 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. CHAPTER 1 Humility, the Glory of the Creature They shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they art, and were created—Revelation 4, 10, and 11. When God created the universe it was with the one object of making the creature partaker of His perfection and blessedness, and so showing forth in it the glory of His love and wisdom and power. God wished to reveal Himself in and through created beings by communicating to them as much of His own goodness and glory as they were capable of receiving. But this communication was not a giving to the creature something which it could possess in itself, a certain life or goodness of which it had the charge and disposal. By no means, but as God is the ever-living, ever-present, ever-acting One who upholds all things by the word of His power, and in whom all things exist, the relation of the creature to God could only be one of unceasing absolute universal dependence. As truly as God by His power once created, so truly by that same power must God every moment maintain. The creature has not only to look back to the origin and first beginning of existence and acknowledge that there owes everything to God, its chief care, its highest virtue, its only happiness, now and through all eternity, is to present itself an empty vessel in which God can dwell and manifest His power and goodness. The life God bestows is imparted not once for all, but each moment continuously by the unceasing operation of His mighty power. Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, from the very nature of things, the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature. In fact, it is the root of every virtue. And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil. It was when the now fallen angels began to look upon themselves with self complacency that they were led to disobedience, and were cast down from the light of heaven into outer darkness. Even so it was when the serpent breathed the poison of his pride, the desire to be as God, into the hearts of our first parents, that they too fell from their high estate into all the wretchedness in which man is now sunk. In heaven and earth, pride, self-exaltation is the gate and the birth and the curse of hell. Hence it follows that nothing can be our redemption but the restoration of the lost humility, the original and only true relation of the creature to its God. And so Jesus came to bring humility back to earth, to make us partakers of it and buy it to save us. In heaven he humbled himself to become man. The humility we see in him possessed him in heaven. It brought him, he brought it from there. Here on earth he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. His humility gave his death its value, and so became our redemption. And now the salvation he imparts is nothing less and nothing else than a communication of his own life and death, his own disposition and spirit, his own humility as the ground and root of his relation to God and his redeeming work. Jesus Christ took the place and fulfilled the destiny of man as a creature by his life of perfect humility. His humility is our salvation, his salvation is our humility. And so the life of the saved ones, of the saints, must needs bear this stamp of deliverance from sin and full restoration to their original state, their whole relation to God and man marked by an all-pervading humility. Without this there can be no true abiding in God's presence or experience of his favor and the power of his spirit. Without this no abiding faith or love or joy or strength. Humility is the only soil in which the grace is root. The lack of humility is the sufficient explanation of every defect and failure. Humility is not so much a grace or virtue along with others as it is the root of all, because it alone takes the right attitude before God and allows him as God to do all. God has so constituted us, as reasonable beings, that the truer the insight into the real nature or the absolute need of a command, the readier and fuller will be our obedience to it. The call to humility has been too little regarded in the church because its true nature and importance has been too little apprehended. It is not a something which we bring to God or which he bestows. It is simply the sense of entire nothingness which comes when we see how truly God is all and in which we make way for God to be all. When the creature realizes that this is the true nobility and can sense to be with his will, his mind, and his affections, the form, the vessel in which the life and glory of God are to work and manifest themselves, he sees that humility is simply acknowledging the truth of his position as creature and yielding to God his place. In the life of earnest Christians, of those who pursue and profess holiness, humility ought to be the chief mark of their uprightness. It is often said that it is not so. May not one reason be that in the teaching and example of the church humility has never had that place of supreme importance which belongs to it, and that this, again, is owing to the neglect of this truth that strong as sin is, as a motive to humility, there is one of still wider and mightier influence, that which makes the angels, that which made Jesus, that which makes the holiest of saints in heaven so humble that the first and chief mark of the relation of the creature, the secret of his blessedness, is the humility and nothingness which leaves God free to be all. I am sure there are many Christians who will confess that their experience has been very much like my own in this, that we had long known the Lord without realizing that meekness and lowliness of heart are to be the distinguishing feature of the disciple as they were of the Master, and further that this humility is not a thing that will come of itself, but that it must be made the object of special desire and prayer and faith and practice. As we study the word, we shall see what very distinct and oft repeated instructions Jesus gave his disciples on this point and how slow they were in understanding him. Let us, at the very commencement of our meditations, admit that there is nothing so natural to man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous as pride. Let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will reveal how lacking we are in the grace of humility and how impotent we are to obtain what we seek. Let us study the character of Christ until our souls are filled with the love and admiration of his lowliness, and let us believe that when we are broken down under a sense of our pride and of our impotence to cast it out, Jesus Christ himself will come in to impart this grace too as a part of his wondrous life within us. His mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and humbled himself, becoming obedient even unto death, wherefore also God highly exalted him, Philippians 2.5.9. No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang. Through all its existence it can only live with the life that was in the seed that gave it being. The full apprehension of this truth, in its application to the first and the second Adam, cannot but help us greatly to understand both the need and the nature of the redemption there is in Jesus. The need. When the old serpent, he who had been cast out from heaven for his pride, whose whole nature as devil was pride, spoke his words of temptation into the ear of Eve, whose words carried with them the very poison of hell. And when she listened, and yielded her desire and her will to the prospect of being as God, knowing good and evil, the poison entered into her soul and blood and life, destroying for ever that blessed humility and dependence upon God which would have been our everlasting happiness. And instead of this, her life and the life of the race that sprang from her became corrupted to its very root with that most terrible of all sins and all curses, the poison of Satan's own pride. All the wretchedness of which this world has been the scene, all its wars and bloodshed among the nations, all its selfishness and suffering, all its ambitions and jealousies, all its broken hearts and embittered lives, with all its daily unhappiness, have their origin in what this cursed, hellish pride, either our own or that of others, has brought us. It is pride that made redemption needful. It is from our pride that we need above everything to be redeemed. And our insight into the need of redemption will largely depend upon our knowledge of the terrible nature of the power that has entered our being. No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang. The power that Satan brought from hell and cast into man's life is working daily, hourly, with mighty power throughout the world. Men suffer from it. They fear and fight and flee it. And yet they know not whence it comes, whence it has its terrible supremacy. No wonder they do not know where or how it is to be overcome. God has its root and strength in a terrible spiritual power, outside of us as well as within us, and as needful as it is that we confess and deplore it as our very own of equal importance is the recognition of its satanic origin. If this leads us to utter despair of ever conquering or casting it out, it will lead us all the sooner to that supernatural power in which alone our deliverance is to be found—the redemption of the Lamb of God. Our hopeless struggle against the working of self and pride within us may indeed become still more hopeless as we think of the power of darkness behind it all. But the utter despair will fit us the better for realizing and accepting a power of a life outside of ourselves, even the humility of heaven, as brought down and brought nigh by the Lamb of God, to cast out Satan and his pride. No tree can grow except on the root from which it sprang. Even as we need to look to the first Adam and his fall to know the power of the sin within us, we need to know well the second Adam and his power to give within us a life of humility as real and abiding and overmastering as has been that of pride. We have our life