I am meek
and lowly in heart." Time after time He had spoken to them, to the
Pharisees, to the multitude, of humility as the only path to the glory of God.
He had not only lived before them as the Lamb of God in His divine
humility, He had more than once unfolded to them the inmost secret of His
life: "The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve"; "I am among
you as one that serveth." He had washed their feet, and told them they were
to follow His example. And yet all had availed but little. At the Holy
Supper there was still the contention as to who should be greatest. They had
doubtless often tried to learn His lessons, and firmly resolved not again to
grieve Him. But all in vain. To teach them and us the much needed lesson,
that no outward instruction, not even of Christ Himself; no argument
however convincing; no sense of the beauty of humility, however deep; no
personal resolve or effort, however sincere and earnest,--can cast out the
devil of pride. When Satan casts out Satan, it is only to enter afresh in a
mightier, though more hidden power. Nothing can avail but this, that the
new nature in its divine humility be revealed in power to take the place of
the old, to become as truly our very nature as that ever was.
Chapter 5 19

Third, It is only by the indwelling of Christ in His divine humility that we

become truly humble. We have our pride from another, from Adam; we
must have our humility from Another too. Pride is ours, and rules in us with
such terrible power, because it is ourselves, our very nature. Humility must
be ours in the same way; it must be our very self, our very nature. As
natural and easy as it has been to be proud, it must be, it will be, to be
humble. The promise is, "Where," even in the heart, "sin abounded, grace
did abound more exceedingly." All Christ's teaching of His disciples, and
all their vain efforts, were the needful preparation for His entering into
them in divine power, to give and be in them what He had taught them to
desire. In His death He destroyed the power of the devil, He put away sin,
and effected an everlasting redemption. In His resurrection He received
from the Father an entirely new life, the life of man in the power of God,
capable of being communicated to men, and entering and renewing and
filling their lives with His divine power. In His ascension He received the
Spirit of the Father, through whom He might do what He could not do
while upon earth, make Himself one with those He loved, actually live their
life for them, so that they could live before the Father in a humility like His,
because it was Himself who lived and breathed in them. And on Pentecost
He came and took possession. The work of preparation and conviction, the
awakening of desire and hope which His teaching had effected,was
perfected by the mighty change that Pentecost wrought. And the lives and
the epistles of James and Peter and John bear witness that all was changed,
and that the spirit of the meek and suffering Jesus had indeed possession of
them.

What shall we say to these things? Among my readers I am sure there is

more than one class. There may be some who have never yet thought very
specially of the matter, and cannot at once realize its immense importance
as a life question for the Church and its every member. There are others
who have felt condemned for their shortcomings, and have put forth very
earnest efforts, only to fail and be discouraged. Others, again, may be able
to give joyful testimony of spiritual blessing and power, and yet there has
never been the needed conviction of what those around them still see as
wanting. And still others may be able to witness that in regard to this grace
too the Lord has given deliverance and victory, while He has taught them
Chapter 5 20

how much they still need and may expect out of the fullness of Jesus. To
whichever class we belong, may I urge the pressing need there is for our all
seeking a still deeper conviction of the unique place that humility holds in
the religion of Christ, and the utter impossibility of the Church or the
believer being what Christ would have them be, as long as His humility is
not recognized as His chief glory, His first command, and our highest
blessedness. Let us consider deeply how far the disciples were advanced
while this grace was still so terribly lacking, and let us pray to God that
other gifts may not so satisfy us, that we never grasp the fact that the
absence of this grace is the secret cause why the power of God cannot do its
mighty work. It is only where we, like the Son, truly know and show that
we can do nothing of ourselves, that God will do all.

It is when the truth of an indwelling Christ takes the place it claims in the
experience of believers, that the Church will put on her beautiful garments
and humility be seen in her teachers and members as the beauty of holiness.
Chapter 6 21

Chapter 6

Humility in Daily Life

"He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God
whom he hath not seen?"--1 John 4:20.

What a solemn thought, that our love to God will be measured by our
everyday intercourse with men and the love it displays; and that our love to
God will be found to be a delusion, except as its truth is proved in standing
the test of daily life with our fellow-men. It is even so with our humility. It
is easy to think we humble ourselves before God: humility towards men
will be the only sufficient proof that our humility before God is real; that
humility has taken up its abode in us; and become our very nature; that we
actually, like Christ, have made ourselves of no reputation. When in the
presence of God lowliness of heart has become, not a posture we pray to
Him, but the very spirit of our life, it will manifest itself in all our bearing
towards our brethren. The lesson is one of deep import: the only humility
that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but
that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct; the
insignificance of daily life are the importance and the tests of eternity,
because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us. It is in our
most unguarded moments that we really show and see what we are. To
know the humble man, to know how the humble man behaves, you must
follow him in the common course of daily life.

Is not this what Jesus taught? It was when the disciples disputed who
should be greatest; when He saw how the Pharisees loved the chief place at
feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues; when He had given them the
example of washing their feet,--that He taught His lessons of humility.
Humility before God is nothing if not proved in humility before men.

It is even so in the teaching of Paul. To the Romans He writes: "In honor

preferring one another"; "Set not your mind on high things, but condescend
to those that are lowly." "Be not wise in your own conceit." To the
Corinthians: "Love," and there is no love without humility as its root,
Chapter 6 22

"vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not its own, is not provoked."
To the Galatians: "Through love be servants one of another. Let us not be
desirous of vainglory, provoking one another, envying one another." To the
Ephesians, immediately after the three wonderful chapters on the heavenly
life: "Therefore, walk with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering,
forbearing one another in love"; "Giving thanks always, subjecting
yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ." To the Philippians: "Doing
nothing through faction or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, each
counting other better than himself. Have the mind in you which was also in
Christ Jesus, who emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and
humbled Himself." And to the Colossians: "Put on a heart of compassion,
kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, forebearing one another, and
forgiving each other, even as the Lord forgave you." It is in our relation to
one another, in our treatment of one another, that the true lowliness of mind
and the heart of humility are to be seen. Our humility before God has no
value, but as it prepares us to reveal the humility of Jesus to our
fellow-men. Let us study humility in daily life in the light of these words.

The humble man seeks at all times to act up to the rule, "In honor preferring
one another; Servants one of another; Each counting others better than
himself, Subjecting yourselves one to another." The question is often asked,
how we can count others better than ourselves, when we see that they are
far below us in wisdom and in holiness, in natural gifts, or in grace
received. The question proves at once how little we understand what real
lowliness of mind is. True humility comes when, in the, light of God, we
have seen ourselves to be nothing, have consented to part with and cast
away self, to let God be all. The soul that has done this, sand can say, So
have I lost myself in finding Thee, no longer compares itself with others. It
has given up forever every thought of self in God's presence; it meets its
fellow-men as one who is nothing, and seeks nothing for itself; who is a
servant of God, and for His sake a servant of all. A faithful servant may be
wiser than the master, and yet retain the true spirit and posture of the
servant. The humble man looks upon every, the feeblest and unworthiest,
child of God, and honors him and prefers him in honor as the son of a King.
The spirit of Him who washed the disciples' feet, makes it a joy to us to be
indeed the least, to be servants one of another.
Chapter 6 23

The humble man feels no jealousy--or envy. He can praise God when
others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others
praised and himself forgotten, because in God's presence he has learnt to
say with Paul, "I am nothing." He has received the spirit of Jesus, who
pleased not Himself, and sought not His own honor, as the spirit of his life.

