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ing sense of sin ; by feeling it as a personal pain and grief, a crushing burden that lays the spirit low, an overpowering oppression that grinds it to dust — it is by this and this only that God's company is to be secured ; it is where this temper is found that He finds His home.
IF The word " contrition " in the text is a very strong word. It literally means a pounded state, as of a stone which by blow on blow of heavy hammers, or the grinding of waggon wheels, has been crushed into dust. By this vigorous metaphor it strives to make vivid to us the moral state of a man whose whole strength of self-reliance and erectness of moral carriage have been broken down through the sense of guilt and moral weakness ; one who by repeated trials of his own instability, and blow after blow of discouraging rebuke from God, feels himself left in the path of evil a heart-broken man, over whom the trampling feet of in- numerable masterful sins, with all their evil followers, seem to find free passage ; a man beaten down and crushed out of spirit by vain struggles against sin and inescapable poundings from the violated laws of God,
(2) Do not think that this is said only of the beginning of the Christian's conversion : that though he must have a contrite and humble spirit hefore God will come to dwell with him, yet his heart is healed and his spirit exalted as soon as God is come. It is with the heart that is — not only that has been — humble and contrite, that God will dwell ; it is with the spirit that does not forget its own sin, even when it feels and knows and rejoices in God's grace. Let no Christian, however true his faith, how- ever warm his love, ever think while he is yet upon earth that his repentance has lasted long enough or been deep enough, that he has done with sorrow for old sins, or watchfulness against present temptations, and may give himself up entirely to the joy and peace of believing. Let no man imagine this, unless his faith and love be greater than his who, only a year before he finished his course, told how " Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief."
I with the contrite spirit dwell;
The broken heart is mine abode; Such spikenard yields a fragrant smell,
And such are all the saints of God.^ ^ Richard Thomas Pemhroke Pope.
424 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
(3) What is involved in humility, or what is it to say that a man is humble ? It is just to say that he takes his own place in regard to God ; that he is contented to be nothing, and to see God to be all in all : this is humility. Observe, there are two things here : that I should know my nothingness, and that I should he contented with my nothingness.
But humility on this earth must take a peculiar character from the circumstances of those in whom it exists ; and that character is expressed by the word contrition. Every angel in heaven is humble : but contrition has reference to sin, and to the feeling that I am not only nothing, but worse than nothing. There is nothing bad in being nothing ; but there is something bad in having forgotten my nothingness, in having fancied myself something, in having given place to pride, and in having become a god to myself. This is sin. Therefore humility in man never can come alone; never merely in the way of feeling "I am nothing, and I am contented to be nothing." There cannot be in a man the knowledge of his nothingness without a sense of contrast between this nothingness and his natural desire to be something. Contrition — the deep consciousness of unworthiness, of great evil as my own, of great sin as the just charge of God against me — is that which puts the sorrowful ingredient into humility. Humility as the condition of a sinner cannot exist without sorrow, sorrow for the sin which he has committed against God.
IT Among the nuns in a convent not far from Rome, one had appeared who laid claim to gifts of inspiration and prophecy, and the abbess advised the Holy Father at Eome of the wonderful powers shown by her novice. The Pope did not well know what to make of these claims, and he consulted St. Philip Neri. Philip undertook to visit the nun and ascertain her character. He threw himself on his mule and hastened through mud and mire to the convent. He begged the abbess to summon the nun without delay. As soon as she appeared, he stretched out his leg all bespattered with mud, and desired her to draw off his boots. The young nun, who had become the object of much attention and respect, drew back with anger and refused. Philip ran out, mounted, and returned instantly to the Pope ; give yourself no uneasiness, Holy Father, any longer : here is no miracle, for here is no humility.^
^ Emerson, Cunduct of Life.
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4. It is a very reviving advent when to such a soul God comes to dwell. This crushing sorrow and hopelessness in the fight with sin has a killing power. It kills self; but at the coming of God a new self is born. And fear not but He will come, if you be but contrite. For as surely as the holy God has a repulsion from the impenitent proud, who judge that they can do without Him, so surely is He attracted by the crushed humility of the sinner who cannot do without Him. This attraction was strong enough to draw Him once from heaven. It is strong enough to draw Him into every broken heart.