from and in Christ as truly, yea, more truly than from and in Adam. We are to walk, rooted in him, holding fast the head from whom the whole body increases with the increase of God. The life of God in which the incarnation entered human nature is the root in which we are to stand and grow. It is the same almighty power that works there and thence onward to the resurrection, which works daily in us. Our one need is to study and know and trust the life that has been revealed in Christ as the life that is now ours, and waits for our consent to gain possession and mastery of our whole being. In this view it is of inconceivable importance that we should have right thoughts of what Christ is, of what really constitutes him the Christ, and especially of what may be counted his chief characteristic, the root and essence of all his character as our Redeemer. There can be but one answer. It is his humility. What is the incarnation but his heavenly humility, his emptying himself and becoming man? What is his life on earth but humility, his taking the form of a servant? And what is his atonement but humility? He humbled himself and became obedient unto death. And what is his ascension and his glory but humility exalted to the throne and crowned with glory? He humbled himself, therefore God highly exalted him. In heaven where he was with the Father, in his birth, in his life, in his death, in his sitting on the throne, it is all, it is nothing but humility. Christ is the humility of God embodied in human nature, the eternal love humbling itself, clothing itself in the garb of meekness and gentleness, to win and serve and save us. As the love and condescension of God makes him the benefactor and helper and servant of all, so Jesus of necessity was the incarnate humility. And so he is still in the midst of the throne, the meek and lowly Lamb of God. If this be the root of the tree, its nature must be seen in every branch and leaf and fruit. If humility be the first and all including grace of the life of Jesus, if humility be the secret of his atonement, then the health and strength of our spiritual life will entirely depend upon our putting this grace first also, and making humility the chief thing we admire in him, the chief thing we ask of him, the one thing for which we sacrifice all else. Is it any wonder that the Christian life is so often feeble and fruitless when the very root of the Christ life is neglected, is unknown? Is it any wonder that the joy of salvation is so little felt when that attitude in which Christ found it and brings it so little thought? Until a humility which will rest in nothing less than the end and death of self, which gives up all the honor of men as Jesus did, to seek the honor that comes from God alone, which absolutely makes and counts itself nothing, that God may be all, that the Lord alone may be exalted, until such a humility be what we seek in Christ above our chief joy, and welcome at any price, there is very little hope of a religion that will conquer the world. I cannot too earnestly plead with my reader. If possible his attention has never yet been specially directed to the lack there is of humility within him or around him, to pause and ask whether he sees much of the spirit of the meek and lowly Lamb of God in those who are called by his name. Let him consider all who lack of love, all indifference to the needs, the feelings, the weakness of others. All sharp and hasty judgments and utterances so often excused under the plea of being outright and honest. All manifestations of temper and touchiness and irritation. All feelings of bitterness and estrangement. How these all have their root in nothing but pride, that ever seeks itself. Then his eyes will be open to see how a dark, shall I not say a devilish pride creeps in almost everywhere. The assemblies of the saints not accepted. Let him begin to ask what would be the effect within himself and those around him if, in relations both toward fellow saints and the world, believers were really permanently guided by the humility of Jesus. And let him say if the cry of our whole heart night and day ought not to be, O, for the humility of Jesus in myself and all around me. Let him honestly fix his heart on his own lack of that humility which has been revealed in the likeness of Christ's life and in the whole character of his redemption, and he will begin to feel as if he had never yet really known what Christ and his salvation is. Believer study the humility of Jesus. This is the secret, the hidden root of your redemption. Sink down into it deeper day by day. Believe with your whole heart that this Christ whom God has given you, even as his divine humility accomplished the work for you, will enter into dwell and work within you too, and make you what the Father would have you to be. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Humility by Andrew Murray. Chapter 3 Humility in the Life of Jesus I am in the midst of you as he that serveth, Luke 22.27. In the Gospel of John we have the inner life of our Lord laid open to us. Jesus speaks frequently of his relation to the Father, of the motives by which he is guided, of his consciousness of the power and spirit in which he acts. Though the word humble does not occur, we shall know where in Scripture see so clearly wherein his humility consisted. We have already seen that this grace is, in truth, nothing but that simple consent of the creature to let God be all, in virtue of which it surrenders itself to his working alone. In Jesus we shall see how both as the Son of God in heaven and as man upon earth he took the place of entire subordination and gave God the honor and the glory which is due to him. And what he so often taught became thus a reality for himself. He that humbleth himself shall be exalted. As it is written, he humbled himself, therefore God highly exalted him. Listen to the words in which our Lord speaks of his relation to the Father and see how unceasingly he uses the words not and nothing of himself. The not I, in which Paul later expresses his relation to Christ, is the very spirit of what Christ says regarding his relation to the Father. The Son can do nothing of himself, John 5 19. I can of myself do nothing, and my judgment is righteous because I seek not mine own will, John 5 30. I receive not glory from men, John 5 41. I am come not to do mine own will, John 6 38. My teaching is not mine, John 7 16. I am not come of myself, John 7 28. I do nothing of myself, John 8 28. Neither have I come of myself, but he sent me, John 8 42. I seek not mine own glory, John 8 50. The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself, John 14 10. The word which he hear is not mine, John 14 24. These words open to us the deepest roots of Christ's life and work. They tell us how it was that the Almighty God was able to work his mighty redemptive work through him. They show what Christ counted the state of his heart which became him as the son of the Father. They teach us what the essential nature and life is of that redemption which Christ accomplished and now communicates. It is this. He was nothing that God might be all. He resigned himself with his will and his powers entirely for the Father to work in him. Of his own power, his own will, and his own glory, of his whole mission, with all his work and his teaching, of all this he said, It is not I. I am nothing. I have given myself to the Father to work. I am nothing. The Father is all. This life of entire self-abnegation, of absolute submission, and dependence upon the Father's will Christ found to be one of perfect peace and joy. He lost nothing by giving all to God. God honored his trust and did all for him and then exalted him to his own right hand in glory. And because Christ had thus humbled himself before God and God was ever before him, he found it possible to humble himself before men too and to be the servant of all. His humility was simply the surrender of himself to God to allow him to do in him what he pleased, no matter what men around might say of him or do to him. It is in this state of mind, in this spirit and disposition, that the redemption of Christ has its virtue and efficacy. It is to bring us to this disposition that we are made partakers of Christ. This is the true self-denial to which our Saviour calls us. The acknowledgment that self has nothing good in it except as an empty vessel which God must fill and that its claim to be or do anything may not for a moment be allowed. It is in this, above and before everything, in which the conformity to Jesus consists, the being and doing nothing of ourselves that God may be all. Here we have the root and nature of true humility. It is because this is not understood or sought after that our humility is so superficial and so feeble. We must learn of Jesus how He is meek and lowly of heart. He teaches us where true humility takes its rise and finds its strength, in the knowledge that it is God who works with all in all, and that our place is to yield to Him in perfect resignation and dependence, and full consent to be and to do nothing of ourselves. This is the life Christ came to reveal and to impart, a life to God that came through death to sin and self. If we feel that this life is too high for us and beyond our reach, this insight must but the more urge us to seek it in Him, for it is the indwelling Christ who will live in us this life, meek and lowly. If we long for this, let us, meanwhile, above everything seek the holy secret of the knowledge of the nature of God, as He every moment works all in all, the secret of which all nature and every creature and above all every child of God is to be the witness, that it is nothing but a vessel, a channel, through which the living God can manifest the riches of His wisdom, power and goodness. The root of all virtue and grace, of all faith and acceptable worship, is that we know that we have nothing but what we receive, and bow in deepest humility to wait upon God for it. It was because this humility was not merely a temporary sentiment wakened up and brought into exercise when He thought of God, but was the very spirit of His whole life that Jesus was just as humble in His association with men as with God. He felt Himself the servant of God for the men whom God made and loved. As a natural consequence He counted Himself the servant of men, that through Him God might do His work of love. He never for a moment thought of seeking personal honor or asserting His power to vindicate Himself. His whole spirit was that of a life yielded to God to work in. It is not until Christians study the humility of Jesus as the very essence of His redemption, as the very blessedness of the life of the Son of God, as the only true relation to the Father, and therefore as that which Jesus must give us if we are to have any part with Him, that the terrible lack of actual heavenly manifest humility will become a burden and a sorrow, and our ordinary religion be set aside to secure this, the first and the chief of the marks of the Christ within us. Brother, are you clothed with humility? Ask your daily life. Ask Jesus. Ask your friends. Ask the world. And begin to praise God that there is opened up to you in Jesus, a heavenly humility of which you have hardly known, and through which a heavenly blessedness you possibly have never yet tasted can come into you. 4. Humility in the Teaching of Jesus. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Matthew 11.29. Whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant, even as the Son of man came to minister. Matthew 20.27.28. We have seen humility in the life of Christ as He laid open His heart to us. Let us listen now to His teaching. There we shall hear how He speaks of it and how far He expects men, and especially His disciples, to be humble as He was. Let us carefully study the passages, which I can scarce do more than quote, to receive the full impression of how often and how earnestly He taught it. It may help us to realize what He asks of us. 1. Look at the commencement of His ministry. In the Beatitudes, with which the sermon on the Mount opens, He declares, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. The very first words of His proclamation of the kingdom of heaven reveal the open gate through which alone we enter. The poor, who have nothing in themselves, to them the kingdom comes. The meek, who seek nothing in themselves, theirs the earth shall be. The blessings of heaven and earth are for the lowly. For the heavenly and the earthly life, humility is the secret of blessing. 2. Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. Jesus offers Himself as teacher. He tells us what the Spirit is which we shall find in Him as our teacher, and which we also can learn and receive from Him. Meekness and lowliness is the one thing He offers us. In it we shall find perfect rest of soul. Humility is to be our salvation. 3. The disciples had been disputing who would be the greatest in the kingdom, and had agreed to ask the Master. Luke 9.46, Matthew 18.4. He said a child in their midst and said, Whoever shall humble himself as this little child shall be exalted. Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? The question is indeed a far-reaching one. What will be the chief distinction in the heavenly kingdom? The answer, none but Jesus would have given. The chief glory of heaven, the true heavenly mindedness, the chief of the graces, is humility. He that is least among you all, the same shall be great. Luke 9.48. 4. The sons of Zebedee had asked Jesus that they might sit on His right and left, the highest places in the kingdom. Jesus said this was not His to give, but the fathers who would give it to those for whom it was prepared. They must not look or ask for it. Their thought must be of the cup and the baptism of humiliation. And then he added, Whoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the son of man came to serve. Matthew 20.27.28. Humility, as it is the mark of Christ the heavenly, will be the one standard of glory in heaven. The lowliest is the nearest to God. The primacy in the church is promised to the humblest. 5. Speaking to the multitude and the disciples about the Pharisees and their love of the chief seats, Christ said once again, Matthew 23.11. He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. Humiliation is the only ladder to honor in God's kingdom. 6. On another occasion in the house of a Pharisee he spoke the parable of the guest who would be invited to come up higher. Luke 14.13.11. And added, For whoever exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. The demand is inexorable. There is no other way. Self-abasement alone will be exalted. 7. After the parable of the Pharisee and the publican Christ declared again, Luke 18.14. Everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. 8. In the temple and presence and worship of God everything is worthless that is not pervaded by deep true humility towards God and men. 8. After washing the disciples' feet Jesus said, John 13.14. If I then the Lord and master have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. The authority of command and example, every thought either of obedience or conformity, make humility the first and most essential element of discipleship. 9. At the holy supper table the disciples still disputed who should be considered the greatest. Luke 22, 26 and 27. Jesus said, He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. I am among you as he that serveth. 10. The path in which Jesus walked, in which he opened for us, the power and spirit in which he brought about salvation and to which he saves us, is ever the humility that makes me the servant of all. 11. Alas, how little this is preached, how little it is practised, how little the lack of it is felt or confessed. 12. I do not say how few attain to it, to some recognisable measure of likeness to Jesus in his humility. 13. Rather, how few ever think of making it a distinct object of continual desire or prayer. 14. How little the world has seen it, how little has it been seen even in the inner circle of the church. 15. Whoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. 16. Would God that it might be given to us to believe that Jesus means this. 17. We all know what the character of a faithful servant or slave implies. 18. Devotion to the master's interests, thoughtful study and care to please him, delight in his prosperity and honour and happiness. 19. There are servants on earth in whom these dispositions have been seen and to whom the name of servant has never been anything but a glory. 20. Has it not been a new joy in our Christian life to know that we may yield ourselves as servants and slaves to God and to find that his service is our highest liberty, the liberty from sin and self? 21. We need now to learn another lesson that Jesus calls us to be servants of one another and that as we accept it heartily this service too will be a most blessed one, a new and fuller liberty too from sin and self. 22. At first it may appear hard. This is only because of the pride which still counts itself something. 23. If once we learn that to be nothing before God is the glory of the creature, the spirit of Jesus, the joy of heaven, we shall welcome with our whole heart the discipline we may have in serving even those who try to vex us. 24. When our own heart is set upon this, the true sanctification, we shall study each word of Jesus on self-abasement with new zest and no place will be too low and no stooping too deep, no service too mean or too long continued. 25. If we may but share and prove the fellowship with him who declared, I am in the midst of you as he that serveth. 22. 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 at 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, will 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 from him the path to God. Let us study the words we have been reading until our heart is filled with a 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. Luke 22.26 In the text quoted from the teaching of Jesus we have already seen what the occasions were on which the disciples had proved how entirely wanting they were in the grace of humility. Once they had been disputing, by the way, which of them should be the greatest. Another time the sons of Zebedee, with their mother, had asked for the first places, the seat on the right hand and the left, and later on at the supper table on the last seat, there was again a contention about who should be accounted the greatest. Not that there were not moments when they indeed humbled themselves before their Lord, so it was with Peter when he cried out, depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man. So too were the disciples when they fell down and worshiped him, who had stilled the storm. But such occasional expressions of humility only bring out into stronger relief what was the habitual tone of their mind, as shown in the natural and spontaneous revelation given at other times of the place and power of self. The study of the meaning of all this will teach us most important lessons. First, how much there may be of earnest and active religion while humility is still sadly lacking. See it in the disciples. There was in them fervent attachment to Jesus. They had forsaken all for him. The Father had revealed to them that he was the Christ of God. They believed in him. They loved him. They obeyed his commandments. They had forsaken all to follow him. When others went back, they claved to him. They were ready to die with him. But deeper down than all this, there was a dark power the existence and the hideousness of which they were hardly conscious of which had to be slain and cast out before they could be the witness of the power of Jesus to save. It is even so still we may find theologians and ministers, evangelists and workers, missionaries and teachers in whom the gifts of the Spirit are many and manifest and who are the channels of blessing to multitudes but of whom when the testing time comes or closer fellowship gives fuller knowledge, it is only too painfully manifest that the grace of humility as an abiding characteristic is scarce to be