Amid what are considered the temptations to impatience and touchiness, to

hard thoughts and sharp words, which come from the failings and sins of
fellow-Christians, the humble man carries the oft-repeated injunction in his
heart, and shows it in his life, "Forbearing one another, and forgiving one
another, even as the Lord forgave you." He has learnt that in putting on the
Lord Jesus he has put on the heart of compassion, kindness, humility,
meekness, and long-suffering. Jesus has taken the place of self, and it is not
an impossibility to forgive as Jesus forgave. His humility does not consist
merely in thoughts or words of self-depreciation, but, as Paul puts it, in "a
heart of humility," encompassed by compassion and kindness, meekness
and longsuffering,--the sweet and lowly gentleness recognized as the mark
of the Lamb of God.

In striving after the higher experiences of the Christian life, the believer is
often in danger of aiming at and rejoicing in what one might call the more
human, the manly, virtues, such as boldness, joy, contempt of the world,
zeal, self-sacrifice,--even the old Stoics taught and practiced these,--while
the deeper and gentler, the diviner and more heavenly graces, those which
Jesus first taught upon earth, because He brought them from heaven; those
which are more distinctly connected with His cross and the death of
self,--poverty of spirit, meekness, humility, lowliness,-are scarcely thought
of or valued. Therefore, let us put on a heart of compassion, kindness,
humility, meekness, long-suffering; and let us prove our Christlikeness, not
only in our zeal for saving the lost, but before all in our intercourse with the
brethren, forbearing and forgiving one another, even as the Lord forgave us.

Fellow-Christians, do let us study the Bible portrait of the humble man.

And let us ask our brethren, and ask the world, whether they recognize in
us the likeness to the original. Let us be content with nothing less than
taking each of these texts as the promise of what God will work in us, as
Chapter 6 24

the revelation in words of what the Spirit of Jesus will give as a birth within
us. And let each failure and shortcoming simply urge us to turn humbly and
meekly to the meek and lowly Lamb of God, in the assurance that where
He is enthroned in the heart, His humility and gentleness will be one of the
streams of living water that flow from within us. 1

(1- I knew Jesus, and He was very precious to my soul: but I found
something in me that would not keep sweet and patient and kind. I did what
I could to keep it down, but it was there. I besought Jesus to do something
for me, and when I gave Him my will, He came to my heart, and took out
all that would not be sweet, all that would not be kind, all that would not be
patient, and then He shut the door."--George Foxe)

Once again I repeat what I have said before. I feel deeply that we have very
little conception of what the Church suffers from the lack of this divine
humility,--the nothingness that makes room for God to prove His power. It
is not long since a Christian, of an humble, loving spirit, acquainted with
not a few mission stations of various societies, expressed his deep sorrow
that in some cases the spirit of love and forbearance was sadly lacking.
Men and women, who in Europe could each choose their own circle of
friends, brought close together with others of uncongenial minds, find it
hard to bear, and to love, and to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace. And those who should have been fellow-helpers of each other's joy,
became a hindrance and a weariness. And all for the one reason, the lack of
the humility which counts itself nothing, which rejoices in becoming and
being counted the least, and only seeks, like Jesus, to be the servant, the
helper and comforter of others, even the lowest and unworthiest.

And whence comes it that men who have joyfully given up themselves for
Christ, find it so hard to give up themselves for their brethren? Is not the
blame with the Church? It has so little taught its sons that the humility of
Christ is the first of the virtues, the best of all the graces and powers of the
Spirit. It has so little proved that a Christlike humility is what it, like Christ,
places and preaches first, as what is in very deed needed, and possible too.
But let us not be discouraged. Let the discovery of the lack of this grace stir
us to larger expectation from God. Let us look upon every brother who tries
Chapter 6 25

or vexes us, as God's means of grace, God's instrument for our purification,
for our exercise of the humility Jesus our Life breathes within us. And let
us have such faith in the All of God, and the nothing of self, that, as nothing
in our own eyes, we may, in God's power, only seek to serve one another in
love.
Chapter 7 26

Chapter 7

Humility and Holiness

"Which say, Stand by thyself... for I am holier than thou." --Isaiah 65: 5

We speak of the Holiness movement in our times, and praise God for it. We
hear a great deal of seekers after holiness and professors of holiness, of
holiness teaching and holiness meetings. The blessed truths of holiness in
Christ, and holiness by faith, are being emphasized as never before. The
great test of whether the holiness we profess to seek or to attain, is truth and
life, will be whether it be manifest in the increasing humility it produces. In
the creature, humility is the one thing needed to allow God's holiness to
dwell in him and shine through him. In Jesus, the Holy One of God who
makes us holy, a divine humility was the secret of His life and His death
and His exaltation; the one infallible test of our holiness will be the
humility before God and men which marks us. Humility is the bloom and
the beauty of holiness.

The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility. Every seeker
after holiness needs to be on his guard, lest unconsciously what was begun
in the spirit be perfected in the flesh, and pride creep in where its presence
is least expected. Two men went up into the temple to pray: the one a
Pharisee, the other a publican. There is no place or position so sacred but
the Pharisee can enter there. Pride can lift its head in the very temple of
God, and make His worship the scene of its self exaltation. Since the time
Christ so exposed his pride, the Pharisee has put on the garb of the
publican, and the confessor of deep sinfulness equally with the professor of
the highest holiness, must be on the watch. Just when We are most anxious
to have our heart the temple of God, we shall find the two men coming up
to pray. And the publican will find that his danger is not from the Pharisee
beside him, who despises him, but the Pharisee within who commends and
exalts. In God's temple, when we think we are in the holiest of all, in the
presence of His holiness, let us beware of pride. "Now there was a day
when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and
Satan came also among them."
Chapter 7 27

"God, I thank thee, I am not as the rest of men, or even as this publican." It
is in that which is just cause for thanksgiving, it is in the very thanksgiving
which we render to God, it may be in the very confession that God has
done it all, that self finds its cause of complacency. Yes, even when in the
temple the language of penitence and trust in God's mercy alone is heard,
the Pharisee may take up the note of praise, and in thanking God be
congratulating himself. Pride can clothe itself in the garments of praise or
of penitence. Even though the words, "I am not as the rest of men" are
rejected and condemned, their spirit may too often be found in our feelings
and language towards our fellow-worshipers and fellow-men. Would you
know if this really is so, just listen to the way in which Churches and
Christians often speak of one another. How little of the meekness and
gentleness of Jesus is to be seen. It is so little remembered that deep
humility must be the keynote of what the servants of Jesus say of
themselves or each other. Is there not many a Church or assembly of the
saints, many a mission or convention, many a society or committee, even
many a mission away in heathendom, where the harmony has been
disturbed and the work of God hindered, because men who are counted
saints have proved in touchiness and haste and impatience, in self-defense
and self-assertion, in sharp judgments and unkind words, that they did not
each reckon others better than themselves, and that their holiness has but
little in it of the meekness of the saints? In their spiritual history men may
have had times of great humbling and brokenness, but what a different
thing this is from being clothed with humility, from having an humble
spirit, from having that lowliness of mind in which each counts himself the
servant of others, and so shows forth the very mind which was also in Jesus
Christ.

