Walking Humbly with God (Micah 6:8) - C.H. Spurgeon Sermon

he hath showed the o man what is good and what does the lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy god micah chapter 6 verse 8 walking humbly with god a sermon delivered on lord's day morning september the 12th 1880 by c.h spurgeon we shall chiefly dwell upon the last line to walk humbly with thy god man asks wherewith shall i come before the lord to bow myself before the high god and as if he must set himself to answer his own question he further inquires

shall i come before him with burnt offerings with calves of a year old will the lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil sacrifice of some sort is his idea but he supposes that he must supply the sacrifice himself and would feign know what it shall be the answer which is given him chides him for the supposition that he is to answer his own question for it begins thus he hath showed thee o man what is good and what does the lord require of thee if we had been

attentive to god's voice we should not now be asking wherewith shall i come for he has already showed us the way the worship of god is the subject of revelation not of intervention true religion is not a new design displaying each man's taste but a copy from a plan framed and fixed by the lord himself we are to follow a path well defined and not to map out a cause for ourselves we are not like children crying in the dark after an unknown father whom we seek by ways of our own but we are as

babes who follow wither the warm hand of love gently draws them to us it is not night for the true light has risen and is shining round about us the father has revealed himself and we have an unction from the holy one so that all things needful for this life and godliness are lifted out of the region of the unknown and placed among the matters concerning which the prophet saith he hath showed thee o man the true worship of god is not left to be a matter of conjecture to be worked out by man's thought

from within but it is a matter of distinct revelation to be received by faith from above do we all know this are there not some among us or at least around us who desire a religion of their own is not this one of the special follies of the period let us escape from this snare he hath showed the o man what is good abstain therefore from further invention when once we know from god himself what his requirements are it becomes treason to debate the question any further the statement inspired by infinite wisdom satisfies every loyal

heart what god says is to be accepted as final fact to raise further question is a shuffling method of giving god the lie he who still asks the road virtually denies that god has showed it to him it is not altogether their humility which keeps certain minds in what they call a receptive condition never dogmatic never confident or as paul more plainly puts it ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth to me it would be high presumption not to be sure and confident when god is the teacher to push

further inquiries where revelation speaks is either to deny the revelation or to question its sufficiency it cannot be that the declarations of god need to be supplemented by opinions and views and excogitations of our own he hath showed the o man what is good let this suffice us and ceasing to theorize let us practically obey let us become disciples and in this frame of mind we shall gain one of the first essentials of true worship true worship cannot therefore be will worship and will worship cannot be true worship we are to bring to god that

which god requires of us we are to act towards god as he commands us and to accept from god that which he presents to us our approaches to the most high are no longer to be a matter of our own taste and cleverness but to be obedient movements of reverent faith bowing before the solemn word of the great king he hath showed the old man what is good it is clear from the text before us that god has once forever settled the way by which he is to be honoured among men and he has declared

that it is not by outward rights and ceremonies upon these in many scriptures he poureth contempt when he regards them by themselves in our text he says not a single word is to burnt off rings and calves of a year old the question has been asked but in his answer he makes no allusion to the rams and to the rivers of oil of which the questioner thought so much but he says what does the lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy god it seems then

that it is far more important to do right than to perform the most imposing religious rights better to act mercifully than to offer the most costly sacrifices much more value is attached to a man's moral character than to all his outward religiousness however far he may carry it the upright and generous actions of daily life are better signs of a gracious heart than lavish gifts to the temple and its priests god judges a man rather by what he doth ordinarily among his fellows than by what he doeth sumptuously when he is gorgeously arrayed in his

profession and stands in a chief place of the synagogue and is admired as a chief speaker or a generous giver to the holy cause to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams those who are acceptable with god are those who do justly love mercy and walk humbly with him every man who is a true christian does justly if faith does not make a man honest it is not an honest faith if our conversion has not made us upright may the lord convert us again when a man's heart is right