seen. All tends to confirm the lesson that humility is one of the chief and the highest graces, one of the most difficult of attainment, one to which our first and chiefest efforts ought to be directed and one that only comes in power when the fullness of the Spirit makes us partakers of the Indwelling Christ and He lives within us. Second, how impotent all external teaching and all personal effort is in conquering pride or giving me the meek and lowly heart. For three years the disciples had been in the training school of Jesus. He had told them what the chief lesson was he wished to teach them, learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Time after time he had spoken to them, to the Pharisees, to the multitude about humility as the only path to the glory of God. He had not only lived before them as the Lamb of God in his divine humility, he had more than once unfolded to them the inmost secret of his life. The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. I am among you as one that serveth. He had washed their feet and told them they were to follow his example. And yet all had availed but little. At the Holy Supper there was still the contention as to who should be considered greatest. They had doubtless often tried to learn his lessons and firmly resolved not again to grieve him, but all was in vain. This should teach us the much needed lessons that no outward instruction, not even by Christ himself, no argument, however convincing, no sense of the beauty of humility, however deep, no personal resolve or effort, however sincere and earnest. None of this can cast out the devil of pride. We must come to know that when Satan casts out Satan it is only to enter afresh in the mightier though more hidden power. Nothing can avail but this that the new nature in its divine humility be revealed in power to take the place of the old to become as truly our very nature as the former ever was. Third. It is only by the indwelling of Christ in his divine humility that we become truly humble. We have our pride from another, from Adam. We must have our humility from another, too. Pride is ours and rules in us with such terrible power because it is our self, our very nature. Humility must be ours in the same way. It must be our very self, our very nature. As natural and easy as it is been to be proud, it must be, it will be, to be humble. The promise is where, even in the heart, sin abounded, we must have our humility In the heart, sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly. All Christ's teaching of His disciples and all their vain efforts were the needful preparation for His entering into them in divine power to give and be in them what He had taught them to desire. In His death He destroyed the power of the devil. He put away sin. He affected an everlasting redemption. In His resurrection He received from the Father an entirely new life, the life of man energized by the power of God, a life capable of being communicated to men and entering and renewing and filling their lives with His divine power. In His ascension He received the Spirit of the Father, through whom He might do what He could not do while upon earth, make Himself one with those He loved, actually live their life for them, so that they could live before the Father in a humility like His, because it was Himself who lived and breathed in them. And on Pentecost He came and took possession. The work of preparation and conviction, the awakening of desire and hope which His teaching had affected, was perfected by the mighty change that Pentecost wrought. And the lives and the epistles of James and Peter and John bear witness that all was changed and that the Spirit of the meek and the suffering Jesus had indeed possession of them. What shall we say to these things? Among my readers I am sure there is more than one class. There may be some who have never yet thought very specially of the matter and cannot at once realize its immense importance as a life question for the church and its every member. There are others who have felt condemned for their shortcomings and have put forth very earnest efforts only to fail and be discouraged. Others, again, may be able to give joyful testimony of spiritual blessing and power, and yet there has never been the needed conviction of what those around them still see as missing. And still others may be able to witness that in regard to this grace the Lord has given deliverance and victory even while He has taught them how much they still need and may expect out of the fullness of Jesus. To whichever class we belong may I urge the pressing need there is for our all seeking a still deeper conviction of the unique place that humility holds in the religion of Christ and the utter impossibility of the church or the believer being what Christ would have them be as long as His humility is not recognized as His chief glory, His first command, and our highest blessedness. Let us consider deeply how far the disciples were advanced while this grace was still so terribly lacking. And let us pray to God that our gifts may not so satisfy us that we never grasp the fact that the absence of this grace is the secret cause why the power of God cannot do its mighty work. It is only where we, like the Son, truly know and show what we can do, nothing of ourselves, that God will do all. It is when the truth of an indwelling Christ takes the place it claims in the experience of believers that the church will put on her beautiful garments and humility be seen in her teachers and members as the beauty of holiness. Chapter 6 Humility in Daily Life He that loveth not His brother whom He hath seen, how can He love God whom He hath not seen? 1 John 4.20 What a solemn thought that our love to God will be measured by our everyday contact with men and the love it displays, and that our love to God will be found to be a delusion except as its truth is proved in standing the test of daily life with our fellow men. It is even so with our humility. It is easy to think we humble ourselves before God, but 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 in which 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 discern 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 considered greatest, when he related 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. It is even so in the teaching of Paul to the Romans he writes in honour preferring one another, set not your mind on high things but condescend to those that are lowly. Be not wise in your own conceit to the Corinthians, love, and there is no love without humility as its root. Love, wanteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not its own, is not provoked. To the Galatians Through love be servants one of another. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another, to the Ephesians immediately after the three wonderful chapters on the heavenly life. Therefore walk with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering for bearing one another in love. Giving thanks always, subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ. To the Philippians doing nothing through faction or vain glory but in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself. Have the mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus who emptied himself taking the form of a servant and humbled himself. And to the Galatians put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering for bearing one another and forgiving each other even as the Lord forgave you. It is in our relation to one another, in our treatment of one another that the true lowliness of mind and the heart of humility are to be seen. Our humility before God has no value except as it prepares us to reveal the humility of Jesus to our fellow men. Let us study humility in daily life in the light of these words. The humble man seeks at all times to act up to the rule in honor preferring one another, servants one of another, each counting others better than himself, subjecting yourselves one to another. The question is often asked, how can we count others better than ourselves when we see that they are far below us in wisdom and in holiness, in natural gifts, or in grace received? The question proves at once how little we understand what real lowliness of mind is. True humility comes when, in the light of God, we have seen ourselves to be nothing, have consented to part with and cast away self, to let God be all. The soul that has done this and can say, so have I lost myself in finding thee no longer compares itself with others. It has given up forever every thought of self in God's presence. It meets its fellow men as one who is nothing and seeks nothing for itself. It is a servant of God and for his sake a servant of all. A faithful servant may be wiser than the master and yet retain the true spirit and posture of the servant. The humble man looks upon every child of God, even the feeblest and unworthiest, and honours him and prefers him in honour as the son of a king. The spirit of him who washed the disciples feet makes it a joy to us to be indeed the least, to be servants one of another. The humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised and himself forgotten, because in God's presence he will learn to say with Paul, I am nothing. He has received the spirit of Jesus who pleased not himself and sought not his own honour as the spirit of his life. Amid what are considered the temptations to impatience and touchiness, to hard thoughts and sharp words which come from the failings and sins of fellow Christians, the humble man carries the oft-repeated injunction in his heart and shows it in his life, for bearing one another and forgiving one another even as the Lord forgave you. He has learned that in putting on the Lord Jesus he has put on the heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and long suffering. Jesus has taken the place of self and it is not an impossibility to forgive as Jesus forgave. His humility does not consist merely in thoughts or words of self-deprecation, but as Paul puts it, in a heart of humility encompassed