"Stand by; for I am holier than thou!" What a parody on holiness! Jesus the
Holy One is the humble One: the holiest will ever be the humblest. There is
none holy but God: we have as much of holiness as we have of God. And
according to what we have of God will be our real humility, because
humility is nothing but the disappearance of self in the vision that God is
all. The holiest will be the humblest. Alas! though the bare-faced boasting
Jew of the days of Isaiah is not often to be found, even our manners have
taught us not to speak thus, how often his spirit is still seen, whether in the
Chapter 7 28

treatment of fellow-saints or of the children of the world. In the spirit in

which opinions are given, and work is undertaken, and faults are exposed,
how often, though the garb be that of the publican, the voice is still that of
the Pharisee: "Oh God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men."

And is there, then, such humility to be found, that men shall indeed still
count themselves "less than the least of all saints," the servants of all?
There is. "Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not its own."
Where the spirit of love is shed abroad in the heart, where the divine nature
comes to a full birth where Christ the meek and lowly Lamb of God is truly
formed within, there is given the power of a perfect love that forgets itself
and finds its blessedness in blessing others, in bearing with them and
honoring them, however feeble they be. Where this love enters, there God
enters. And where God has entered in His power, and reveals Himself as
All, there the creature becomes nothing. And where the creature becomes
nothing before God; it cannot be anything but humble towards the
fellow-creature. The presence of God becomes not a thing of times and
seasons, but the covering under which the soul ever dwells, and its deep
abasement before God becomes the holy place of His presence whence all
its words and works proceed.

May God teach us that our thoughts and words and feelings concerning our
fellow-men are His test of our humility towards Him, and that our humility
before Him is the only power that can enable us to be always humble with
our fellow-men. Our humility must be the life of Christ, the Lamb of God,
within us.

Let all teachers of holiness, whether in the pulpit or on the platform, and all
seekers after holiness, whether in the closet or the convention, take
warning. There is no pride so dangerous, because none so subtle and
insidious, as the pride of holiness. It is not that a man ever says, or even
thinks, "Stand by; I am holier than thou." No, indeed, the thought would be
regarded with abhorrence. But there grows up, all unconsciously, a hidden
habit of soul, which feels complacency its attainments, and cannot help
seeing how far it is in advance of others. It can be recognized, not always in
any special self-assertion or self-laudation, but simply in the absence of that
Chapter 7 29

deep self-abasement which cannot but be the mark of the soul that has seen
the glory of God (Job 42: 5, 6; Isa.6: 5). It reveals itself, not only in words
or thoughts, but in a tone, a way of speaking of others, in which those who
have the gift of spiritual discernment cannot but recognize the power of
self. Even the world with its keen eyes notices it, and points to it as a proof
that the profession of a heavenly life does not bear any specially heavenly
fruits. O brethren! let us beware. Unless we make, with each advance in
what we think holiness, the increase of humility our study, we may find that
we have been delighting in beautiful thoughts and feelings, in solemn acts
of consecration and faith, while the only sure mark of the presence of God,
the disappearance of self, was all the time wanting. Come and let us flee to
Jesus, and hide ourselves in Him until we be clothed upon with His
humility. That alone is our holiness.
Chapter 8 30

Chapter 8

Humility and Sin

"Sinners, of whom I am chief."--1 Tim.1:15

Humility is often identified with penitence and contrition. As a

consequence, there appears to be no way of fostering humility but by
keeping the soul occupied with its sin. We have learned, I think, that
humility is something else and something more. We have seen in the
teaching of our Lord Jesus and the Epistles how often the virtue is
inculcated without any reference to sin. In the very nature of things, in the
whole relation of the creature to the Creator, in the life of Jesus as He lived
it and imparts it to us, humility is the very essence of holiness as of
blessedness. It is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God.
Where God is all, self is nothing.

But though it is this aspect of the truth I have felt it specially needful to
press, I need scarce say what new depth and intensity man's sin and God's
grace give to the humility of the saints. We have only to look at a man like
the Apostle Paul, to see how, through his life as a ransomed and a holy
man, the deep consciousness of having been a sinner lives inextinguishably.
We all know the passages in which he refers to his life as a persecutor and
blasphemer. "I am the least of the apostles, that am not worthy to be called
an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God ...I labored more
abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me" (I Cor. 15: 9,10). "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints,
was this grace given, to preach to the heathen" (Eph.3: 8). "I was before a
blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious; howbeit I obtained mercy,
because I did it ignorantly in unbelief ...Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Tim.1:13,15). God's grace had saved
him; God remembered his sins no more for ever; but never, never could he
forget how terribly he had sinned. The more he rejoiced in God's salvation,
and the more his experience of God's grace filled him with joy unspeakable,
the clearer was his consciousness that he was a saved sinner, and that
salvation had no meaning or sweetness except as the sense of his being a
Chapter 8 31

sinner made it precious and real to him. Never for a moment could he
forget that it was a sinner God had taken up in His arms and crowned with
His love.

The texts we have just quoted are often appealed to as Paul's confession of
daily sinning. One has only to read them carefully in their connection, to
see how little this is the case. They have a far deeper meaning, they refer to
that which lasts throughout eternity, and which will give its deep undertone
of amazement and adoration to the humility with which the ransomed bow
before the throne, as those who have been washed from their sins in the
blood of the Lamb. Never, never, even in, glory, can they be other than
ransomed sinners; never for a moment in this life can God's child live in the
full light of His love, but as he feels that the sin, out of which he has been
saved, is his one only right and title to all that grace has promised to do.
The humility with which first he came as a sinner, acquires a new meaning
when he learns how it becomes him as a creature. And then ever again, the
humility, in which he was born as a creature, has its deepest, richest tones
of adoration, in the memory of what it is to be a monument of God's
wondrous redeeming love.

The true import of what these expressions of St. Paul teach us comes out all
the more strongly when we notice the remarkable fact that, through his
whole Christian course, we never find from his pen, even in those epistles
in which we have the most intensely personal unbosomings, anything like
confession of sin. Nowhere is there any mention of shortcoming or defect,
nowhere any suggestion to his readers that he has failed in duty, or sinned
against the law of perfect love. On the contrary, there are passages not a
few in which he vindicates himself in language that means nothing if it
does not appeal to a faultless life before God and men. "Ye are witnesses,
and God also, how holily, and righteously, and unblamably we behaved
ourselves toward you" (1 Thess.2:10). "Our glorying is this, this testimony
of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God we .behaved
ourselves in the world, and more abundantly to you ward" (2 Cor.1:12).
This is not an ideal or an aspiration; it is an appeal to what his actual life
had been. However we may account for this absence of confession of sin,
all will admit that it must point to a life in the power of the Holy Ghost,
Chapter 8 32

such as is but seldom realized or expected in these our days.

The point which I wish to emphasize is this--that the very fact of the
absence of such confession of sinning only gives the more force to the truth
that it is not in daily sinning that the secret of the deeper humility will be
found, but in the habitual, never for a moment to be forgotten position,
which just the more abundant grace will keep more distinctly alive, that our
only place,, the only place of blessing, our one abiding position before God,
must be that of those whose highest joy it is to confess that they are sinners
saved by grace.

