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