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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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