With Paul's deep remembrance of having sinned so terribly in the past, ere
grace had met him, and the consciousness of being kept from present
sinning, there was ever coupled the abiding remembrance of the dark
hidden power of sin ever ready to come in, and only kept out by the
presence and power of the indwelling Christ. "In me, that is, in my flesh,
dwelleth no good thing;"--these words of Rom. 7 describe the flesh as it is
to the end. The glorious deliverance of Rom.8--"The law of the Spirit of life
in Christ Jesus hath now made me free from the law of sin, which once led
me captive"--is neither the annihilation nor the sanctification of the flesh,
but a continuous victory given by the Spirit as He mortifies the deeds of the
body. As health expels disease, and light swallows up darkness, and life
conquers death, the indwelling of Christ through the Spirit is the health and
light and life of the soul. But with this, the conviction of helplessness and
danger ever tempers the faith in the momentary and unbroken action of the
Holy Spirit into that chastened sense of dependence which makes the
highest faith and joy the handmaids of a humility that only lives by the
grace of God.

The three passages above quoted all show that it was the wonderful grace
bestowed upon Paul, and of which he felt the need every moment, that
humbled him so deeply. The grace of God that was with him, and enabled
him to labor more abundantly than they all; the grace to preach to the
heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ; the grace that was exceeding
abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus, it was this grace of
which it is the very nature and glory that it is for sinners, that kept the
Chapter 8 33

consciousness of his having once sinned, and being liable to sin, so

intensely alive. "Where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly."
This reveals how the very essence of grace is to deal with and take away
sin, and how it must ever be the more abundant the experience of grace, the
more intense the consciousness of being a sinner. It is not sin, but God's
grace showing a man and ever reminding him what a sinner he was, that,
will keep him truly humble. It is not sin, but grace, that will make me
indeed know myself a sinner, and-- make the sinner's place of deepest
self-abasement the place I never leave.

I fear that there are not a few who, by strong expressions of

self-condemnation and self-denunciation, have sought to humble
themselves, and have to confess with sorrow that a humble spirit, a "heart
of humility," with its accompaniments of kindness and compassion, of
meekness and forbearance, is still as far off as ever. Being occupied with
self, even amid the deepest self-abhorrence, can never free us from self. It
is the revelation of God, not only by the law condemning sin but by His
grace delivering from it, that will make us humble. The law may break the
heart with fear; it is only grace that works that sweet humility which
becomes a joy to the soul as its second nature. It was the revelation of God
in His holiness, drawing nigh to make Himself known in His grace, that
made Abraham and Jacob, Job and Isaiah, bow so low. It is the soul in
which God the Creator, as the All of the creature in its nothingness, God
the Redeemer in His grace, as the All of the sinner in his sinfulness, is
waited for and trusted and worshiped, that will find itself so filled with His
presence, that there will be no place for self. So alone can the promise be
fulfilled: "The haughtiness of man shall be brought low, and the Lord alone
be exalted in that day."

It is the sinner dwelling in the full light of God's holy, redeeming love, in
the experience of that full indwelling of divine love, which comes through
Christ and the Holy Spirit, who cannot but be humble. Not to be occupied
with thy sin, but to be occupied with God, brings deliverance from self.
Chapter 9 34

Chapter 9

Humility and Faith

"How can ye believe, which receive glory from one another, and the glory
that cometh from the only God ye seek not?"--John 5: 44

In an address I lately heard, the speaker said that the blessings of the higher
Christian life were often like the objects exposed in a shop window,--one
could see them clearly and yet could not reach them. If told to stretch out
his hand and take, a man would answer, I cannot; there is a thick pane of
plate-glass between me and them. And even so Christians may see clearly
the blessed promises of perfect peace and rest, of overflowing love and joy,
of abiding communion and fruitfulness, and yet feel that there was
something between hindering the true possession. And what might that be?
Nothing but pride. The promises made to faith are so free and sure; the
invitations and encouragements so strong; the mighty power of God on
which it may count is so near and free,--that it can only be something that
hinders faith that hinders the blessing being ours. In our text Jesus
discovers to us that it is indeed pride that makes faith impossible. "How can
ye believe, which receive glory from one another?" As we see how in their
very nature pride and faith are irreconcilably at variance, we shall learn that
faith and humility are at root one, and that we never can have more of true
faith than we have of true humility; we shall see that we may indeed have
strong intellectual conviction and assurance of the truth while pride is kept
in the heart, but that it makes the living faith, which has power with God,
an impossibility.

We need only think for a moment what faith is. Is it not the confession of
nothingness and helplessness, the surrender and the waiting to let God
work? Is it not in itself the most humbling thing there can be, the
acceptance of our place as dependents, who can claim or get or do nothing
but what grace bestows?! Humility is 'simply the disposition which
prepares the soul for living on trust. And every, even the most secret
breathing of pride, in self-seeking, self-will, self-confidence, or self
exaltation, is just the strengthening of that self which cannot enter the
Chapter 9 35

kingdom, or possess the things of the kingdom, because it refuses to allow

God to be what He is and must be there-- the All in All.

Faith is the organ or sense for the perception and apprehension of the
heavenly world and its blessings. Faith seeks .the glory that comes from
God, that only comes where God is All. As long as we take glory from one
another, as long as ever we seek and love and jealously guard the glory of
this life, the honor and reputation that comes from men, we do not seek,
and cannot receive the glory that comes from God. Pride renders faith
impossible. Salvation comes through a cross and a crucified Christ.
Salvation is the fellowship with the crucified Christ in the Spirit of His
cross. Salvation is union with and delight in, salvation is participation in,
the humility of Jesus. Is it wonder that our faith is so feeble when pride still
reigns so much, and we have scarce learnt even to long or pray for humility
as the most needful and blessed part of salvation?

Humility and faith are more nearly allied in Scripture than many know. See
it in the life of Christ. There are two cases in which He spoke of a great
faith. Had not the centurion, at whose faith He marveled, saying, "I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel!" spoken, "I am not worthy that
Thou shouldst come under my roof"? And had not the mother to whom He
spoke, "O woman, great is thy faith!" accepted the name of dog, and said,
"Yea, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs'? It is the humility that brings a
soul to be nothing before God, that also removes every hindrance to faith,
and makes it only fear lest it should dishonor Him by not trusting Him
wholly.

Brother, have we not here the cause of failure in the pursuit of holiness? Is
it not this, though we knew it not, that made our consecration and our faith
so superficial and so short-lived? We had no idea to what an extent pride
and self were still secretly working within us, and how alone God by His
incoming and His mighty power could cast them out. We understood not
how nothing but the new and divine nature, taking entirely the place of the
old self, could make us really humble. We knew not that absolute,
unceasing, universal humility must be the root-disposition of every prayer
and every approach to God as well as of every dealing with man; and that
Chapter 9 36

we might as well attempt to see without eyes, or live without breath, as

believe or draw nigh to God or dwell in His love, without an all-pervading
humility and lowliness of heart.

Brother, have we not been making a mistake in taking so much trouble to

believe, while all the time there was the old self in its pride seeking to
possess itself of God's blessing and riches? No wonder we could not
believe. Let us change our course. Let us seek first of all to humble
ourselves under the mighty hand of God: He will exalt us. The cross, and
the death, and the grave, into which Jesus humbled Himself, were His path
to the glory of God. And they are our path. Let our one desire and our
fervent prayer be, to be humbled with Him and like Him; let us accept
gladly whatever can humble us before God or men; -- this alone is the path
to the glory of God.

