THERE is perhaps no grace more characteristic of Christianity than humility. No doubt there are exquisite instances of it in Old Testament story, in an Abraham, a David, or a Daniel. But outside the sphere of the direct dealings of God with men by divine revelation, there is hardly a trace of it in historical records. The Romans indeed had the word, but with them it signified either lowness of station or servility of spirit, and not at all that most delicate of virtues, which, as one has aptly said, “is gone if it but look upon itself.” For other virtues may, so to speak, be conscious of themselves without material diminution. Humility alone may not be introspective, lest it become its exact opposite — pride, than which I suppose, nothing is more displeasing to God. “By that sin fell the angels.”
Now of all our fallen race none have so little pride and self-assertion as little children. Perhaps that is why the ancients in their biographies of their great men have so little to say about the childhood of those whose grandeur has impressed them, and whom they elect to honor. Children in their eyes were hardly worth talking about. But they were just the ones the gracious Saviour loved to speak about and delighted to have near Him. We know how this astonished and displeased His disciples on one well-known occasion. They were not free from the prepossessions of their own times any more than we are wholly so from those of ours. And now they were occupied with greatness their minds doubtless dwelling on the wondrous vision on the Holy Mount, which three of them had so lately been privileged to behold, but which they by no means apprehended altogether after a spiritual sort. And so said our Lord, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall in no wise [it is a strong negative] enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
This must have been a hard saying to the disciples, and though the doctrine is familiar and by no means startling to modems, the practical reality may be but faintly grasped. Grasped it must be, no doubt, if we are true Christians at all, but deep must that humility be that entitles one to be called “greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Observe, it is an active process, “Whosoever shall humble himself,” not merely sit with folded hands in supine serenity. Nay, it will call forth ten thousand “acts of kindness and of love,” so that the one so graced will be, in his measure, “as one that serveth” among his fellows. But this is easier to praise than to practice.
It need hardly be said that in the Lord Jesus this divine grace shone with transcendent and unapproachable beauty. “He would,” to quote some memorable words, “bid us take the lowest place, but that He is in it Himself.” He went indeed where we could not follow Him (see John 13:3636Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards. (John 13:36)), to the death of the cross. Such was He, ‘Who united in His own mysterious Person all that is most comely in the three types of man, woman and child — strength, tenderness, humility. Hence our Lord’s character (if one may use the word of One in Whom all was so marvelously balanced) is the puzzle of all such as can admire His moral perfections, but refuse to admit His divine glory. Acknowledge Him to be “the Word made flesh,” and all is plain, just as the Bible is plain and seen to be consistent with itself the moment I bow to it as God’s word.
Of course there is another side to the truth. We are not to be children in everything. “In malice be ye children, but in understanding be men” (in the Greek, perfect, 1 Cor. 14:2020Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. (1 Corinthians 14:20)), which has been called a winning admonition. But if in human science he who knows most generally proves it by his modesty, how much more in divine things is it abundantly clear that the understanding that goes on to perfection may and should go hand in hand with the humility of a little child.
R. B., JUN.