Editorial August 9, 1919 Issue

Humility

Ella W. Hoag

Humility is something the human mind has fallen far short of understanding. Because of the misconceptions in regard to it mankind has failed to appreciate its value and so has been deprived of the rich blessings which always result from its proper practice. To be sure it has been preached as a virtue, but the underlying belief that it involves a false subserviency has caused even the preachers themselves to avoid its use. Now true humility means one thing and one only,—it means yielding to God.

The human mind is inherently arrogant. Since infinite God is the only Mind, the basic claim of mortal mind is of a power to reverse or counterfeit this one, infinite, divine Mind and so itself be mind; hence its resistance to any demand which would tend to overthrow its claim in any direction. When humility is presented to it, immediately this so-called mind tries to discredit it by crying out against it, and says: This must not be accepted, for it means loss of self-respect, loss of prestige, loss of dignity, loss of everything that makes for personal independence. Or, failing to deceive by such arguments, it will hasten to a pretense of clothing itself in humility's garments by posing as a poor, miserable creature of the Uriah Heep variety. It takes but little true light to show this as only another claim of arrogance, interested only in substantiating its own claims to reality and power, but still vaunting its own false sense of a mind apart from God.

In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy, in speaking of humility, says (p. 356): "This virtue triumphs over the flesh; it is the genius of Christian Science. One can never go up, until one has gone down in his own esteem. Humility is lens and prism to the understanding of Mind-healing; it must be had to understand our textbook; it is indispensable to personal growth, and points out the chart of its divine Principle and rule of practice." This shows beyond question that a very important factor in the demonstration of Christian Science must be the understanding and practice of humility. One great difficulty is that the Christian Scientist is very apt to think that this can be gained suddenly and once for all, while the fact is that it is something which must ever be increasing in its magnitude and power so far as the individual is concerned.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

Humility

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access