“Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.”—Proverbs 18:12
Surely this repetition, like our Lord’s often-repeated parallel (Mar 10:31), was intended to deepen our sense of their importance. It is hard to persuade a man that he is proud. Every one protests against this sin. Yet who does not cherish the viper in his own bosom? Man so little understands that dependence upon his God constitutes the creature’s happiness, and that the principle of independence is madness, and its end is destruction (Gen 3:5-6). The haughty walk on the brink of a fearful precipice; only a miracle preserves them from instant ruin. The security of the child of God is when he lies prostrate in the dust. If he soar high, the danger is imminent, though he be on the verge of heaven (2Co 12:1-7).
The danger to a young Christian lies in an over-forward profession. The glow of the first love, the awakened sensibility to the condition of his perishing fellow-sinners, ignorance of the subtle working of inbred vanity, the mistaken zeal of injudicious friends—all tend to foster self-pleasing. Oh! let him know that before honour is humility. In the low Valley of Humiliation special manifestations are realized. Enlarged gifts and apparently extended usefulness, without growing more deeply into the humility of Christ, will be the decline, not the advancing of grace. That undoubtedly is the most humbled spirit, that has most of the spirit of Christ. The rule of entry into His school, the first step of admission to His kingdom, is “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Mat 11:29).
The spring of this humility is true self-knowledge. Whatever may be seen of a man externally to his advantage, let him keep his eye looking within; and the real sight of himself must lay him low. When he compares his secret follies with his external decency (what appears to his fellow-creatures with what he knows of himself), he can but cry out: “Behold I am vile! I abhor myself!” (Job 42:6). The seat of this precious grace is not in words, meltings, or tears, but in the heart. No longer will he delude himself with a false conceit of what he has not, or with a vain conceit of what he has. The recollection “Who maketh thee to differ?” (1Co 4:7) is ever present, to press him down under the weight of infinite obligations. Its fruit is lowliness of mind, meekness of temper, thankfulness in receiving reproof, forgetfulness of injury, readiness to be lightly regarded. No true greatness can there be without this deep-toned humility. This is he “whom the King delighteth to honour” (Est 6:6). “Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5:3). “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his people” (Psa 113:7-8).
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