You perhaps feel inclined to ask a question. I have spoken of some who
have blessed experiences, or are the means of bringing blessing to others,
and yet are lacking in humility. You ask whether these do not prove that
they have true, even strong faith, though they show too clearly that they
still seek too much the honor that cometh from men. There is more than one
answer can be given. But the principal answer in our present connection is
this: They indeed have a measure of faith, in proportion to which, with the
special gifts bestowed upon them, is the blessing they bring to others. But
in that very blessing the work of their faith is hindered, through the lack of
humility. The blessing is often superficial or transitory, just because they
are not the nothing that opens the way for God to be all. A deeper humility
would without doubt bring a deeper and fuller blessing. The Holy Spirit not
only working in them as a Spirit of power, but dwelling in them in the
fullness of His grace, and specially that of humility, would through them
communicate Himself to these converts for a life of power and holiness and
steadfastness now all too little seen.

"How can ye believe, which receive glory from one another?" Brother!
nothing can cure you of the desire of receiving glory from men, or of the
sensitiveness and pain and anger which come when it is not given, but
giving yourself to seek only the glory that comes from God. Let the glory
Chapter 9 37

of the All-glorious God be everything to you. You will be freed from the
glory of men and of self, and be content and glad to be nothing. Out of this
nothingness you will grow strong in faith, giving glory to God, and you will
find that the deeper you sink in humility before Him, the nearer He is to
fulfill the every desire of your Faith.
Chapter 10 38

Chapter 10

Humility and Death to Self

"He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death." --Phil.2: 8.

Humility is the path to death, because in death it gives the highest proof of
its perfection. Humility is the blossom of which death to self is the perfect
fruit. Jesus humbled Himself unto death, and opened the path in which we
too must walk. As there was no way for Him to prove His surrender to God
to the very uttermost, or to give up and rise out of our human nature to the
glory of the Father but through death, so with us too. Humility must lead us
to die to self; so we prove how wholly we have given ourselves up to it and
to God; so alone we are freed from fallen nature, and find the path that
leads to life in God, to that full birth of the new nature, of which humility is
the breath and joy.

We have spoken of what Jesus did for His disciples when He

communicated His resurrection life to them, when in the descent of the
Holy Spirit He, the glorified and enthroned Meekness, actually came from
heaven Himself to dwell in them. He won the power to do this through
death: in its inmost nature the life He imparted was a life out of death, a life
that had been surrendered to death, and been won through death. He who
came to dwell in them was Himself One who had been dead and now lives
for evermore. His life, His person, His presence, bear the marks of death, of
being a life begotten out of death. That life in His disciples ever bears the
death-marks too; it is only as the Spirit of the death, of the dying One,
dwells and works in the soul, that the power of His life can be known. The
first and chief of the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus, of the
death-marks that show the true follower of Jesus, is humility. For these two
reasons: Only humility leads to perfect death; Only death perfects humility.
Humility and death are in their very nature one: humility is the bud; in
death the fruit is ripened to perfection.

Humility leads to perfect death. Humility means the giving up of self and
the taking of the place of perfect nothingness before God. Jesus humbled
Chapter 10 39

Himself, and became obedient unto death. In death He gave the highest, the
perfect proof of having given up His will to the will of God. In death He
gave up His self, with its natural reluctance to drink the cup; He gave up
the life He had in union with our human nature; He died to self, and the sin
that tempted Him; so, as man, He entered into the perfect life of God. If it
had not been for His boundless humility, counting Himself as nothing
except as a servant to do and suffer the will of God, He never would have
died.

This gives us the answer to the question so often asked, and of which the
meaning is so seldom clearly apprehended: How can I die to self? The
death to self is not your work, it is God's work. In Christ you are dead to
sin. The life there is in you has gone through the process of death and
resurrection; you may be sure you are indeed dead to sin. But the full
manifestation of the power of this death in your disposition and conduct
depends upon the measure in which the Holy Spirit imparts the power of
the death of Christ And here it is that the teaching is needed: if you would
enter into full fellowship with Christ in His death, and know the full
deliverance from self, humble yourself. This is your one duty. Place
yourself before God in your utter helplessness; consent heartily to the fact
of your impotence to slay or make alive yourself; sink down into your own
nothingness, in the spirit of meek and patient and trustful surrender to God.
Accept every humiliation, look upon every fellow-man who tries or vexes
you, as a means of grace to humble you. Use every opportunity of
humbling yourself before your fellow-men as a help to abide humble before
God. God will accept such humbling of yourself as the proof that your
whole heart desires it, as the very best prayer for it, as your preparation for
His mighty work of grace, when, by the mighty strengthening of His Holy
Spirit, He reveals Christ fully in you, so that He, in His form of a servant, is
truly formed in you, and dwells in your heart. It is the path of humility
which leads to perfect death, the full and perfect experience that we are
dead in Christ.

Then follows: Only this death leads to perfect humility. Oh, beware of the
mistake so many make, who would fain be humble, but are afraid to be too
humble. They have so many qualifications and limitations, so many
Chapter 10 40

reasonings and questionings, as to what true humility is to be and to do, that

they never unreservedly yield themselves to it. Beware of this. Humble
yourself unto the death. It is in the death to self that humility is perfected.
Be sure that at the root of all real experience of more grace, of all true
advance in consecration, of all actually increasing conformity to the
likeness of Jesus, there must be a deadness to self that proves itself to God
and men in our dispositions and habits. It is sadly possible to speak of the
death-life and the Spirit-walk, while even the tenderest love cannot but see
how much there is of self. The death to self has no surer death-mark than a
humility which makes itself of no reputation, which empties out itself, and
takes the form of a servant. It is possible to speak much and honestly of
fellowship with a despised and rejected Jesus, and of bearing His cross,
while the meek and lowly, the kind and gentle humility of the Lamb of God
is not seen, is scarcely sought. The Lamb of God means two
things--meekness and death. Let us seek to receive Him in both forms. In
Him they are inseparable: they must be in us too.

What a hopeless task if we had to do the work! Nature never can overcome
nature, not even with the help of grace. Self can never cast out self, even in
the regenerate man. Praise God! the work has been done, and finished and
perfected for ever. The death of Jesus, once and forever, is our death to self.
And the ascension of Jesus, His entering once and for ever into the Holiest,
has given us the Holy Spirit to communicate to us in power, and make our
very own, the power of the death-life. As the soul, in the pursuit and
practice of humility, follows in the steps of Jesus, its consciousness of the
need of something more is awakened, its desire and hope is quickened, its
faith is strengthened, and it learns to look up and claim and receive that true
fullness of the Spirit of Jesus, which can daily maintain His death to self
and sin in its full power, and make humility the all pervading spirit of our
life.(See note at end of this chapter.)

"Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into His death? Reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive
unto God in Christ Jesus. Present yourself unto God, as alive from the dead.
" The whole self-consciousness of the Christian is to be imbued and
characterized by the spirit that animated the death of Christ. He has ever to
Chapter 10 41

present himself to God as one who has died in Christ, and in Christ is alive
from the dead, bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus. His
life ever bears the two-fold mark: its roots striking in true humility deep
into the grave of Jesus, the death to sin and self; its head lifted up in
resurrection power to the heaven where Jesus is.