by compassion and kindness, meekness and long suffering, the sweet and lowly gentleness recognised as the mark of the Lamb of God. In striving after the higher experiences of the Christian life the believer is often in danger of aiming at and rejoicing in what one might call the more human, the manly virtues such as boldness, joy, contempt of the world, zeal, self-sacrifice, even the old Stoics taught and practised these, while the deeper and gentler, the diviner and more heavenly graces, those which Jesus first taught upon earth because he brought them from heaven, those which are more distinctly connected to Jesus' cross and the death of self. Poverty of spirit, meekness, humility, lowliness, are scarcely thought of or valued. Therefore let us put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, long suffering, and let us prove our Christlikeness not only in our zeal for saving the lost, but before all in our interaction with the brethren and for giving one another even as the Lord forgave us. Fellow Christians, do let us study the Bible portrait of the humble man and let us ask our brethren and ask the world whether they recognize in us the likeness to the original. Let us be content with nothing less than taking each of these texts as the promise of what God will work in us, as the revelation in words of what the Spirit of Jesus will give as a birth within us that each failure and shortcoming simply urge us to turn humbly and meekly to the meek and lowly Lamb of God in the assurance that where He is enthroned in the heart His humility and gentleness will be one of the streams of living water that flow from within us. Once again I repeat what I have said before. I feel deeply that we have very little conception of what the Church suffers from the lack of divine humility, the nothingness that makes room for God to prove His power. It has not been long since a Christian of an humble loving spirit acquainted with not a few mission stations of various societies expressed his deep sorrow that in some cases the Spirit of love and forbearance was sadly lacking. Men and women who back in Europe could each choose their own circle of friends when brought close together with others of uncongenial minds found it hard to bear and to love and to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. And those who should have been fellow helpers of each other's joy became a hindrance and a weariness. And all for the one reason the lack of the humility which counts itself nothing which rejoices in becoming and being counted the least and only seeks, like Jesus the servant, the helper and comforter of others even the lowest and unworthiest. And whence comes it that men who have joyfully given up themselves for Christ find it so hard to give up themselves for their brethren? Is not the blame with the church? It has so little taught its sons and daughters that the humility of Christ is the first of the virtues, the best of all the graces and powers of the Spirit. It will prove that a Christ-like humility is what it, even like Christ, places and preaches first as what is, in truth, needed and possible to. But let us not be discouraged. Let the discovery of the lack of this grace stir us to larger expectation from God. Let us look upon every brother who tries or vexes us as God's means of grace, God's instrument for our purification and opportunity for our exercise of the humility Jesus our life breathes within us. And let us have such faith in the all of God and the nothing of self that as nothing in our own eyes we may in God's power only seek to serve one another in love. Chapter 7 Humility and Holiness Which say, Stand by thyself for I am holier than thou. Isaiah 65.5 We speak of the holiness movement in our times and praise God for it. We hear a great deal about seekers after holiness and professors of holiness about holiness teaching and holiness meetings. The blessed truths of holiness in Christ and holiness by faith are being emphasized as never before. The great test as to whether the holiness we profess to seek or to have attained is truth and life will however be whether it is manifest in the increasing humility it produces. In the creature humility is the one thing needed to allow God's holiness to dwell in him and shine through him. In Jesus the Holy One of God who makes us holy a divine humility was the secret of his life and his death and his exaltation. So the one infallible test of our holiness will be the humility before God and men which marks us. Humility is the bloom and the beauty of holiness. The chief mark of counterfeit holiness is its lack of humility. Every seeker after holiness needs to be on his guard lest unconsciously what has begun in the spirit of 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 of Pharisee, the other a publican. There is no place to 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. Of course 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 from 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 that 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 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 in our shepherds and fellow men. If you would know whether 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 of 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-defense and self-assertion in sharp judgments and unkind words that they did not each reckon others better than themselves and that their holiness was but little in it of the meekness of the saints. In their spiritual history men have had times of great humbling and brokenness but what a different thing this is from being clothed with humility from having an humble spirit from having that lowliness of mind in which each counts himself the servant of others and so shows forth the very mind which was also in Christ Jesus. Stand aside for I am holier than thou. What a parody on holiness. Jesus the holy one is the humble one. The holiest will ever be the humblest. There is none holy but God hence we have as much of holiness as we have of God and according to what we have of God will be our real humility because humility is nothing but the disappearance of self and the vision that God is all. The holiest will be the humblest. Alas though the bare faced boasting Jew of the days of Isaiah is not often to be found even our manners have taught us not to speak thus. How often his spirit is still seen whether in the treatment of fellow saints or of the children of the world. In the spirit in which opinions are given and work is undertaken how often though the garb be that of the publican the voice is still that of the Pharisee oh God I thank thee that I am not as other men. And is there then such humility to be found that men shall indeed still count themselves less than the least of all saints the servants of all. There is love vaunteth not itself is not puffed up seeketh not its own where the spirit of love that abroad in the heart where the divine nature comes to a full birth where Christ the meek and lowly lamb of God is truly formed within there is given the power of a perfect love that forgets itself and finds its blessedness in blessing others in bearing with them and honoring them however feeble they be. Where this love enters their God enters and where God has entered in his power and reveals himself as all there the creature becomes nothing and where the creature becomes nothing before God it cannot be anything but humble towards the fellow creature the presence of God becomes not a thing of times and seasons but the covering under which the soul ever dwells and its deep abasement before God becomes the holy place of his presence from which all its words and works proceed. May God teach us that our thoughts and words and feelings concerning our fellow men are his test of our humility towards him and that our humility before him is the only power that can enable us to be always humble with our fellow men. Our humility must be the life of Christ the lamb of God within us. Let all teachers of holiness whether in the pulpit or on the platform and all seekers after holiness whether in the closet or the convention take warning there is no pride so dangerous because none so subtle and insidious as the pride of holiness. It is not that a man ever actually says or even thinks keep away I am holier than you no indeed the thought would be regarded with abhorrence but there grows up all unconsciously a hidden habit of soul which feels complacency in its attainments and cannot help seeing how far it is in advance of others it can be recognized not always in any special self assertion or self laudation but simply in the absence of that deep self abasement which cannot but be the mark of the soul that has seen the glory of God Job 42.5 and 6 Isaiah 6.5 it reveals itself not only in words or thoughts but in a tone a way of speaking of others in which the gift of spiritual discernment cannot but recognize the power of self even the world with its keen eyes notices it and points to it as a proof that the profession of a heavenly life does not bear any especially heavenly fruits O brethren let us beware unless we make with each advance in what we think holiness the increase of humility our study find that we have been delighting in beautiful thoughts and feelings in solemn acts of consecration and faith while the only sure mark of the presence of God the disappearance of self was all the time lacking come and let us flee to Jesus and hide ourselves in him until we be clothed upon with his humility that alone is our holiness End of Chapter 7 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Humility by Andrew Murray Chapter 8. Humility and Sin Sinners of whom I am chief 1st Timothy 1.15 Humility is often identified with penitence and contrition As a consequence there appears to be no way of fostering humility but by keeping the soul occupied with its sin We have learned, I think that humility is something else and something more We have seen in the teaching of our Lord Jesus and the New Testament epistles how often the virtue is inculcated without any reference to sin In