with god he longs to deal rightly with his fellow men and shrinks from the idea of taking undue advantage he who has been washed in the blood of jesus christ will not knowingly and willfully defile himself with unjust gain to his servants his customers his employers he aims to do justly nor is this all for he loves mercy he tries to love his neighbor as himself if there be an act of kindness to be done he delights to do it if there be misery to be helped need to be suckered good to be bestowed he

says let me have a hand in it for it is good for me to do good the man who is loved by the all-merciful is one who loves mercy the god of mercy cannot take pleasure in the churlish and brutal the hard the cruel the grasping the oppressing the sternly unforgiving and not such as the lord delights in another point remains it is the third thing and it is put third because it is of the highest importance to walk humbly with thy god this is an inward thing but little observed observable enough in its consequences

but not in itself and hence very apt to be overlooked to walk humbly with thy god is as needful as to do justly and to love mercy but few there be that find it and hence at this time i would earnestly insist upon this vital this essential point i pray god the holy spirit to make humble walking with god to seem as important to you as it does to me and to me as important as it does to himself for he puts it here in the very forefront of spiritual necessities first brethren we may say

of the humble walk which god demandeth and accepteth that it is excellent in itself this is one of the things which is good good morally good and present effect good and eternal results nothing is better for the o man than to walk humbly with thy god notice every single word of our text for under this head i will explain humble walking that you may see its excellence humble walking with god signifies first a perception of god's being and presence in order to our acceptance with god we must know that he is and that he is

the rewarder of them that diligently seek him we must recognize distinctly that there is a god and that he is near us that he is real and true and that we are living in actual nearness to him we are to walk with him and this cannot be unless we know that he is near men do not walk with myths or ideas or remote existences to have a real god is the backbone of character and to keep company with him day by day is the right arm of godliness how many live as if god were a

non-entity a dream a theological fable a respectable fancy and no more but the acceptable character is made and formed mainly by the fact that god is and that god surrounds us it is only in the sunlight of god's own countenance consciously experienced the true holiness can be produced and ripened the godly man is moved to action helped in endurance nerve with courage fired with zeal elevated with devotion and purified in life by the presence of god thou god seest me is a great sanctifier the lord saith to abraham walk before me and be thou perfect

there is no perfection otherwise david said i will walk before the lord in the land of the living there is no other safe walking we are never right unless god is the friend of our pilgrimage the companion of our thoughts the rest of our weariness the home of our delight the very element of our life such nearness to god is good do we know what it means in addition there must be an appropriating and accepting of this ever-present god as our god the text saith walk humbly with thy god observe that he must be our

god we must feel that if no other beings will worship jehovah we will do so with our whole hearts this god is our god forever and ever oh god thou art my god early will i seek thee we believe that jehovah is our creator preserver and redeemer and if no other creature through whose veins life is throbbing will own him as its god we will alone adore and worship him we take him to be our ruler leader law giver helper and confidence and if all the world shall set up other gods we will still serve

jehovah alone as for me and my house we will serve the lord this firm allegiance is good and works towards all that is good when a man feels that he can call god his god and that he can take hold upon his covenant then is he strong for honor and virtue and all things that are pleasing unto god because god has entered into covenant with us in christ jesus and we have given ourselves over unto him by a covenant of salt therefore would we stand firm against temptation and endure as seeing him who is invisible

come brethren are your hearts thus fixed on god this moment do your spirits walk with your god or are you at a distance from god wandering away from him have you forgotten that god is yours are you looking upon him as another man's god oh you cannot be strong clear and joyous in spirit till god is yours and all your life is spent with him till whether you roam or rest or sleep or wake you still abide with your own god and find your happiness in him as the fish abides in the ocean and the

bird in the air and each calls the sea and the sky its own so do we dwell in god and he is ours forever and ever this is not all the text sets forth the accepted man as acting ever as in the presence of his god to walk with god denotes an active habit a communion in the common movements of the day some bow humbly before god in the hour of prayer others sit humbly in his presence at the time of meditation and others string themselves up to draw near to god in seasons of religious

