Article October 30, 1989 Issue

"The highest virtue..."

Worried that humility will handicap you in an aggressive world? Far from it!

Reginald Hayes

The poet Alfred Lord Tennyson described humility as "the highest virtue, mother of them all...." Idylls of the King, "The Holy Grail." But there is much more to humility than that. It is a quality of thought indispensable to genuine success in life.

That this is so is proved in the life of that most humble of men, Christ Jesus. His unprecedented success came from a total freedom from pride and arrogance, enabling him to subordinate the human ego to the divine will of God, which does nothing but bless.

One might say, "Humility may sit well with some people, but I have my way to make in a tough world. I need assertiveness and aggressiveness to get ahead. It is push or be pushed, and nice people finish last." Did Jesus finish last? No! In spiritual terms, he was more than a match for his opponents. Jesus did not need to fight for supremacy, nor do we. We do not have to push or shove to get God's blessings. Nor do we have to mentally manipulate people and things to further our ends. A humble state of mind is more receptive of heaven's favors than an arrogant one. And we must have humility before we can accomplish much even in the way of honorable human achievement. As the Bible avers, "Before honour is humility." Prov. 15:33.

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October 30, 1989
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