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SPECIAL NOTE.

Fleming H. Revell Company are the only authorized American Publishers of the works of the Rev. Andrew Murray.  On all sales of the Revell Editions, a copyright royalty is paid to Mr. Murray.

PREFACE.

THERE are three great motives that urge us to humility. It becomes me as a creature, as a sinner, as a saint. The first we see in the heavenly hosts, in un­fallen man, in Jesus as Son of Man. The second appeals to us in our fallen state, and points out the only way through which we can return to our right place as creatures. In the third we have the mystery of grace, which teaches us that, as we lose ourselves in the overwhelming greatness of redeeming love, humility be­comes to us the consummation of ever­lasting blessedness and adoration.

In our ordinary religious teaching the second aspect has been too exclusively put in the foreground, so that some have even gone to the extreme of saying that we must keep sinning if we are indeed to keep humble. Others again have thought that the strength of self-con­demnation is the secret of humility. And the Christian life has suffered loss, where believers have not been distinctly guided to see that, even in our relation as creatures, nothing is more natural and beautiful and blessed than to be nothing, that God may be all; or, where it has not been made clear that it is not sin that humbles most, but grace, and that it is the soul, led through its sinfulness to be occupied with God in His wonder­ful glory as God, as Creator, and Re­deemer, that will truly take the lowest place before Him.

In these meditations I have, for more than one reason, almost exclusively di­rected attention to the humility that be­comes us as creatures. It is not only that the connection between humility and sin is so abundantly set forth in all our religious teaching, but because I be­lieve that for the fullness of the Christian life it is indispensable that prominence be given to the other aspect. If Jesus is indeed to be our example in His lowli­ness, we need to understand the princi­ples in which it was rooted, and in which we find the common ground on which we stand with Him, and in which our like­ness to Him is to be attained. If we are indeed to be humble, not only be­fore God but towards men, if humility is to be our joy, we must see that it is not only the mark of shame because of sin, but, apart from all sin, a being clothed upon with the very beauty and blessedness of heaven and of Jesus. We shall see that just as Jesus found His glory in taking the form of a servant, so when He said to us, "Whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant," He simply taught us the blessed truth that there is nothing so divine and heavenly as being the servant and helper of all. The faith­ful servant who recognizes his position finds a real pleasure in supplying the wants of the master or his guests. When we see that humility is something infi­nitely deeper than contrition, and accept it as our participation in the life of Je­sus, we shall begin to learn that it is our true nobility, and that to prove it in be­ing servants of all is the highest fulfill­ment of our destiny, as men created in the image of God.

When I look back upon my own re­ligious experience, or round upon the Church of Christ in the world, I stand amazed at the thought of how little hu­mility is sought after as the distinguish­ing feature of the discipleship of Jesus. In preaching and living, in the daily intercourse of the home and social life, in the more special fellowship with Chris­tians, in the direction and performance of work for Christ,-alas! how much proof there is that humility is not es­teemed the cardinal virtue, the only root from which the graces can grow, the one indispensable condition of true fellow­ship with Jesus. That it should have been possible for men to say of those who claim to be seeking the higher holi­ness, that the profession has not been accompanied with increasing humility, is a loud call to all earnest Christians, how­ever much or little truth there be in the charge, to prove that meekness and low­liness of heart are the chief mark by which they who follow the meek and lowly lamb of God are to be known.