[Songs in the Night - April 8]
The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honor is humility. Proverbs 15:33
THE parable of a man with a beam in his own eye
trying to pick a mote out of his brother's eye was a
forceful method whereby the Master inculcated the
necessity of humility on the part of those who would
be taught of God.
Humility is here as elsewhere put as
a foundation virtue.
The Latin word for humility is
"humus," ground.
This implies that it is the soil out
of which other virtues are produced.
Those who
think they know everything can learn nothing.
As
Chalmers has said: "The more a man does examine,
the more does he discover the infirmities of his own
character."
As Wheatley remarked, "Ten thousand
of the greatest faults in our neighbors are of less consequence
to us than one of the smallest in ourselves."
A knowledge of our sins and imperfections should
make and keep all humanity humble; but how beautiful
it is to realize that the perfect Jesus was humble,
and that all the holy angels are so! Z'12-165 R5029:3 (Hymn 95)