excitement but all this falls short of walking with god walking is a very common pace an ordinary rate of progress and it does not seem to require great effort but then it is a practical working pace a rate at which a man can continue on and on and make a day's journey by the time the sun is down so walking with god means being with god always being with god in common things being with him on monday tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday as well as on the sabbath being with him in the shop with him

in the kitchen with him in the field feeling his presence in buying and selling and weighing and measuring in plowing and reaping doing as unto the lord the communist acts of life this it is which is acceptable with the most high and this is the man who has gotten into a right condition before his maker the man who walks with his god then comes in the qualifying word of humbly about which we have to speak most at this time it was needful to remind you of the other matters first god must be recognized as ever

present appropriated as our god and felt to be a power in all our life or else there can be no humble walking before him you must have the verb or there is no sense in the adverb you must walk before there is any sense in the exhortation to walk humbly but now comes the humbling we are to live towards god in all that we do in a lowly reverent spirit we are not bidden slavishly to crouch but humbly to walk how lowly and penitently we are to walk let gracious men remind us if we are

favored to walk with god as abraham did in all the sweet familiarity of friend with friend yet must we remember as he did that we are but dust and ashes our closest communion must take the form of worship when we see our lord best we must fall at his feet with all when our walk with god is closest and clearest we must be overwhelmed with adoring wonder and the condescension which permits us to think of speaking with the eternal one to this reverence must be added a constant sense of dependence walking humbly with god in

the sense of daily drawing all supplies from him and gratefully admitting that it is so we are never to indulge a thought of independence from god as if we were anything or could do anything apart from him walking humbly with god involves a profound deference to his will and a glad submission to it yielding both active obedience and passive acquiescence humble walking with god cries under cutting afflictions it is the lord let him do what seemeth him good when the lord bids me serve him i must cry for grace to run in the ways of

his commandments and when the lord chastens me i must beg for patience to endure his appointments walking humbly with god implies all this and much more than just now we could state particularly may the holy spirit teach us all what a broken and contrite spirit means and keep us ever low before the lord the practical result of all this inward humbling will be in acting towards others and moving in all matters as under the influence of a humble spirit if a man once really comes to live and act as in the sight of god his

life must be one of eminent holiness and if under a sense of god's glory he abides in deep humility of spirit we may expect to see about him all that is tender and quiet like his lord he will be meek and lowly in heart he will not domineer over his fellow men he will not be hard cruel unkind he cannot be he who feels that he must walk with great softness and tenderness before his god cannot trample on others as if they were only fit to be the dust of his feet you will not see

him supremely disdainful carrying his head among the stars as though he was some great one no he has learned to walk humbly with god and he thinks of himself soberly as he ought to think for a man to put on humility before god and throw it off before men would be hypocrisy of the vilest kind alas it is too often seen but it is based to the utmost flee from it as you would from forgery and counterfeit and in very truth walk humbly with god i cannot tell you all that my text means nor if

you know it yourself can you make others understand it still they will know that it is something very admirable which makes you to be a good neighbor and a considerate friend the comfort of the sorrowful the helper of all they may not understand whence the quiet spirit derives its gentle jew but they will perceive its freshness its sparkling purity and its goodness and wonder at its cause true humility begets a suavety a gentleness a tenderness a christ-likeness which men may mock at for a while but which for the most part wins their hearts the more

instructed soon take knowledge of a meek spirited man that he must have been with jesus and have learned of him blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth i do not prescribe to any man that he should try to walk humbly with his fellow man for without great watchfulness his spirit may glide into meanness and he may lose conscientiousness in a desire to please but if he will aim at walking humbly with god he will get into such a proper spirit that he will be in his right position towards all his surroundings below

