When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and He shall save the humble person.
The humble soul the peculiar favourite of heaven
I.Some account of lowliness and humility. Lowliness being a relative grace, we must consider it in a threefold view.
1. With respect to ourselves. It implies low and underrating thoughts of ourselves. It has in it even a self-abhorrence; but a singleness of heart in the discharge of duty, without vainglory, or pharisaical ostentation.
2. With respect unto others. This has in it a preferring of others above or before ourselves. A looking upon the gifts and graces of others without a grudge. And an affable, courteous carriage toward all.
3. With reference to God. It implies high and admiring thoughts of the majesty of God. When God discovers Himself, the man sinks into nothing in his own esteem. A holy fear and dread of God always on his spirit, especially in his immediate approaches unto the pretence of God, in the duties of worship. An admiring of every expression of the! Divine bounty, and goodness toward men in general, and toward himself in particular. A giving God the glory of all that we are helped to do in His service. A silent resignation unto the will of God, and an acquiescence in the disposals of His providence, let dispensations be never so cross to the inclinations of flesh and blood. The very soul and essence of Gospel humiliation lies in the soul’s renouncing of itself, going out of itself, and going into and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as its everlasting all.
II. The humble soul is the peculiar favourite of Heaven. This is evident if we consider--
1. That when the Son of God was here in our nature, He shewed a particular regard unto such.
2. God has such respect unto the humble soul because it is a fruit of His own Spirit inhabiting the soul.
3. This is a disposition that makes the soul like Christ, and the liker that a person be to Christ, God loves Him aye the better.
III. Some marks by which you may try whether you be among the humble and lowly.
1. The lowly soul is one that is many times ashamed to look up to heaven under a sense of his own vileness and unworthiness. He is one that is many times put to wonder that God hath not destroyed him.
2. He is one that is most abased under the receipt of the greatest mercies and sweetest manifestations.
3. He is one that renounces the law as a covenant, and disclaims all pretensions to righteousness from that airth.
4. He is one that has high, raised, and admiring thoughts of Christ, and of His law-abiding righteousness. The humble soul is one that looks on sin as the greatest burden: that values himself of least, when others value him most; that is not puffed up with the falls of others: that is thankful for little, and content and desirous to know God’s will, that he may do it.
IV. Some motives to press and recommend this lowliness and humility of spirit. It assimilates the soul to Christ. It is the distinguishing character of a Christian. Consider how reasonable this lowliness and humility of soul is--whether we look to ourselves in particular or the evils of the land or day wherein we live. (E. Erskine.)
The ministry of fellow helpfulness
Poverty, anxieties, pain, suffering, oppressions, errors, sins, sadnesses, we move among these day by day. Be we high born or lowly, live we in palace or hut, these experiences greet us, and make their appeal to us. What is to be our bearing in relation to all this? How are We to conduct ourselves amid such surroundings? There are two courses open to us--the selfish and the sympathetic. We may shut ourselves up in a spirit of selfish isolation and say, “Other people’s affairs are nothing to me.” We have the power so to choose and act. Of course we take the consequences such conduct involves. That we cannot escape. There is, however, the truer, manlier, Christlier course of brotherly sympathy, kindly feeling, sympathetic helpfulness. Going among men cast down by their surroundings and tendencies, their sins and their sorrows, we may say even to those lowest down, “There is lifting up for you.” Such a bearing as this is in keeping with all the noblest instincts of our nature. A selfish, unsympathetic man is unnatural. He has got a twist. But we love the unselfish, the sympathetic, the helpful. This spirit and bearing religion ever enforces and promotes. It is a vital part of religion. A selfish Christian is a contradiction. The godly man should be an embodied Gospel of hope wherever he goes. The mission of the Lord Jesus lay along this line. He came to men as the great hope bringer. He has made the world transcendently richer by the hope inspirations that pervaded His teaching. Down through the ages, under the same inspiration, Christly men have moved among their follows as hope bringers. (Ralph M. Spoor.)
Delight in the Lord
These words describe the sacred pleasures of piety.
I. The sublimity of its nature. The saints delight--
1. In the saving knowledge of God.
2. In the present enjoyment of God.
3. In the future anticipation of God.
II. The Divinity of its origin. “In the Almighty.”
1. The Almighty is suited to our capacities.
2. The Almighty is adequate to our necessities.
3. The Almighty is durable as our existence.
III. The tendency of its influence. “Thou shalt lift up thy face unto God.” The effects which accompany spiritual joy, distinguish it from mere enthusiastic delusion, and demonstrate both the genuineness and efficacy of experimental religion in them that believe.
1. They exercise confidence in God.
2. They enjoy communion with God.
3. They maintain obedience to God. (Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons.)
