The Pulpit Commentary — Proverbs — Section 320

hiA honesty is as truly an act of piety, of holy service, as was a sacrifice at the temple of Jehovah, as is a prayer in the sanctuary of Christ. It is an act rendered "unto the Lord," and it is well-pleasing in the sight of God his Saviour; he "serves the Lord Christ" (Col. iii. 23, 24). It is a great thing that we need not leave the shop or the ship, the office or the field, in order to render acceptable sacrifice unto the Lord our God. By simple conscientiousness, by sterling and immovable integrity, whatever the post we occupy, maintained by us with a view to the observant eye of our ever-present Master, we may honour and please him as much as if we were bowing in prayer or lifting up our voice in praise in the worship of his house. -C. Yer. 16.-(See homily on eh. viii. 10, 11.)-C. Vers. 18, 19 (eh. xi. 2; xviii. 12).-Pride and humility. Great insistance is laid in Scripture on the evil of pride and the value of humility. The subject has a large place in those "thoughts of God," which are communicated to us in his 'I\' ord. I. THE EVIL OF PRIDE. 1. lt is based on falsity. For what has the richest or the strongest or the cleverest man, what has the most beautiful or the most honoured woman, that he or she has not received (1 Cor. iv. 7)? Ultimately, we owe everything to our Creator and Divine Benefactor; and the thought that our distinction is due to ourselves is an essentiaHy false thought. Hence: 2. It is irreverent and ungrateful; for it is constantly forgetful of the heavenly source of all our blessings. 3. It is ugly and offensive in the sight of man. That self-respect which makes a man superior to all meanness and all unworthiness of himself is honourable and excellent in our eyes; but pride, which is an overweening estimate of onr own importance or virtue, is wholly unbeautiful; it marks a man's character as a scar marks his countenance; it makes the subject of it a man whom we look upon with aversion rather than delight--0ur soul finds no pleasure in regarding him. It is positively offensive to our spirit. 4. It is repeatedly and severely condemned by God as a serious sin (eh. viii. 13; Ps. xii. 3; xxxi. 23; ci. 5; cxxxviii. 6; Isa.. ii. 12; Mark vii. 22; 1 Tim. iii. 6 ; 2 Tim. iii. 2 ; Jas. iv. 6, etc.). 5. It is spiritually perilous in a very high degree. No truth is more constantly illustrated than that of the text, " Pride goeth before destruction," etc. Pride begets a. false confidence; this begets unwariness, and leads into the place of danger; and then comes the fall. Sometimes it is in health; at other times, in busi- ness; or it may be in office a.nd in power; or, alas! it may be iu morals and in piety. There is no field of human thought and action in which pride is not a most dangerous guide. It leads up to and (only too often) over the precipice. II. THE EXCELLENCE OF HUMILITY. "Better to be of a. humble spirit with the lowly," etc. And it is better because, while pride is open to all these condemnations (as above), humility is to be commended and to be desired for the opposite virtues. 1. 1t is founded on a true view of our own hearts. The lowlier the view we take of our- selves, the truer the estimate we form. There is a. lowliness of word and demeanour that is feigned and that is false. A man may be "proud of his humility," and may declaim his own sins with a. haughty heart. But real humility is based on a thorough knowledge of our own nature, of its weakness and its openness to evil; on a. full acquaintance with our own character, with its imperfection and liability to fail us in the trying hour. 2. It is admirable in itself. We do not, indeed, admire servility; we detest it heartily. But we do admire genuine humility. It is a very valuable adorn- ment of a Christian character; it graces an upright life with a beauty no other quality can supply. There is no one whom it does not become, whom it does not make much more attractive than he (or she) would otherwise be. 3. It is the very gateway into the kingdom of God. It is the humble heart, conscious of error and of sin, that seeks the Teacher and the Saviour. It is the guide which condncts our spirit straight to the feet and to the cross of our Redeemer. 4. It is an attribute of Christian character which commends us to the love and to the favour of our Lord. 5. It is the only ground on which we are safe. Pride is a slippery place, where we are sure to slip and fall; humility is the ground where devotion finds its home, which a reverent trustful- ness frequents, where God is ready with the shield of his guardianship, from which temptation shrinks away, where human souls live in peace and purity and attain to their maturity in Jesus Christ their Lord.-C. 328 THE PROVERBS. [orr. XVI, 1-33.