and above and his life will be such as will commend itself both to god and men thus i have tried to show while explaining what is meant by walking humbly with our god that it is the thing most excellent in itself our holy spirit work it in us for the lowly savior's sake secondly this walking humbly with god is very important for it is a test of salvation the man that walks humbly with god is a saved man the man who does not walk humbly with god should question his condition before god for in proportion

as he fails here he fails altogether we will put a few questions concerning this matter friend if you are walking humbly with god you have taken your right place as a sinner condemned by the law for certainly you have broken the law and that law requires absolutely perfect obedience which you have not rendered and never will render god's law then has condemned you have you condemned yourself have you taken your place as a condemned one and pleaded guilty before god if you have not done so your view of yourself differs from god's view of you

your view of yourself is a proud one you are not walking humbly with god and you are not saved he that never felt himself lost never felt himself saved he who never confessed himself guilty has never been forgiven he who has never accepted the sentence which dooms him has never received the pardon which absolves him mark this again if you are walking humbly with god you have given jesus christ his rightful place what is that he came into the world to be the savior of sinners and the only place he will deign to occupy towards

you is that he will save you and save you completely some say yes oh yes jesus shall be my savior and do somewhat towards my salvation but he replies i am alpha and omega the beginning and the end christ will save us from the beginning to the end or he will have nothing to do with our salvation he will have all the glory of the work and the work itself must be all his own from the foundation to the top stone or else he will leave the ruin upon its own heap jesus will never consent

to be a make weight for our deficiencies he will not commit our beckon call to be our lackey to patch up our old rags and mend our clouted shoes no the lord jesus christ must be everything and we must be nothing or we shall never agree have you given christ his due place dear friend if you have not done so your view of christ and god's view of christ are very different and yours is a proud view for you are putting yourself into the savior's place in some degree and you are not walking humbly with

god it is dangerous to the last degree to be pushing the lord of glory into a corner that we may occupy his throne the lord our god is a jealous god and he is especially jealous of the prerogatives of his son and if we are so vain as to rob christ of his glory and trick ourselves out in stolen honours we shall quickly incur his hot displeasure when our heart feels that the blood and righteousness of jesus constitute her only plea then is she walking rightly and humbly with god and all is well one other

question is a very important one is salvation seen by you to be holy of grace do you my friend judge salvation to be partly by your own works and merits do you think that you must at least contribute an ounce weight to the scale that you must add at least a fraction to the savior's lump sum i then it is a question whether you know anything about salvation i do not want to make doctrinal opinions a test but it does seem to me that there is something wrong in the heart which looks for salvation anywhere

but to the free favor of god to walk humbly with god is to feel if ever such a poor condemned soul as i am shall be saved it must be by an act of free and sovereign mercy for if justice hath its way apart from mercy i am driven forever into the darkness of despair i am come to this past myself that is salvation be it all of myself if any merit be required of me though it be little is the small dust of the balance or the drop that trembles in the bucket after it

is turned upside down i cannot find it grace must save me or i am lost when the soul has come to that pass it is walking humbly with god but those who are even in a small degree out of the circle of grace are not walking humbly with god and they have grave cause to question their spiritual state this suggests to me another thought i know several persons who seem to be seeking peace with god and mercy in christ who never get it because it seems to me they're not walking humbly with god as to

their intellect the last thing that some men will do is ever to bow their understanding to the teaching of god they are always coping and raising quibbles with god instead of believing him they need to be silenced as job was before the manifested glory of god or they will die asking questions those mysterious truths which relate to the most high such creatures as we are can never expect to understand in the region of the infinite there is ample space for faith but reason loses her track faith is our privilege let us exercise it freely towards

the lord in god's great family is the comprehension of the father's mind to be a sin a quan on of our affection for him am i never to believe what my father tells me till i understand it must all thy gold great god be tried in my crucible before i will accept it at thy hand art thou a liar except my brain prove thee true am i after all to be lord over my own thoughts and art thou to have no supremacy in the kingdom of my mind does any man fancy that his soul can