Believer, claim in faith the death and the life of Jesus as thine. Enter in His
grave into the rest from self and its work -- the rest of God. With Christ,
who committed His spirit into the Father's hands, humble thyself and
descend each day into that perfect, helpless dependence upon God. God
will raise thee up and exalt thee. Sink every morning in deep, deep
nothingness into the grave of Jesus; every day the life of Jesus will be
manifest in thee, Let a willing, loving, restful, happy humility be the mark
that thou hast indeed claimed thy birthright -- the baptism into the death of
Christ. "By one offering He has perfected for ever them that are
sanctified."The souls that enter into His humiliation will find in Him the
power to see and count self dead, and, as those who have learned and
received of Him, to walk with all lowliness and meekness, forbearing one
another in love. The death-life is seen in a meekness and lowliness like that
of Christ.

Note: "To die to self, or come from under its power, is not, cannot be done,
by any active resistance we can make to it by the powers of nature. The one
true way of dying to self is the way of patience, meekness, humility, and
resignation to God. This is the truth and perfection of dying to self ... For if
I ask you what the Lamb of God means, must you not tell me that it is and
means the perfection of patience, meekness, humility, and resignation to
God? Must you not therefore say that a desire and faith in these virtues is
an application to Christ, is a giving up yourself to Him and the perfection of
faith in Him? And then, because this inclination of your heart to sink down
in patience, meekness, humility, and resignation to God, is truly giving up
all that you are and all that you have from fallen Adam, it is perfectly
leaving all you have to follow Christ; it is your highest act of faith in Him.
Christ is nowhere but in these virtues; when they are there, He is in His
own kingdom. Let this be the Christ you follow.
Chapter 10 42

"The Spirit of divine love can have no birth in any fallen creature, until it
wills and chooses to be dead to all self, in a patient, humble resignation to
the power and mercy of God. "I seek for all my salvation through the merits
and mediation of the meek, humble, patient, suffering Lamb of God, who
alone hath power to bring forth the blessed birth of these heavenly virtues
in my soul. There is no possibility of salvation but in and by the birth of the
meek, humble, patient, resigned Lamb of God in our souls. When the Lamb
of God hath brought forth a real birth of His own meekness, humility, and
full resignation to God in our souls, then it is the birthday of the Spirit of
love in our souls, which, whenever we attain, will feast our souls with such
peace and joy in God as will blot out the remembrance of everything that
we called peace or joy before.

"This way to God is infallible. This infallibility is grounded in the twofold

character of our Savior: 1. As He is the Lamb of God, a principle of all
meekness and humility in the soul; 2. As He is the Light of heaven, and
blesses eternal nature, and turns it into a kingdom of heaven. When we are
willing to get rest to our souls in meek, humble resignation to God, then it
is that He, as the Light of God and heaven, joyfully breaks in upon us, turns
our darkness into light, and begins that kingdom of God and of love within
us, which will never have an end." -- William Law
Chapter 11 43

Chapter 11

Humility and Happiness

"Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the

strength of Christ may rest upon me. Wherefore I take pleasure in
weakness: for when I am weak then am I strong." --2 Cor.12:9,10.

Lest Paul should exalt himself, by reason of the exceeding greatness of the
revelations, a thorn in the flesh was sent him to keep him humble. Paul's
first desire was to have it removed, and he besought the Lord thrice that it
might depart. The answer came that the trial was a blessing; that, in the
weakness and humiliation it brought, the grace and strength of the Lord
could be the better manifested. Paul at once entered upon a new stage in his
relation to the trial: instead of simply enduring it, he most gladly gloried in
it; instead of asking for deliverance, he took pleasure in it. He had learned
that the place of humiliation is the place of blessing, of power, of joy.

Every Christian virtually passes through these two stages in his pursuit of
humility. In the first he fears and flees and seeks deliverance from all that
can humble him. He has not yet learnt to seek humility at any cost. He has
accepted the command to be humble, and seeks to obey it, though only to
find how utterly he fails. He prays for humility, at times very earnestly; but
in his secret heart he prays more, if not in word, then in wish, to be kept
from the very things that will make him humble. He is not yet so in love
with humility as the beauty of the Lamb of God, and the joy of heaven, that
he would sell all to procure it. In his pursuit of it, and his prayer for it, there
is still somewhat of a sense of burden and of bondage; to humble himself
has not yet become the spontaneous expression of a life and a nature that is
essentially humble. It has not yet become his joy and only pleasure. He
cannot yet say, "Most gladly do I glory in weakness, I take pleasure in
whatever humbles me."

But can we hope to reach the stage in which this will be the case?
Undoubtedly. And what will it be that brings us there? That which brought
Paul there -- a new revelation of the Lord Jesus. Nothing but the presence
Chapter 11 44

of God can reveal and expel self. A clearer insight was to be given to Paul
into the deep truth that the presence of Jesus will banish every desire to
seek anything in ourselves, and will make us delight in every humiliation
that prepares us for His fuller manifestation. Our humiliations lead us, in
the experience of the presence and power of Jesus, to choose humility as
our highest blessing. Let us try to learn the lessons the story of Paul teaches
us.

We may have advanced believers, eminent teachers, men of heavenly

experiences, who have not yet fully learnt the lesson of perfect humility,
gladly glorying in weakness. We see this in Paul. The danger of exalting
himself was coming very near. He knew not yet perfectly what it was to be
nothing; to die, that Christ alone might live in him; to take pleasure in all
that brought him low. It appears as if this were the highest lesson that he
had to learn, full conformity to his Lord in that self-emptying where he
gloried in weakness that God might be all.

The highest lesson a believer has to learn is humility. Oh that every

Christian who seek to advance in holiness may remember this well! There
may be intense consecration, and fervent zeal and heavenly experience, and
yet, if it is not prevented by very special dealings of the Lord, there may be
an unconscious self-exaltation with it all. Let us learn the lesson -- the
highest holiness is the deepest humility; and let us remember that comes
not of itself, but only as it is made a matter of special dealing on the part of
our faithful Lord and His faithful servant.

Let us look at our lives in the light of this experience, and see whether we
gladly glory in weakness, whether we take pleasure, as Paul did, in injuries,
in necessities, in distresses. Yes, let us ask whether we have learnt to regard
a reproof, just or unjust, a reproach from friend or enemy, an injury, or
trouble, or difficulty into which others bring us, as above all an opportunity
of proving Jesus is all to us, how our own pleasure or honor are nothing,
and how humiliation is in very truth what we take pleasure in. It is indeed
blessed, the deep happiness of heaven, to be so free from self that whatever
is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up, in the thought that
Jesus is all.
Chapter 11 45

Let us trust Him who took charge of Paul to take charge of us too. Paul
needed special discipline, and with it special instruction, to learn, what was
more precious than even the unutterable things he had heard in heaven --
what it is to glory in weakness and lowliness. We need it, too, oh so much.
He who cared for him will care for us too. He watches over us with a
jealous, loving care, "lest we exalt ourselves". When we are doing so, He
seeks to discover to us the evil, and deliver us from it. In trial and weakness
and trouble He seeks to bring us low, until we so learn that His grace is all,
as to take pleasure in the very thing that brings us and keeps us low. His
strength made perfect in our weakness, His presence filling and satisfying
our emptiness, becomes the secret of a humility that need never fail. It can,
as Paul, in full sight of what God works in us, and through us, ever say, "In
nothing was I behind the chiefest apostles, though I am nothing." His
humiliations had led him to true humility, with its wonderful gladness and
glorying and pleasure in all that humbles.

