Fri.-Sabbath, 4/27-29/12 Devotion

Hip, hip, hooray--it's almost Sunday! We GET to go back to church! Here is Thomas Watson, on the subject of the Humble Man, from his book, "The Picture of a Godly Man." . . .

"Question: How may a Christian know that he is humble and conse-quently godly?

"Answer 1: A humble soul is emptied of all swelling thoughts of him-self. Bernard calls humility a self-annihilation. 'You, [God], will save the humble,' (Job 22:29). In the Hebrew it is, 'Him that is of low eyes.' A humble man has lower thoughts of himself than others can have of him. David, though a king, still looked upon himself as a worm: 'I am a worm, and no man,' (Psa. 22:6). Bradford, a martyr, still subscribes himself a sinner. 'If I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head,' (Job 10:15)–-like the violet which is a sweet flower, but hangs down the head.

"Answer 2: A humble soul thinks better of others than of himself: 'Let each esteem others better than themselves,' (Php. 2:3). A humble man values others at a higher rate than himself, and the reason is be-cause he can see his own heart better than he can another's. He sees his own corruption and thinks surely it is not so with others. Their graces are not so weak as his; their corruptions are not so strong. 'Surely', he thinks, 'they have better hearts than I.' A humble Christian studies his own infirmities and another's excellences, and that makes him put a higher value upon others than himself. 'Surely I am more brutish than any man,' (Prov. 30:2). And Paul, though he was the chief of the apostles, still calls himself 'less than the least of all saints,' (Eph. 3:8)."