ever be right while this is his theory how can the heart stand in an even place and be at peace while it refuses to own the sway of god we must yield our intellect to the superior intellect permitting the drop to be born along by the river the infallible speech of him who cannot err must satisfy the obedient mind to the true heart there is no self-denial in agreeing that omniscience shall stand instead of personal discovery infallible revelation in the place of research and argument and the witnessing spirit in the room of authority and evidence

every word of god is surer than the most certain deductions of mathematics or the clearest inferences of reasoning god's slightest hint though it come not to a positive declaration is to be treasured up by us as a priceless gem well does the apostles say the foolishness of god is wiser than men there is more light in god's darkness than in man's light his every word is infallible but as for the thoughts of man he knoweth that they are vanity this seems to be a test then by which we may try whether we are saved or

not are we walking humbly with god or not are we trying to be something to do something to think something or in some way or other to let it be manifest that we are not to be overlooked if so there is great fear that we are not yet right with heaven god saith i am and there is none beside me do we consent to shrink into nothingness or are we eager to cry out i too am something i must not be ignored for i have my right and claims which may not be forgotten beloved i

delight to hear the divine voice crying i am and to run and hide myself beneath the eternal wings cowering down beneath them even as the little chicks hide beneath the mother and are as though they were not apart from her it is good to shrink into a happy insignificance to feel that we are nothing save only as we are hidden away with christ in god god is and as for our existence it is but that of god displaying itself in us we are nothing god is all in all when we are thus humbled we are

saved what is there to be lost the eternal burnings of the divine greatness have consumed the vain glory of the creature and that which remains has no cause to fear with this man will god dwell forever on terms of peace even with him who is of a humble and a contrite spirit and trembles at his word i must pass on very briefly to say in the third place of walking humbly with god that it is a symptom of spiritual health you can tell dear friend not only whether you are saved but afterwards whether your new

life is in a growing state by examining whether you are walking humbly with god let me dwell upon that matter for a minute we are healthy in soul if we have lowly views in reference to ourselves upon matters of divine grace come now what do you think of yourself this morning are you a fine fellow a disciple indeed an example to others do you now account yourself to be a very experienced christian quite a useful member of the church an ornament to society a person considerably looked up to and well worthy of a large measure

of respect it would be very improper to put you in a back seat or invite you to take a lower room for are you not a prince in israel among those who might be counted as pillars you feel that you must be mentioned but have a care what you are at it is very easy to feel great it is by no means an eminently difficult thing to be exalted i have reached that point myself without great effort and i take no credit but much shame for it a sense of rising to be somebody is not

a sign of health it is a token of the reverse sometimes and may be the forerunner of most solemn catastrophes puffing up may mean bloating and swelling with deadly humors therefore beware of it signs of health lying quite another line will you try and follow me for a minute in a humbling meditation remember what you were a little while ago then the thought that you would even be a member of the church of christ seem too good for you if anyone had said you will be numbered with god's people you will enjoy with them the

sweets of pardoning grace you would have said then i do not care where they put me for i am only one of the dogs under the master's table i shall be perfectly satisfied to eat the crumbs like the prodigal we were ready to cry make me as one of thy hired servants so long as we might but eat the bread from the father's table we had no care for honor ah you did not think you would be such a big man as you are now did you when you filled the swine trough and fed the

unclean yourself hungry and faint you had no idea to what you would grow god grant you may have every particle of boasting removed from you at this time as you remember the whole of the pit from which you were quarried taken from the dunghill and placed among princes let our grateful hearts renounce all self-glory and magnify the lord another set of reflections may rise up on considering what you now are what are you now at your best what are you to boast off you were thought by others to be something very great and respectable but

what are the facts of the case as god sees them you are a branch of the true vine yes how much fruit do you bear compare yourself with those branches that bring forth much fruit to god how thin and lean is your vintage you are weighed down by the responsibilities which your position thrusts upon you but are you bearing them worthily are you doing for god what some would do if they had your opportunities are you doing for christ what once you thought you would do if ever you had the means are you now living