the very nature of things in the whole relation of the creature to the creator the life of Jesus as he lived it and imparts it to us humility is the very essence of holiness as it is of blessedness It is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God where God is all self is nothing But though it is this aspect of the truth I have felt it's specifically needful to press I need scarce say that New depth and intensity give to the humility of the saints We have only to look at a man like the apostle Paul to see how through his life as a ransomed and a holy man the deep consciousness of having been a sinner lives inextinguishably We all know the passages in which he refers to his life as the persecutor and blasphemer I am the least of the apostles that I'm not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God I labored more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me 1 Corinthians 15 9 and 10 unto me who am less than the least of all saints was this grace given to preach to the heathen Ephesians 3 8 I was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious how be it I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief 1 Timothy 1 13 through 15 God's grace had saved him God remembered his sins no more forever but never never could he forget how terribly he had sinned the more he rejoiced in God's salvation and the more his experience of God's grace filled him with joy unspeakable the clear was his consciousness that he was a saved sinner and that salvation had no meaning or sweetness except as the sense of his being a sinner made it precious and real to him never for a moment could he forget that it was a sinner God had taken up in his arms and crowned with his love the text we have just quoted are often appealed to as Paul's confession of daily sinning one is only to read them carefully in their context to see how little this is the case they have a far deeper meaning they refer to that which lasts throughout eternity and which will give its deep undertone of amazement and adoration to the humility with which the ransom bow before the throne as those who have been washed from their sins in the blood of the Lamb never never even in glory can they be other than ransomed sinners never for a moment in this life can God's child live in the full light of his love but as he feels sin out of which he has been saved is his one only right and title to all the grace has promised to do the humility with which first he came as a sinner acquires a new meaning when he learns how it becomes him as a creature and then ever again the humility in which he was born as a creature has its deepest richest tones of adoration in the memory of what it is to be a monument of God's wondrous redeeming love the true import of what these expressions of Saint Paul teach us comes out all the more strongly when we notice the remarkable fact that through his whole Christian course we never find from his pen even in those epistles in which we have the most intensely personal embossemings anything like confession of sin nowhere is there any mention of shortcoming or defect nowhere any suggestion to his readers that he has failed in duty or sinned against the law of perfect love on the contrary there are passages not a few in which he indicates himself in language that means nothing if it does not appeal to a faultless life before God and men year witnesses and God also how holyly and righteously and unblamably we behaved ourselves toward you 1 Thessalonians 2.10 our glorying is this testimony of our conscience that in holiness and sincerity of God we behaved ourselves in the world and more abundantly to you word 2 Corinthians 1.12 this is not an ideal or an inspiration it is an appeal to what has actual life had been however we may account for this absence of confession of sin all will admit that it must point to a life in the power of the Holy Spirit such as is but seldom realized or expected in these our days the point which I wish to emphasize is this that the very fact of the absence of such confession of sinning only gives the more force to the truth that it is not in daily sinning that the secret of the deeper humility will be found but in the habitual never for a moment to be forgotten position which just the more abundant grace will keep more distinctly alive the only place, the only place of blessing our one abiding position before God must be that of those whose highest joy it is to confess that they are sinners saved by grace with Paul's deep remembrance of having sinned so terribly in the past before grace had met him and the consciousness of being kept from present sinning there was ever coupled the abiding remembrance of the dark hidden power of sin ever ready to come in and only kept out by the presence and power of the indwelling Christ in me, that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing these words of Romans 7 describe the flesh as it is to the end the glorious deliverance of Romans 8 the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has now made me free from the law of sin which once led me captive is neither the annihilation nor the sanctification of the flesh but a continuous victory given by the spirit as he mortifies the deeds of the body as health expels disease and light swallows up darkness and life conquers death so the indwelling of Christ through the spirit is the health and light and life of the soul but with this the conviction of helplessness and danger ever tempers one's faith in the momentary and unbroken action of the Holy Spirit into that chastened sense of dependence which makes the highest faith and joy the handmaids of a humility that only lives by the grace of God the three passages above quoted all show that it was the wonderful grace bestowed upon Paul of which he felt the need every moment that humbled him so deeply the grace of God that was with him enabled him to labor more abundantly than they all the grace to preach to the heathen and the unsearchable riches of Christ the grace that was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus it was this grace of which it is that the very nature and glory that is for sinners that kept the consciousness of his having one sin and being yet liable to sin so intensely alive where sin abounded grace did abound more exceedingly this reveals how the very essence of grace is to deal with and take away sin and how it must ever be the more abundant the experience of grace the more intense the consciousness of being a sinner it is not sin but God's grace showing a man and ever reminding him what a sinner he was that will keep him truly humble it is not sin but grace that will make me indeed know myself a sinner and make the sinner's place of deepest self-abasement the place I never leave I fear that there are not a few who by strong expressions of self-condemnation and self-denunciation have sought to humble themselves and have to confess with sorrow that a humble spirit a heart of humility which with its accompaniments of kindness and compassion of meekness and forbearance is still as far off as ever being occupied with self even amid the deepest self-abhorrence can never free us from self it is the revelation of God not only by the law condemning sin but by his grace delivering from it that will make us humble the law may break the heart with fear it is only grace that works that sweet humility which becomes a joy to the soul as its second nature it was the revelation of God in his holiness drawing nigh to make himself known in his grace that made Abraham and Jacob Job and Isaiah bow so low it is that soul in which God the Creator as the all of the creation in its nothingness God the Redeemer in his grace as the all of the sinner in his sinfulness is waited for and trusted and worshiped that will find itself so fulfilled with his presence that there will be no place for self so alone can the promise be fulfilled the haughtiness of man shall be brought low and the Lord alone be exalted in that day it is the sinner dwelling in the full light of God's holy redeeming love in the experience of that full in dwelling of divine love which comes through Christ and the Holy Spirit who cannot but be humble not to be occupied with your sin but to be occupied with God brings deliverance from self End of Chapter 8 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Humility by Andrew Murray Chapter 9. Humility and Faith How can you believe which receive glory from one another and the glory that cometh from the only God you seek not John 5.44 In an address I lately heard the speaker said that the blessings of the higher Christian life were often like the objects exposed in a shop window one could see them clearly and yet could not reach them If told to stretch out his hand and take a man would answer I cannot there is a thick pane of plate glass between me and them and even so Christians may see clearly the blessed promises of perfect peace and rest of overflowing love and joy being communion and fruitfulness and yet feel that there is something between hindering the true possession and what might that be nothing but pride The promises made to faith are so free and sure the invitations and encouragements are so strong the mighty power of God on which it may count is so near and free that it can only be something that hinders faith being ours In our text Jesus reveals to us that it is indeed pride that makes faith impossible How can you believe which receive glory from one another As we see how in their very nature pride and faith are irreconcilably at variance we shall learn that faith and humility are at root one and that we never can have more of true faith than we have of true humility We may indeed have strong intellectual conviction and assurance of the truth while pride is kept in the heart but that it makes the living faith which has power with God and impossibility We need only think for a moment what faith is Is it not the confession of nothingness and helplessness the surrender and the waiting to let God work Is it not in itself the grace of our place as dependence who can claim