"Most gladly will I glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me; wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses." The humble man
has learnt the secret of abiding gladness. The weaker he feels, the lower he
sinks; the greater his humiliations appear, the more the power and the
presence of Christ are his portion, until, as he says, "I am nothing," the
word of his Lord brings ever deeper joy: "My grace is sufficient for thee."

I feel as if I must once again gather up all in the two lessons: the danger of
pride is greater and nearer than we think, and the grace for humility too.

The danger of pride is greater and nearer than we think, and that especially
at the time of our highest experiences. The preacher of spiritual truth with
an admiring congregation hanging on his lips, the gifted speaker on a
Holiness platform expounding the secrets of the heavenly life, the Christian
giving testimony to a blessed experience, the evangelist moving on as in
triumph, and made a blessing to rejoicing multitudes -- no man knows the
hidden, the unconscious danger to which these are exposed. Paul was in
danger without knowing it; what Jesus did for him is written for our
admonition, that we may know our danger and know our only safety. If
ever it has been said of a teacher or professor of holiness, he is so full of
Chapter 11 46

self; or, he does not practice what he preaches; or, his blessing has not
made him humbler or gentler -- let it be said no more. Jesus, in whom we
trust, can make us humble.

Yes, the grace for humility is greater and nearer, too, than we think. The
humility of Jesus is our salvation: Jesus Himself is our humility. Our
humility is His care and His work. His grace is sufficient for us, to meet the
temptation of pride too. His strength will be perfected in our weakness. Let
us choose to be weak, to be low, to be nothing. Let humility be to us joy
and gladness. Let us gladly glory and take pleasure in weakness -- in all
that can humble us and keep us low. The power of Christ will rest upon us.
Christ humbled Himself, therefore God exalted Him. Christ will humble us,
and keep us humble; let us heartily consent, let us trustfully and joyfully
accept all that humbles; the power of Christ will rest upon us. We shall find
that the deepest humility is the secret of the truest happiness, of a joy that
nothing can destroy.
Chapter 12 47

Chapter 12

Humility and Exaltation

"He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. "Luke 14:11, 18:14. "God
giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and
He shall exalt you." Jas. 4:10. "Humble yourselves therefore under the
mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time. " 1 Peter 5:6.

Just yesterday I was asked the question, How am I to conquer this pride?
The answer; was simple. Two things are needed. Do what God says is your
work: humble yourself. Trust Him to do what He says is His work: He will
exalt you.

The command is clear: humble yourself. That does not mean that it is your
work to conquer and cast out the pride of your nature, and to form within
yourself the lowliness of the holy Jesus. No, this is God's work; the very
essence of that exaltation, wherein He lifts you up into the real likeness of
the beloved Son. What the command does mean is this: take every
opportunity of humbling yourself before God and man. In the faith of the
grace that is already working in you; in the assurance of the more grace for
victory that is coming; up to the light that conscience each time flashes
upon the pride of the heart and its workings; notwithstanding all there may
be of failure and falling, stand persistently as under the unchanging
command: humble yourself. Accept with gratitude everything that God
allows from within or without, from friend or enemy, in nature or in grace,
to remind you of your need of humbling, and to help you to it. Reckon
humility to be indeed the mother-virtue, your very first duty before God,
the one perpetual safeguard of the soul, and set your heart upon it as the
source of all blessing. The promise is divine and sure: He that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. See that you do the one thing God asks: humble
yourself. God will see that He does the one thing He has promised. He will
give more grace; He will exalt you in due time.

All God's dealings with man are characterized by two stages. There is the
time of preparation, when command and promise, with the mingled
Chapter 12 48

experience of effort and impotence, of failure and partial success, with the
holy expectancy of something better which these waken, train and
discipline men for a higher stage. Then comes the time of fulfillment, when
faith inherits the promise, and enjoys what it had so often struggled for in
vain. This law holds good in every part of the Christian life, and in the
pursuit of every separate virtue. And that because it is grounded in the very
nature of things. In all that concerns our redemption, God must needs take
the initiative. When that has been done, man's turn comes. In the effort after
obedience and attainment, he must learn to know his impotence. In
self-despair he must die to himself, and so be fitted voluntarily and
intelligently to receive from God the promise, the completion of that which
he had accepted in the beginning in ignorance. So, God who had been the
Beginning, ere man rightly knew Him, or fully understood what His
purpose was, is longed for and welcomed as the End, as the All in All.

It is even thus, too, in the pursuit of humility. To every Christian the

command comes from the throne of God Himself: humble yourself. The
earnest attempt to listen and obey will be rewarded -- yes, rewarded -- with
the painful discovery of two things. The one, what depth of pride, that is of
unwillingness to count oneself and to be counted nothing, to submit
absolutely to God, there was, that one never knew. The other, what utter
impotence there is in all our efforts, and in all our prayers too for God's
help, to destroy the hideous monster. Blessed the man who now learns to
put his hope in God, and to persevere, notwithstanding all the power of
pride within him, in acts of humiliation before God and Men. We know the
law of human nature: acts produce habits, habits breed dispositions,
dispositions form the will, and the rightly-formed will is character. It is not
otherwise in the work of grace. As acts, persistently repeated, beget habits
and dispositions, and these strengthened the will, He who works both to
will and to do comes with His mighty power and Spirit; and the humbling
of the proud heart with which the penitent saint cast himself so often before
God, is rewarded with the "more grace" of the humble heart, in which the
Spirit of Jesus has conquered, and brought the new nature to its maturity,
and He the meek and lowly One now dwells for ever.
Chapter 12 49

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will exalt you. And
wherein does the exaltation consist? The highest glory of the creature is in
being only a vessel, to receive and enjoy and show forth the glory of God.
It can do this only as it is willing to be nothing in itself, that God may be
all. Water always fills first the lowest places. The lower, the emptier a man
lies before God, the speedier and the fuller will be the inflow of the divine
glory. The exaltation God promises is not, cannot be, any external thing
apart from Himself: all that He has to give or can give is only more of
Himself, Himself to take more complete possession. The exaltation is not,
like an earthly prize, something arbitrary, in no necessary connection with
the conduct to be rewarded. No, but it is in its very nature the effect and
result of the humbling of ourselves. It is nothing but the gift of such a
divine indwelling humility, such a conformity to and possession of the
humility of the Lamb of God, as fits us for receiving fully the indwelling of
God.

He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Of the truth of these words Jesus
Himself is the proof; of the certainty of their fulfillment to us He is the
pledge. Let us take His yoke upon us and learn of Him, for He is meek and
lowly of heart. If we are but willing to stoop to Him, as He has stooped to
us, He will yet stoop to each one of us again, and we shall find ourselves
not unequally yoked with Him. As we enter deeper into the fellowship of
His humiliation, and either humble ourselves or bear the humbling of men,
we can count upon it that the Spirit of His exaltation, "the Spirit of God and
of glory," will rest upon us. The presence and the power of the glorified
Christ will come to them that are of an humble spirit. When God can again
have His rightful place in us, He will lift us up. Make His glory thy care in
humbling thyself; He will make thy glory His care in perfecting thy
humility, and breathing into thee, as thy abiding life, the very Spirit of His
Son. As the all-pervading life of God possesses thee, there will be nothing
so natural, and nothing so sweet, as to be nothing, with not a thought or
wish for self, because all is occupied with Him who filleth all. "Most gladly
will I glory in my weakness, that the strength of Christ may rest upon me."

