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HUMILITY
THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS
BY
REV. Andrew Murray
Lord Jesus! may our Holiness be perfect Humility!
Let Thy perfect Humility be our Holiness!
NEW YORK
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
LONDON GLASGOW
PREFACE.
There are three great motives that urge us to humility. It becomes me
as a creature, as a sinner, as a saint. The first we see in the
heavenly hosts, in unfallen man, in Jesus as Son of Man. The second
appeals to us in our fallen state, and points out the only way through
which we can return to our right place as creatures. In the third we
have the mystery of grace, which teaches us that, as we lose ourselves
in the overwhelming greatness of redeeming love, humility becomes to
us the consummation of everlasting blessedness and adoration.
In our ordinary religious teaching, the second aspect has been too
exclusively put in the foreground, so that some have even gone to the
extreme of saying that we must keep sinning if we are indeed to keep
humble. Others again have thought that the strength of
self-condemnation is the secret of humility. And the Christian life
has suffered loss, where believers have not been distinctly guided to
see that, even in our relation as creatures, nothing is more natural
and beautiful and blessed than to be nothing, that God may be all; or
where it has not been made clear that it is not sin that humbles most,
but grace, and that it is the soul, led through its sinfulness to be
occupied with God in His wonderful glory as God, as Creator and
Redeemer, that will truly take the lowest place before Him.
In these meditations I have, for more than one reason, almost
exclusively directed attention to the humility that becomes us as
creatures. It is not only that the connection between humility and sin
is so abundantly set forth in all our religious teaching, but because
I believe that for the fullness of the Christian life it is
indispensable that prominence be given to the other aspect. If Jesus
is indeed to be our example in His lowliness, we need to understand
the principles in which it was rooted, and in which we find the common
ground on which we stand with Him, and in which our likeness to Him is
to be attained. If we are indeed to be humble, not only before God but
towards men, if humility is to be our joy, we must see that it is not
only the mark of shame, because of sin, but, apart from all sin, a
being clothed upon with the very beauty and blessedness of heaven and
of Jesus. We shall see that just as Jesus found His glory in taking
the form of a servant, so when He said to us, 'Whosoever would be
first among you, shall be your servant,' He simply taught us the
blessed truth that there is nothing so divine and heavenly as being
the servant and helper of all. The faithful servant, who recognises
his position, finds a real pleasure in supplying the wants of the
master or his guests. When we see that humility is something
infinitely deeper than contrition, and accept it as our participation
in the life of Jesus, we shall begin to learn that it is our true
nobility, and that to prove it in being servants of all is the highest
fulfilment of our destiny, as men created in the image of God.
When I look back upon my own religious experience, or round upon the
Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how
little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the
discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and living, in the daily
intercourse of the home and social life, in the more special
fellowship with Christians, in the direction and performance of work
for Christ,--alas! how much proof there is that humility is not
esteemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can
grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellowship with Jesus.
That it should have been possible for men to say of those who claim to
be seeking the higher holiness, that the profession has not been
accompanied with increasing humility, is a loud call to all earnest
Christians, however much or little truth there be in the charge, to
prove that meekness and lowliness of heart are the chief mark by which
they who follow the meek and lowly Lamb of God are to be known.
Contents
Humility:
I. '' The Glory of the Creature
II. '' The Secret of Redemption
III. '' In the Life of Jesus
IV. '' In the Teaching of Jesus
V. '' In the Disciples of Jesus
VI. '' In Daily Life
VII. '' And Holiness
VIII.'' And Sin
IX. '' And Faith
X. '' And Death to Self
XI. '' And Happiness
XII. '' And Exaltation
Notes
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness.
I.
Humility: The Glory of the Creature
_'They shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying: Worthy art
Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory, and the honour and
the power: for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will
they were, and were created. '_--REV. iv. 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 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. (See Note A.)
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 favour 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 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 realises
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 realising 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 will come in to impart this grace too, as a part of His
wondrous life within us.
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness
II.
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. ii. 5-7.
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, 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 realising
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 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. (See Note B.)
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 honour of men as Jesus did, to
seek the honour 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 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.
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness
III.
The Humility of Jesus.
_'I am in the midst of you as he that serveth.'_--LUKE xxii. 26.
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 honour 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 v. 19).
'I can of My own self do _nothing_; My judgment is just, because I
seek _not_ Mine own will' (John v 30).
'I receive _not_ glory from men' (John v. 41).
'I am come _not_ to do Mine own will' (John vi. 38).
'My teaching is _not_ Mine' (John vii. 16).
'I am _not_ come of Myself' (John vii. 28).
'I do _nothing_ of Myself' (John vii. 28).
'I have _not_ come of Myself, but He sent Me' (John viii. 42).
'I seek _not_ Mine own glory' (John viii. 50).
'The words that I say, I speak _not_ from Myself' (John xiv. 10).
'The word which ye hear is _not_ Mine' (John xiv. 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 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 honoured 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 Saviour 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 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 honour, 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.
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness
IV.
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 serve.'_--MATT. xx. 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 realise 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 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. xxxiii.
11), _'He that is greatest among you shall be your servant.'_
Humiliation is the only ladder to honour 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 xiv.
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 (Luke xviii. 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 xiii. 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 essential element of discipleship.
9. At the Holy Supper table, the disciples still disputed who should
be greatest (Luke xxii. 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 practised. How little
the lack of it is felt or confessed. I do not say, how few attain to
it, some recognisable 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 honour 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 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.
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness
V.
Humility in the Disciples of Jesus
_'Let him that is chief among you be as he that doth serve.'_
--LUKE xxii. 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 worshipped 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 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.
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 ourself, 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 realise 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 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 recognised 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.
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness.
VI.
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 iv. 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 was its truth is
proved in standing the test of daily life with our fellowmen. 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 insignificances of daily life are the
importances 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
honour 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, '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 honour
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, and 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 honours him and prefers
him in honour 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.
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 honour, 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 long-suffering,--the sweet and lowly gentleness recognised as the
mark of the Lamb of God.