XV.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HUMILITY.

He that humbleth himself shall be exalted.-S. LUKE, xiv, 11.

WHEN the guests came to arrange themselves at the table in the house of the chief Pharisee, where Christ was dining, our Lord observed a maneuvering among them for the seat of honor. Our modern social custom is wiser to leave the seating of guests to the prearrangement of the host. But the guests of the Pharisee were left to settle the matter among themselves. A curious contest ensued. It became evident that each guest thought in his heart that he was decidedly the most important person present. And when they came to table every one of them began to move confidently and unmistakably toward the seat of honor.

This coveted seat was secured by the most pompous, and self-satisfied, and aggressive person. The other seats were quickly filled in the order of their social advantage, until only one seat remained. It was the seat

farthest from the host, perhaps next to some unpleasant person, not among the favored guests, a seat in which one would be least likely to be seen or heard, the lowest seat, most undesirable from every point of view.

Now, if I read not too much into the narrative, when all had found a place at table, leaving vacant the least honorable and least desirable, Jesus of Nazareth, who had waited until all had made their choice, took His place in the seat remaining. And so the foot of the table became the head, and the seat of honor, farthest from the Christ, became the lowest of all, and the seat of humiliation became, at this feast, the throne of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

The action is almost a parable in itself of what Christ did for the quality which we call humility. For, before the time of Christ, humility was regarded not as a virtue, but as a fault. Some ancient virtues Christianity retaught and emphasized, as courage, and temperance, and truth, and justice. But to make humility a virtue was distinctly a creative act of Christian teaching. Humility, in the ancient world, stood for weakness, and baseness, and cowardice. Christ made hu

mility glorious, and the symbol in which the Church conquered the world was that of the scaffold upon which the Son of God humbled Himself to die. Christ said, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted," and the means of His own supreme exaltation was the Cross.

Had the gathering at the Pharisee's table been friendly to Jesus there would, perhaps, have been no occasion for the rebuke of pride. But apparently the hospitality of the occasion was the blind for an ambush. The Nazarene had been welcomed amid a company of hostile critics chiefly for the purpose of making out a case against Him. They expected Him to push Himself forward. But He kept Himself in the background. self-assertion consisted in emphasizing another point of view than theirs. Their idea was that a great man should make himself master. Christ taught that the greatest was the servant of all. His was the way of humility. Theirs was the way of pride.

His

A modern company of Christians would hail Christ as Master. Yet still is there need of the parable concerning humility. We claim to live in a Christian civilization. But it would be difficult to maintain that humility,

so fundamental in Christ's teaching, is especially characteristic of modern life.

It is not without significance that we live in the age which has made a science of advertising. The temper of our modern time is one of fevered yearning for success. Every man who works for another knows that the one thing required of him by the man higher up is success, and that the one unpardonable sin is failure. Now, what men mean by success is not to be gained through humility. You will be told, in fact, that the one quality you must be rid of, if you are to be successful, is humility. You must push yourself forward. You must advertise yourself. You must be noisy and boastful.

While it is probably true that the man who is a mere noise will not permanently succeed, it will not be gainsaid that among really capable and effective men today many of the most admired and successful are those who are most noisily capable and effective. The modern dictum is that whosoever exalteth himself shall be exalted, and whosoever humbleth himself shall be abased.

It is altogether important, therefore, that living as we do in this atmosphere, we should study anew Christ's doctrine of humility.

In the first place, we must get beyond the framework and drapery of the parable by which the Saviour vividly pictures His teaching of humility. It concerns more than places of honor or lowliness at a feast. Humility relates to an attitude of mind.

Nor is humility, as is sometimes assumed, a habit of self-depreciation. It would not be humility for Signor Caruso to say, "I cannot sing;" or for Mr. Kipling to say, "I cannot write;" or for Mr. Bryan to say, "I cannot speak." Such statements would not be significant of humility. When a man disparages his own one talent we suspect him not of humility, but of secret pride. He is fishing.

Humility, so far from belonging to the sphere of false imagination, is the power to see things as they are.

A world in which men were all equally endowed with every aptitude would not only be dull, but disorganized. Individual men are endowed with great gifts for their proper distribution. I cannot write great dramas, but Shakespeare is mine. I have no talent for statesmanship, but Lincoln has lived. I have no inventive genius, but Edison lends me his wizard power. "There are diversities