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