Brother, have we not here the reason that our consecration and our faith
have availed so little in the pursuit of holiness? It was by self and its
Chapter 12 50

strength that the work was done under the name of faith; it was for self and
its happiness that God was called in; it was, unconsciously, but still truly, in
self and its holiness that the soul rejoiced. We never knew that humility,
absolute, abiding, Christlike humility and self-effacement, pervading and
marking our whole life with God and man, was the most essential element
of the life of the holiness we sought for.

It is only in the possession of God that I lose myself. As it is in the height

and breadth and glory of the sunshine that the littleness of the mote playing
in its beams is seen, even so humility is taking our place in God's presence
as nothing but a mote dwelling in the sunlight of His love.

"How great is God! How small am I! Lost, swallowed up in Love's

immensity! God only there, not I."

May God teach us to believe that to be humble, to be nothing in His

presence, is the highest attainment, and the fullest blessing of the Christian
life. He speaks to us: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and with him the
is of a contrite and humble spirit." Be this our portion!

"Oh, to be emptier, lowlier, Mean, unnoticed, and unknown, And to God a

vessel holier, Filled with Christ, and Christ alone!"

A Secret of Secrets: Humility the Soul of True Prayer.

Till the spirit of the heart be renewed, till it is emptied of all earthly desires,
and stands in an habitual hunger and thirst after God, which is the true spirit
of prayer; till then, all our prayer will be, more or less, but too much like
lessons given to scholars; and we shall mostly say them, only because we
dare not neglect them. But be not discouraged; take the following advice,
and then you may go to church without any danger of mere lip-labor or
hypocrisy, although there should be a hymn or a prayer, whose language is
higher than that of your heart. Do this: go to the church as the publican
went to the temple; stand inwardly in the spirit of your mind in that form
which he outwardly expressed, when he cast down his eyes, and could only
say, "God be merciful to me, a sinner." Stand unchangeably, at least in your
Chapter 12 51

desire, in this form or state of heart; it will sanctify every petition that
comes out of your mouth; and when anything is read or sung or prayed, that
is more exalted than your heart is, if you make this an occasion of further
sinking down in the spirit of the publican, you will then be helped, and
highly blessed, by those prayers and praises which seem only to belong to a
heart better than yours.

This, my friend, is a secret of secrets; it will help you to reap where you
have not sown, and be a continual source of grace in your soul; for
everything that inwardly stirs in you, or outwardly happens to you,
becomes a real good to you, if it finds or excites in you this humble state of
mind. For nothing is in vain, or without profit to the humble soul; it stands
always in a state of divine growth; everything that falls upon it is like a dew
of heaven to it. Shut up yourself, therefore, in this form of Humility; all
good is enclosed in it; it is a water of heaven, that turns the fire of the fallen
soul into the meekness of the divine life, and creates that oil, out of which
the love to God and man gets its flame. Be enclosed, therefore, always in it;
let it be as a garment wherewith you are always covered, and a girdle with
which you are girt; breathe nothing but in and from its spirit; see nothing
but with its eyes; hear nothing but with its ears. And then, whether you are
in the church or out of the church, hearing the praises of God or receiving
wrongs from men and the world, all will be edification, and everything will
help forward your growth in the life of God.

A Prayer For Humility

I will here give you an infallible touchstone, that will try all to the truth. It
is this: retire from the world and all conversation, only for one month;
neither write, nor read, nor debate anything with yourself; stop all the
former workings of your heart and mind: and, with all the strength of your
heart, stand all this month, as continually as you can, in the following form
of prayer to God. Offer it frequently on your knees; but whether sitting,
walking, or standing, be always inwardly longing, and earnestly praying
this one prayer to God: "That of His great goodness He would make known
to you, and take from your heart, every kind and form and degree of Pride,
whether it be from evil spirits, or your own corrupt nature; and that He
Chapter 12 52

would awaken in you the deepest depth and truth of that Humility, which
can make you capable of His light and Holy Spirit." Reject every thought,
but that of waiting and praying in this matter from the bottom of your heart,
with such truth and earnestness, as people in torment wish to pray and be
delivered from it ... If you can and will give yourself up in truth and
sincerity to this spirit of prayer, I will venture to affirm that, if you had
twice as many evil spirits in you as Mary Magdalene had, they will all be
cast out of you, and you will be forced with her to weep tears of love at the
feet of the holy Jesus.

Notes

* "All this is to make it known the region of eternity that pride can degrade
the highest angels into devils, and humility raise fallen flesh and blood to
the thrones of angels. Thus, this is the great end of God raising a new
creation out of a fallen kingdom of angels: for this end it stands in its state
of war betwixt the fire and pride of fallen angels, and the humility of the
Lamb of God, that the last trumpet may sound the great truth through the
depths of eternity, that evil can have no beginning but from pride, and no
end but from humility. The truth is this: Pride may die in you, or nothing of
heaven can live in you. Under the banner of the truth, give yourself up to
the meek and humble spirit of the holy Jesus. Humility must sow seed, or
there can be no reaping in Heaven. Look not at pride only as an
unbecoming temper, nor at humility only as a decent virtue: for the one is
death, and the other is life; the one is all hell, the other is all heaven. So
much as you have of pride within you, you have of the fallen angels alive in
you; so much as you have of true humility, so much you have of the Lamb
of God within you. Could you see what every stirring of pride does to your
soul, you would beg of everything you meet to tear the viper from you,
though with the loss of a hand or an eye. Could you see what a sweet,
divine, transforming power there is in humility, how it expels the poison of
your nature, and makes room for the Spirit of God to live in you, you would
rather wish to be the footstool of all the world than want the smallest
degree of it." --Spirit of Prayer, Pt.II, p.73, Edition of Moreton, Canterbury,
1893.
Chapter 12 53

* "We need to know two things: 1. That our salvation consists wholly in
being saved from ourselves, or that which we are by nature; 2. That in the
whole nature of things nothing could be this salvation or savior to us but
such a humility of God as is beyond all expression. Hence the first
unalterable term of the Savior to fallen man: Except a man denies himself,
he cannot be My disciple. Self is the whole evil of fallen nature; self-denial
is our capacity of being saved; humility is our savior ... Self is the root, the
branches, the tree, of all the evil of our fallen state. All the evils of fallen
angels and men have their birth in the pride of self. On the other hand, all
the virtues of the heavenly life are the virtues of humility. It is humility
alone that makes the unpassable gulf between heaven and hell. What is
then, or in what lies, the great struggle for eternal life? It all lies in the strife
between pride and humility: pride and humility are the two master powers,
the two kingdoms in strife for the eternal possession of man. There never
was, nor ever will be, but one humility, and that is the one humility of
Christ. Pride and self have the all of man, till man has his all from Christ.
He therefore only fights the good fight whose strife is that the
self-idolatrous nature which he hath from Adam may be brought to death
by the supernatural humility of Christ brought to life in him."--W. Law,
Address to the Clergy, p. 52. [I hope that this book of Law on the Holy
Spirit may be issued by my publisher in the course of the year.]

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