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 marvelled,
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 dishonour 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 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 honour 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 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 fulfil the every desire of your faith.
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness.
X.
Humility and Death to Self.
_'He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death.'_--PHIL. ii. 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 the 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, bears 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 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 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 to 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 C.)
'Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptised into Jesus Christ were
_baptised 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 characterised by the spirit that animated the
death of Christ. He has ever to 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.
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness
XI.
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. xii. 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 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 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 honour 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.
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 self; or, he does
not practise 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.
Humility: The Beauty of Holiness
XII.
Humility and Exaltation
_'He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.'_
--LUKE xiv. 11, xviii. 13.
_'God giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourself in the sight of the
Lord, and He shall exalt you.'_--JAS. iv. 10.
_'Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He
may exalt you in due time.'_--1 PET. v. 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 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 characterised by two stages. There is
the time of preparation, when command and promise, with the mingled
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
fulfilment, 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 to
die to himself, and so be fitted voluntarily and intelligently to
receive from God the end, the completion of that of which he had
accepted 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 no 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.