according to your own notion of how a christian should live are you anywhere near it oh my dear brother when you think of what you are now there is more to make you blush than to make you boast more to make you cover your face than to cause you to lift up your head at least such is my case once more i beg you to think of what you would be within a very short time if you were left by divine grace we sometimes condemn men for their acts and are right in condemning them and

yet if we had been in their position we might have done much worse oh saith one what a mercy it is to have been kept these thirty years and have never dishonored my profession yes brother it is a mercy a great mercy a greater mercy than you dream you do not happen to have a vixen of a wife or a troublesome family or a provoking neighbor or you would have lost your character long ago domestic comfort may more deserve praise than any goodness on your part it is a mercy for you that the evil person

who used to have such influence over you was taken away or else i do not know where you would have been many an evil character has been the result of vicious influence a great deal of apparent virtue may be due to our not happening to be tempted at the time when we are in a certain condition or else if our tinder and the devil's sparks have met who knows but what the best of us might have been ablaze by now oh how much we owe to preventing grace we are debtors both to the providence and

the grace of god which have kept us out of harm's way when sometimes we have been compelled to condemn sin and a brother and to speak very solemnly as we are bound to do we have remembered ourselves lest we should be tempted and we have remembered that grace alone has kept us out of sin such and one was drunk says one after making a profession of religion we do not exonerate him for a moment it was a shameful crime but oh my friend had you been precisely in his condition had you been once a victim

to that degrading vice met by the same company and in other respects around it as he was you might have been intoxicated long before he became so who knows walk humbly with your god at any rate my friend the true way to live is to give god all glory and take to ourselves all shame when god gives us great temporal enjoyments then let us think why do i have these comforts while many of his servants are without them is it possible that he has given me my portion in this life what will lay a cool

hand on your hot forehead and forbid all pride in wealth if god makes you rich instead of doting on your riches say to yourself how can i best use my substance for his glory the working out of that practical question should be quite sufficient to keep you from self-esteem he who truly serves the lord will walk humbly with him have you more talent than other people you will be a great fool if you begin to rejoice in it for serious responsibilities come with special ability remember you have to do more for god than other people

and that thought should by god's grace be as ballast for your widespread sale great talent might be a sun to smite you if a sense of responsibility did not come in like a cloud to shield you are you honoured among men then say to yourself ah they do not know me or they might judge me otherwise if i deserve their esteem for some things yet there are many things which make me hang my head if we deserve all the gratitude of our fellows yet we should be deeply anxious not to take a grain of praise

to ourselves lest god should be angry with us for robbing him of his revenue of glory what have we that we have not received we must always have lowly views of ourselves before god in regard to matters of grace and it should be the same in reference to his providence for instance if one of you shall have been much tried in business and have lost much money suppose you are angry with god and quarrel with him about it is that walking humbly with him when we repine at the loss of children or friends is not

that the pride of our heart to walk humbly with god would lead you to say it is the lord let him do what seemeth him good but a proud heart virtually cries god shall do as i like or else he shall have no obedience from me he shall always use his right hand and pour into my lap all that i desire or else we will part company it is the hypocrite who will not always call upon god a little trial cools his love our friend this will not do repining and rebelling and not walking humbly

with god humbly walking with god yields itself up entirely to the divine will and saith shall we receive good at the hand of god and shall we not receive evil the lord gave and the lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the lord humbly walking with god will enable a man to receive providences from god without expecting to understand why they came i cannot comprehend says a man why in the very midst of my usefulness i am laid aside is god bound to tell you why when you demand an explanation are you walking

humbly with god has the father to tell his little son the reason for everything he does is that the way you govern your family are you cross-questioned by chits and pinafores no my brethren fathers have their honor and much more our heavenly father god giveth no account of his matters it is a part of my humbly walking with god to accept providences of which i cannot see the object or design and to be grateful for them when god sends as it seems to us the wrong providence when he does to us that which seemeth unwise

