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 fulfilment 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 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 the
taking our place in God's presence to be 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!'
Notes.
NOTE A--'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.
Note B.--'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 saviour to us but such a humility of God as is beyond all
expression. Hence the first unalterable term of the Saviour 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 saviour. ..._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.]
Note C--'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 of 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.
'The Spirit of divine love can have no birth in any fallen creature,
till 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 Saviour: 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.'--See _Wholly For God,_ pp 84-102. [The whole
passage deserves careful study, showing most remarkably how the
continual sinking down in humility before God is, from man's side, the
only way to die to self.][Footnote: The whole dialogue has been
published separately under the title _Dying to Self: A Golden
Dialogue._ By William Law. With Notes by A.M. (Nisbet & Co., 1s) Every
one who would study and practise humility will find in this golden
dialogue what it is that hinders our humility, how we are to be
delivered from it, and what the blessing of the Spirit of Love is that
comes to the humble from Christ, the meek and lowly Lamb of God.]
Note D.--_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 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.--_The Spirit of Prayer,_ Pt. II. p. 121.
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 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.--_Ibid._ p. 124.