Editorial September 3, 1927 Issue

Christlike Humility

Ella W. Hoag

Humility is a virtue which is much extolled and which men as a whole have believed it was necessary to possess if they would be true Christians. Yet there have been such varied opinions concerning it that its value has not always been clearly understood, and it has not always been allowed to take the important place it deserves in the forming of character. Its true sense is indeed one of the first requisites to the gaining of the Mind of Christ which enabled Jesus to do all his mighty works, and which we too must understand and express if we would walk in his footsteps.

Mrs. Eddy has much to say of humility. In "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 356) she speaks of it as the virtue which "triumphs over the flesh;" and then she adds, "One can never go up, until one has gone down in his own esteem." At first glance these two statements might almost seem contradictory; but to the Christian Scientist it is plainly apparent that humility brings about both the going down which must see the need of denying the flesh and the going up of mental transformation, which triumphs over the flesh.

The true sense of humility is, then, that which acknowledges God and Him alone, and which never admits or obeys any other than His perfect and holy control. Indeed it never accepts as real anything unlike Him, but always brings every thought into subjection to this truth of being. In human experience this always means the necessity of saying to the flesh and all it stands for: You are not of God, Spirit, and therefore you are neither presence nor power. This going down in one's own esteem inevitably implies a willingness to see that as a mortal one has no ability to do or be good—to know or express aught that is real or true. As Jesus said, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." He, however, immediately presented the going up of true humility when he went on to say, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

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