and unkind we are still to say he must be good to israel and all his dealings must be wise and kind i am but as a wild asses cult and know nothing and can judge nothing god knoweth all things and let his will be done this is to walk humbly with him if the lord turns his hand and multiplies your treasure and gives you the bright and sunny days the elastic step and cheery heart take heed that you then walk humbly with him it is easy to think something of yourself when the purse is bulky

but fling away such folly hold your possessions loosely and say lord i am grateful for these but if thou dost in the future take them away i will not murmur i do not suspend my love to thee upon these outward things i love thee for thyself and for thy richer grace my love is not held by the tenure of thy favoring me with health and strength i will trust thee though thou slay me though thou take all away out of the very dust will i still praise thee i think i have thus shown that it

is a symptom of spiritual health when a man can walk humbly with god and now fourthly we may say of this humble walking that it is a cause for very great anxiety we must walk humbly my brothers and sisters but this is more easily said than done this is no child's play humility of spirit is a virtue which is likely to be overlooked we pay some attention to doing justly and loving mercy but walking humbly with god is so inward so ethereal and so spiritual that we are apt to overlook it yet it is the

main thing and all our thoughts should go to the securing of it you may if you will give all your substance to the poor and your bodies to be burned but if you walk not humbly with god you have missed the essence of godliness it is easy enough to keep up private devotion and family devotion and public devotion and to be regular at sacraments and sermons and to be everything that is moral and just and upright and yet after all not to be walking humbly with god and therefore a failure here is highly probable but

nonetheless terrible humble walking is so difficult to come at that thousands sit down content with that which looks like it but is by no means the same thing it is so easy to think yourself humble to feign humility is of all things most shocking and yet to be truly humble is of all things most difficult have you never noticed how when you fancied you were lowly before god it was only that you were unbelieving or out of health do not mistake dyspepsia for humility when you say to yourself now i am on familiar terms with

god and living near him in communion it turned out to be rather presumption than faith and supposed humility has in like manner full often condensed into despair are you now saying i think i am humble is there ever a time when a man is so proud as when he judges that he is humble i'll say you but i cannot exalt myself i am in such a condition of heart i must walk humbly with god my beloved i beseech you be more on your guard now than ever against pride for a haughty spirit lurks in an

assurance of humility like a lion in its den the leaven of self is brought into our meal in the measure of a supposed necessity of humbleness to be really lowly really nothing before god really to yield yourselves up to him this is such a work and such a difficulty that i commend you to attempt it in order that you may see how impossible it is to you apart from the power of the holy ghost who alone can help us to walk humbly with god with this i close when i have said in the fifth place

in praise of walking humbly with god that it is the source of the deepest conceivable pleasure if you walk humbly with god you will feel safe what can harm the man who sits at the feet of the great lord and waits his will ah now you feel that happen what may nothing can harm you for you are ready to bow before it and let the lord alone reign what peace it gives you when you feel that if there be anything about you which grieves your god you will gladly let it go you have already surrendered

it you would not retain it for an hour the tempest rolls overhead but all is calm below when the heart has learned full surrender and is even as a weaned child your spirit must rest then it cannot help resting for it dwells in god into this quietness and rest there comes enjoyment for the man that leaves everything to god finds joy in everything mercies which to others are commonplace are sweet to him he wonders at the love which god displays in them all as mercies come to him he receives them with songs of thankfulness he

is grateful to think that he has bread to eat and raymond to put on for he knows how unworthy he is and when great mercies are showered on him he sits down before god and cries whence is this to me what am i and what is my father's house he is the man who joins mary in her magnificat singing my soul doth magnify the lord he sings with the psalmist bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name he sits at heaven's gate waiting to enter and he shall

not long be detained outside for as joy and peace and a heavenly mind have come to him so shall they soon bring him to their own home he who has learned to walk humbly with god shall soon see the face of god in his glory god teach us all this sacred art for jesus christ's sake amen