or get or do nothing but what grace bestows Humility is simply the disposition which prepares the soul for living on trust and every breathing of pride even the most secret in self-seeking, self-will self-confidence or self-exaltation is just the strengthening of that self which cannot enter the kingdom or possess the things of the kingdom because it refuses to allow God to be what he is and must be there the all in all Faith is the organ or sense for the perception and apprehension of the heavenly world and its blessings Faith seeks the glory that comes from God that only comes where God is all as long as we take glory from one another as long as ever we seek and love and jealously guard the glory of this life the honor and reputation that comes from men we do not seek and cannot receive the glory that comes from God pride renders faith impossible salvation comes through a cross and a crucified Christ salvation is fellowship with the crucified Christ in the spirit of his cross salvation is union with the light in salvation is participation in the humility of Jesus is it any wonder that our faith is so feeble when pride still reigns so much and we have scarce learned even to long or pray for humility as the most needful and blessed part of salvation humility and faith are more nearly allied in scripture than many know see it in the life of Christ there are two cases she spoke of a great faith had not the centurion at whose faith he marveled saying I have not found so great faith no not in Israel spoken I'm not worthy that thou should come under my roof and had not the mother to whom he spoke O woman great is thy faith accepted the name of a dog and said ye Lord yet the dogs eat of the crumbs it is the humility that brings a soul to be nothing before God that also removes every hindrance to faith and makes it only fearless it should dishonor him by not trusting him wholly brother have we not hear the cause of failure in the pursuit of holiness is it not this though we knew it not that made our consecration and our faith so superficial and so short lived we had no idea to what an extent pride and self were still secretly working within us and how God alone by his incoming and his mighty power could cast them out we understood not how nothing but the new and divine nature taking entirely the place of the old self could make us really humble we knew not that absolute unceasing universal humility must be the root disposition of every prayer and every approach to God because of every dealing with man and that we might as well attempt to see without eyes or live without breath as to believe or draw an eye to God or dwell in his love without an all-pervading humility and lowliness of heart brother have we not been making a mistake in taking so much trouble to believe while all the time there was the old self in its pride seeking to possess itself of God's blessing and riches no wonder we could not believe let us change our course let us seek first of all to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God he will exalt us the cross and the death and the grave into which Jesus humbled himself were his path to the glory of God and they are our path let our one desire and our fervent prayer be to be humbled with him and like him let us accept gladly whatever can humble us before God or men this alone is the path to the glory of God you perhaps feel inclined to ask a question I have spoken of some who have blessed experiences or are the means of bringing blessing to others and yet are lacking in humility you ask whether these do not prove that they have true even strong faith though they show too clearly that they still seek too much the honor that cometh from men there is more than one answer that can be given but the principle answer in our present connection is this they indeed have a measure of faith in proportion to which with the special gifts bestowed upon them is the blessing they bring to others but in that very blessing the work of their faith is hindered through the lack of humility the blessing is often superficial or transitory just because they are not the nothing they pray for God to be all a deeper humility would without doubt bring a deeper and fuller blessing the Holy Spirit not only working in them as a spirit of power but dwelling in them in the fullness of his grace and specially that of humility would through them communicate himself to these converts for a life of power and holiness and steadfastness now all too little seen how can we believe which receive glory from one another brother nothing can cure you of the desire of receiving glory from men or of the sensitiveness and pain and anger which come when it is not given except giving yourself to seek only the glory that comes from God let the glory of the all glorious God be everything to you you will be freed from the glory of men and of self and be content and glad to be nothing out of this nothingness you will grow strong in faith giving glory to God and you will find that the deeper you sink in humility before him the nearer he is to fulfill the every desire of your faith Humility by Andrew Murray as there was no way for him to prove his surrender to God to the very uttermost or to give up and raise out of our human nature to the glory of the Father but through death so with us too humility must lead us to die to self in that way we prove how holy we have given ourselves up to it and to God by that alone we are freed from fallen nature and find the path that leads to life in God the new nature of which humility is the breath and the joy we have spoken of what Jesus did for his disciples when he communicated his resurrection life to them when in the descent of the Holy Spirit he the glorified and enthroned meekness actually came from heaven himself to dwell in them he won the power to do this through death in its inmost nature the life he imparted was a life out of death a life that had been surrendered to death and had been won through death he who came to dwell in them was himself one who had been dead and now lives forever more his life his person his presence bears the marks of death of being a life begotten out of death that life in his disciples ever bears the death marks too it is only as the spirit of the death of the dying one dwells and works in the soul the power of his life can be known the first and chief of the marks of the dying of the Lord Jesus of the death marks that show the true follower of Jesus is humility for these two reasons only humility leads to perfect death and only death perfects humility humility and death are in their very nature one humility is the bud only humility leads to perfect death humility means the giving up of self and the taking of the place of perfect nothingness before God Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death in death he gave the highest the perfect proof of having given up his will to the will of God in death he gave up his self with its natural reluctance to drink the cup to give up the life he had in union with our human nature he died to self and to the sin that tempted him so as man he entered into the perfect life of God if it had not been for his boundless humility counting himself as nothing except as a servant to do and suffer the will of God he never would have died this gives us the answer to the question so often asked and of which the meaning is so how can I die to self the death to self is not your work it is God's work in Christ you are dead to sin the life there is in you has gone through the process of death and resurrection you may be sure you are indeed dead to sin but the full manifestation of the power of this death in your disposition and conduct and the measure in which the Holy Spirit imparts the power of the death of Christ and here it is that the teaching is needed if you would enter into full fellowship with Christ in his death and know the full deliverance from self humble yourself this is your only duty place yourself before God in your utter helplessness consent heartily to the fact of your impotence slay or make yourself alive sink down into your own nothingness in the spirit of meek and patient and trustful surrender to God accept every humiliation look upon every person who tries or vexes you as a means of grace to humble you use every opportunity of humbling yourself before your fellow men as a help to abide humble before God God will accept such humbling of yourself as the proof that your whole heart desires it as the very best prayer for it as your preparation for his mighty work of grace when by the mighty strengthening of his Holy Spirit he reveals Christ fully in you so that he in his form of a servant is truly formed in you and dwells in your heart it is the path of humility which leads to perfect death perfect experience that we are dead in Christ then follows only this death leads to perfect humility oh beware of the mistake so many make who would gladly be humble but are afraid of being too humble they have so many qualifications and limitations so many reasonings and questionings as to what true humility is to be and to do that they never unreservedly yield themselves to it beware of this humble yourself unto the death it is in the death of self that humility is perfected know of a certainty that at the root of all real experience of more grace of all true advance in consecration of all actually increasing conformity to the likeness of Jesus there must be a deadness to self that proves itself to God than in our dispositions and habits it is sadly possible to speak of the death life and the spirit walk while even the tendress love cannot but see how much there remains of self the death to self has no sure death mark than a humility which makes itself of no reputation which empties out itself and takes the form of a servant it is possible to speak much and honestly of the fellowship with a despised and rejected Jesus and of bearing his cross while the meek and lowly the kind and gentle humility of the Lamb of God is not seen is scarcely sought the Lamb of God implies two things meekness and death