Quote 4646
Humility is a necessary veil to all other graces.
William Gurnall
255
Other Quotes from the Author & Topic
A sheep may fall into a ditch, but it is the swine that wallows in it.
He who is his own teacher, is sure to have a fool for his master!
The Christian must always be at war. If he has peace with sin, he is at war with God.
If you allow your love of creature comforts — or even your pleasure in family and loved ones — to outrun your love for the Lord, you cannot be a victorious soldier for Christ.The Christian in Complete Armour, 1:72
The layman has a large field in which he may minister to his fellow man, even if he is not called to full time ministry.Christian in Complete Armour 1:300
Hypocrisy in religion springs from the bitter root of some carnal affection unmortified…. God is in the hypocrite's mouth, but the world is in his heart, which he expects to gain through his good reputation.
It is sincere faith that is the strong faith, sincere love that is the mighty love. Hypocrisy is to grace as the worm is to the oak, the rust to the iron—it weakens them because it corrupts them.
The Christian, by his sorrow, shows himself a conqueror of that sin which even now overcame him, while the hypocrite, by his pride, shows himself a slave to a worse lust than that he resists. While the Christian commits a sin, he hates it, whereas the other loves it while he forbears it.
Humility looks upon another's virtues and its own infirmities.
He that is little in his own eyes will not be troubled to be little in the eyes of others.
Humility is both a grace and a vessel to receive grace.
Humility will make you easy and contented in every condition of life. You will then be ready to be commanded, easy to be pleased, hard to be provoked, and generally beloved. A humble mind thinks every good it receives more than it deserves, and every evil less. It will not think itself too great or too good to stoop to the meanest services of an honest employment nor be wanting in a modest and respectful behavior to others.
Humility imports a deep sense of our own weakness with a hearty and affectionate acknowledgment of our owing all that we are to the divine bounty, which is always accompanied with a profound submission to the will of God and great deadness toward the glory of the world and applause of men.
By humility I mean not the abjectness of a base mind, but a prudent care not to overvalue ourselves upon any account.
Humility will keep the soul free from many darts cast by Satan and from many erroneous snares spread by him. As low trees and shrubs are free from many violent blasts of wind which shake and rend the taller ones, so humble souls are free from those blasts of error which rend and tear proud, lofty souls. Satan and the world have greater difficulty to fasten errors upon humble souls.
Humility is a grace hardly attained unto. Many, saith Augustine, can more easily give all they have to the poor than themselves become poor in spirit.
Seek not great things for yourselves in this world, for if your garments be too long, they will make you stumble; and one staff helps a man in his journey when many in his hands at once hinders him.
Let not great men put too much trust in their greatness; the longer the robe is, the more soil it contracts. Great power may prove the mother of great damnation.
The first step to humility is to see one's pride; the first step to self-denial is to be convinced of one's desire after self-exalting, self-admiring, self-advancing—O what a proud heart have I! What a self advancing heart have I! There is no believer till he is fully renewed but what has something of self. We had need therefore to be jealous of ourselves; and if at any time self break out, if at any time the soul begins to be advanced in regard of duty or spiritual things, let us fall down before God and humble ourselves for the pride of our hearts.
Can a bird fly when one of its wings is broken? Faith and a good conscience are hope's two wings; if, therefore, thou hast wounded thy conscience by any sin, renew thy repentance, that so thou mayest exercise faith for the pardon of it and redeem thy hope.
Hope is a prying grace; it is able to look beyond the exterior transactions of providence. It can, by the help of the promise, peep into the very bosom of God and read what thoughts and purposes are written there concerning the Christian's particular estate, and this it imparts to him, bidding him not to be at all troubled to hear God speaking roughly to him in the language of His providence. "For," saith hope, "I can assure thee He means thee well, whatever He saith that sounds otherwise."
Hope is a supernatural grace of God whereby the believer, through Christ, expects and waits for all those good things of the promise which at present he hath not fully received.
Hope is the handkerchief that God puts into His people's hands to wipe the tears from their eyes, which their present troubles and long stay of expected mercies draw from them
The Holy Spirit is often moving in the consciences and affections of carnal creatures, counseling, rebuking, and exciting them, so that upon His suggestions, some warm affections are raised in them to that which is good, but presently all is quashed and comes to nothing and the Spirit driven away by the entertainment He finds. Again, you cannot know by the common gifts of the Spirit— illumination, conviction, restraining grace, and assistance to perform the external part of religious duties; these are gifts of the Spirit, but such as do not prove he hath the Spirit that hath them. These gifts are beamed from the Spirit of God and show that the kingdom of God is come nigh such an one, but they do not demonstrate that God is come into that soul and hath taken possession of it for His temple.
The Spirit exactly knows the heart of God to the creature, with all His counsels and purposes concerning Him: the Spirit searches all things, the deep things of God (1 Cor. 2:10). And what are those deep things of God the apostle means but the counsels of love which lie deep in His heart, till the Spirit draws them forth and acquaints the creature with them, as appears by verse 9? And also He knows the whole frame of man's heart. It were strange if He that made the cabinet should not know every secret box in it.
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2. Charles Spurgeon (135)
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