The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility. Every
seeker after holiness needs to be on his guard, lest unconsciously
what was begun in the spirit be perfected in the flesh, and pride
creep in where its presence is least expected. Two men went up into
the temple to pray: the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. There is
no place or position so sacred but the Pharisee can enter there. Pride
can lift its head in the very temple of God, and make His worship the
scene of its self exaltation. Since the time Christ so exposed his
pride, the Pharisee has put on the garb of the publican, and the
confessor of deep sinfulness equally with the professor of the highest
holiness, must be on the watch. Just when We are most anxious to have
our heart the temple of God, we shall find the two men coming up to
pray. And the publican will find that his danger is not from the
Pharisee beside him, who despises him, but the Pharisee within who
commends and exalts. In God's temple, when we think we are in the
holiest of all, in the presence of His holiness, let us beware of
pride. 'Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present
themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them.'
'God, I thank thee, I am not as the rest of men, or even as this
publican.' It is in that which is just cause for thanksgiving, it is
in the very thanksgiving which we render to God, it may be in the very
confession that God has done it all, that self finds its cause of
complacency. Yes, even when in the temple the language of penitence
and trust in God's mercy alone is heard, the Pharisee may take up the
note of praise, and in thanking God be congratulating himself. Pride
can clothe itself in the garments of praise or of penitence. Even
though the words, 'I am not as the rest of men' are rejected and
condemned, their spirit may too often be found in our feelings and
language towards our fellow-worshippers and fellow-men. Would you know
if this really is so, just listen to the way in which Churches and
Christians often speak of one another. How little of the meekness and
gentleness of Jesus is to be seen. It is so little remembered that
deep humility must be the keynote of what the servants of Jesus say of
themselves or each other. Is there not many a Church or assembly of
the saints, many a mission or convention, many a society or committee,
even many a mission away in heathendom, where the harmony has been
disturbed and the work of God hindered, because men who are counted
saints have proved in touchiness and haste and impatience, in
self-defence and self-assertion, in sharp judgments and unkind words,
that they did not each reckon others better than themselves, and that
their holiness has but little in it of the meekness of the
saints?[Footnote1: ME is a most exacting personage, requiring the best
seat and the highest place for itself, and feeling grievously wounded
if its claim is not recognised. Most of the quarrels among Christian
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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