let us seek to receive him in both forms in him they are inseparable they must be in us too what a hopeless task if we had to do the work nature never can overcome nature not even with the help of grace self can never cast out self even in the regenerate man praise God the work has been done and finished and perfected forever the death of Jesus once and forever is our death to self and the ascension of Jesus his entering once and forever into the holiest has given us the Holy Spirit to communicate to us in power and so make our very own the power of the death life as the soul in the pursuit and patience of humility follows in the steps of Jesus its consciousness of the need of something more is awakened its desire and hope is quickened its faith is strengthened and it learns to look up and claim and receive that true fullness of the spirit of Jesus we maintain his death to self and sin in its full power and make humility the all-pervading spirit of our life are you ignorant that all we who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death reckon yourselves to be dead unto sin but alive unto God in Christ Jesus present yourself unto God as alive from the dead the whole self-consciousness is to be imbued and characterized by the spirit that animated the death of Christ he has ever to present himself to God as one who has died in Christ and in Christ is alive from the dead bearing about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus his life ever bears the two-fold mark its roots reaching in true humility deep into the grave of Jesus the death to sin and self its head lifted up in resurrection power to the heaven where Jesus is believer claim in faith the death and the life of Jesus as yours enter in his grave into the rest from self and its work the rest of God with Christ who committed his spirit into the Father's hands humble yourself and descend each day into that perfect dependence upon God God will raise you up and exalt you sink every morning in deep deep nothingness into the grave of Jesus every day the life of Jesus will be manifest in you let a willing, loving, restful happy humility be the mark that you have indeed claimed your birthright the baptism into the death of Christ by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified the souls that enter into his humiliation will find in him the power to see and count self dead and as those who have learned and received of him to walk with all lowliness and meekness for bearing one another in love the death life is seen in a meekness and lowliness like that of Christ CHAPTER 11 Humility and Happiness Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses that the strength of Christ may rest upon me I take pleasure in weaknesses for when I am weak then am I strong? CHAPTER 12 Lest Paul should exalt himself by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations a thorn in the flesh was sent him to keep him humble Paul's first desire was to have it removed and he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart the answer came that the trial was a blessing the humiliation it brought the grace and strength of the Lord could be the better manifested Paul at once entered upon a new stage in his relation to the trial instead of simply enduring it he most gladly gloried in it instead of asking for deliverance he took pleasure in it he had learned that the place of humiliation is the place of blessing of power of joy Virtually every Christian went through these two stages in his pursuit of humility in the first he fears and flees and seeks deliverance from all that can humble him he has not yet learned to seek humility at any cost he has accepted the command to be humble and seeks to obey it but only discovers how utterly he fails he prays for humility at times very earnestly but in his secret heart that in wish to be kept from the very things that will make him humble he has not yet so in love with humility esteeming it as the beauty of the Lamb of God and the joy of heaven that he would sell all to produce it to procure it in his pursuit of it and his prayer for it there is still somewhat of a sense of burden and bondage to humble himself was not yet become the spontaneous expression of a life and a nature that is essentially humble it is not yet become his joy and only pleasure he cannot yet say most gladly do I glory in weakness I take pleasure in whatever humbles me but can we hope to reach the stage in which this will be the case undoubtedly and what will it be that brings us there that which brought Paul there a new revelation of the Lord Jesus nothing but the presence of God can reveal and expel self a clear insight was to be given to Paul into the deep truth that the presence of Jesus will banish every desire to seek anything in ourselves and will make us delight in every humiliation that prepares us for his further manifestations our humiliations lead us to the experience of the presence and power of Jesus to choose humility as our highest blessing let us try to learn the lessons the biography of Paul teaches us there may be advanced believers imminent teachers, men of heavenly experiences who have not yet fully learned the lesson of perfect humility gladly glorying in weakness we see this in Paul the danger of exalting himself was coming very near he knew not yet perfectly what it was to be nothing to die that Christ alone might live in him to take pleasure in all that brought him low it appears as if this were the highest lesson that he had to learn full conformity to his Lord in that self-empting where he gloried in weakness that God might be all the highest lesson a believer has to learn is humility every Christian who seeks to advance in holiness may remember this well there may be intense consecration and fervent zeal in heavenly experience and yet if it is not prevented by very special dealings of the Lord there may be an unconscious self-exaltation with it all let us learn the lesson the highest holiness is the deepest humility and let us remember that it comes not of itself but only as it is made a matter of special dealing on the part of our faithful Lord and his faithful servant let us look at our lives in the light of this experience and see whether we gladly glory in weakness whether we take pleasure as Paul did in injuries, in necessities in distresses yes, let us ask whether we have learned to regard a reproof just or unjust a reproach from friend or enemy an injury or trouble or difficulty into which others bring us as above all an opportunity of proving how Jesus is all to us how our own pleasure or honor are nothing and how humiliation is in very truth what we take pleasure in it is indeed blessed the deep happiness of heaven to be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up in the thought that Jesus is all let us trust him who took charge of Paul to take charge of us too Paul needed special discipline and with it special instruction to learn what was more precious than even the unutterable things he had heard in heaven what it is to glory in weakness and lowliness we need it too oh so much he who cared for him will care for us too he watches over us with a jealous loving care lest we exalt ourselves when we are doing so he seeks to divulge to us the evil and deliver us from it in trial and weakness and trouble he seeks to bring us low until we so learn that his grace is all that we take pleasure in the very thing that brings us and keeps us low his strength made perfect in our weakness his presence filling and satisfying our emptiness becomes the secret of a humility that need never fail that can as did Paul in full sight of what God works in us and through us ever say in nothing was I behind the chiefest apostles though I am nothing his humiliations had led him to true humility with its wonderful gladness and glorying and pleasure in all that humbles most gladly will I glory in my weaknesses that the power of Christ may rest upon me wherefore I take pleasure in weaknesses the humble man has learned the secret of abiding gladness the weaker he feels the lower he sinks the greater his humiliations appear the more the power and the presence of Christ are his portion until as he says I am nothing the word of his Lord brings ever deeper joy my grace is sufficient for thee I feel as if I ought once again to gather up all into two lessons the danger of pride is greater and nearer than we think and the grace for humility is too the danger of pride is greater and nearer than we think and that especially at the time of our highest experiences the preacher of spiritual truth with an admiring congregation hanging on his lips the gifted speaker on a holiness platform expounding the secrets of the heavenly life the Christian giving testimony to a blessed experience the evangelist moving on as in triumph and made a blessing to rejoicing multitudes no man knows the hidden the unconscious danger to which these are exposed Paul was in danger without knowing it what Jesus did for him is written for our admonition that we may know our danger and know our own safety if ever it has been said of a teacher or professor of holiness he is so full of self or he does not practice what he preaches or his blessing has not made him humbler or gentler let it be said no more Jesus in whom we trust can make us humble yes the grace for humility is greater and nearer to than we think the humility of Jesus is our salvation Jesus himself is our humility our humility is his care and his work his grace is sufficient for us to meet the temptation of pride too his strength will be perfected in our weakness let us choose to be weak to be low to be nothing let humility be to us let us gladly glory and take pleasure in weakness in all that can humble us and keep us low the power of Christ will rest upon us Christ humbled himself therefore God exalted him Christ will humble us and keep us humble let us heartily consent let us trustfully and joyfully accept all that humbles the power of Christ will rest upon us we shall find that the deepest humility is the secret of the truest happiness of a joy that