Yesterday I received  a note from my friend, Dr. Lee Cope, of Jackson, Mississippi, about a friend of his who said, “The Andrew Murray book on humility changed my life, possibly more than any single thing outside of the Bible itself.  It has haunted me.  I memorized the passage in Philippians (on having the mind of Christ as a servant) and rehearse it in my mind and prayer life regularly.”   In my last two entries, I’ve described this 1858 book.  Now here are some excerpts, which are particularly good, not only for personal meditation, but for use when preaching or teaching on this subject.

From the Introduction:

There is nothing so divine and heavenly as being the servant and helper of all.  The faithful servant, who recognizes his position, finds a real pleasure in supplying the wants of the master and his guests.

I stand amazed at the thought of how little humility is sought after as the distinguishing feature of the discipleship of Jesus.

From Chapter 1

Humility, the place of entire dependence of God, is… the root of every virtue.   And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil….

Hence it follows that nothing can be our redemption, but the restoration of the lost humility, the original and only true relation of the creature to its God.  And so Jesus came to bring humility back to earth…

Humility is the only soil in which the graces grow.

In the life of earnest Christians, of those who pursue and profess holiness, humility ought to be the chief mark of their uprightness.

From Chapter 2

When the Old Serpent, he who had been cast out from Heaven for his pride, whose whole nature as devil was pride, spoke his words of temptation into the ear of Eve, those words carried with them the very poison of hell.

All the wretchedness of which this world has been the scene, all its wars and bloodshed among the nations, all its selfishness and suffering, all its ambitions and jealousies, all its broken hearts and embittered lives, with all its daily unhappiness, have their origin in what this cursed, hellish pride, either our own, or that of others, has brought to us.

Study the humility of Jesus.  This is the secret…

From Chapter 3

Because Christ had thus humbled himself before God, and God was ever before Him, He found it possible to humble Himself before men too, and to be the Servant of all.  His humility was simply the surrender of Himself to God, to allow Him to do in Him what He pleased, whatever men around might say to Him, or do to Him.

From Chapter 4:

Just as water ever seeks and fills the lowest place, so the moment God finds the creature abased and empty, his glory and power flow in to exalt and to bless.

From Chapter 5

We find many professors and ministers, evangelists and workers, missionaries and teachers, in whom the gifts of the Spirit are many and manifest, and who are the channels of blessing to multitudes, but of whom, when the testing time comes, or closer intercourse gives fuller knowledge, it is only too painfully manifest that the grace of humility, as an abiding characteristic, is scarce to be seen.

From Chapter 6

The humble man feels no jealousy or envy.  He can praise God with others are preferred and blessed before Him.  He can bear to hear others praised and himself forgotten….

From Chapter 7

The holiest will ever be the humblest…

PS – I have one last quote from this book that I’d like to share in tomorrow’s blog.  Stay tuned.

In yesterday’s blog, I tried to give a simple definition for humility.  It is not a low self-image; it’s a high Jesus-image.

Today I’d like to tell you about a man who wrote with humility about humility.  His name is Andrew Murray, and his book, Humility, was originally published in 1859.

Murray was born to Scottish (Dutch Reformed) missionaries serving in South Africa.  Place of birth- Cape Town.  Year – 1828.  When he was ten years old, Andrew was sent back to Scotland for schooling, and he later pursued university studies in the Netherlands.  There he was exposed to a spiritual revival that deeply affected him.  After being ordained by the Dutch Reformed Church, he returned to South Africa to minister.  In 1856, he married his wife, Emma, and they had four boys and four girls.

During the course of his ministry Murray pastored several churches in South Africa and helped advance the South Africa Revival of 1869.  Perhaps his most lasting legacy is his print ministry – his books and tracts.  He authored a whopping 240 of them, some of which have proven to be genuine classics on the Deeper Christian Life.

When he was in his fifties, Andrew was stuck by a mysterious throat ailment that rendered him unable to speak for two years.  It was a traumatic period for a preacher, but it affected his personality for the good, giving him a kinder, gentler spirit.  Out of this experience, he wrote twelve messages on the subject of humility, which became the basis for this book.

Tomorrow, I’ll share some excerpts from Humility by Andrew Murray.

I don’t have enough humility to write a book on the subject, and I’ve got too much pride to attempt it.  How could I promote it?  “Hey, buy my fantastic best-seller about humility!”  I’d be like the author who wrote a book called Humility and How I Attained It, by I. M. DeMann.  For most of us, preaching about humility is an exercise of instant hypocrisy, or so we feel.

The fact is—true humility is the pith of Christlikeness.  Biblical humility is the sap and spirit of verdant Christian living.  It’s not a matter of developing an unhealthy self-image, but of developing a healthy image—not of ourselves—but of the Lord Jesus.  It’s thinking realistically of ourselves and optimistically of Him.  Someone said that humility isn’t thinking little of ourselves; it’s not thinking of ourselves at all, and of Him more and more.

The person who is biblically humble doesn’t go around groveling in the dirt and saying, “I’m an idiot, I’m no good, I’m cheap, I’m worthless.”  After all, we’re the climax and crown of His creative genius.  We’re made in His image.  We’re worth more than many sparrows; we’re worth so much Christ He died for us.  We’re heirs of God and joint heirs of Christ.  We’re the King’s Kids.  We’re gifted by His grace and destined for His glory.

Humility isn’t at matter of saying, “I’m worthless!”  It’s saying, “He is worthy!”

It’s a matter of saying, “I’m a sinner, and He’s my Savior.  I’m nothing without Him, but I can do all things through Him who gives me strength, for His strength is made perfect in my weakness.  Though I’m not what I was, I’m not yet what I long to be.  He’s perfecting that which concerns me.  He who has begun a good work in me will carry it on to completion.”

If pride is the soil of sinfulness, humility is the heart of holiness.  It’s the basic bread-and-butter attiude of:  Jesus first, others second, and I’ll take the leftovers.  I’m sent to serve.

If the serpent’s pride messed us up, the Savior’s humility can set us straight.  If the pride of sin killed us, the Suffering Servant can raise us up.

Getting back to books on the subject….  There’s only one author I know whom I’d trust with this subject, and he wrote a remarkable book on humility, which was published in 1859.  In my next post, I’d like to introduce him to you.

I’ve just finished Yogi Berra’s autobiographical account of his ten World Series Championships with the New York Yankees.  It wasn’t exactly a page-turner, but three things impressed me about the famous Yankee catcher.

1.  His ability to shrug off insults.  When he began his career, other players made cruel jokes about his odd appearance, speech patterns, and penchant for comic books.  They said he looked like a Neanderthal man.  Sports writers painted him as stupid.  He was called Ugly.  At five-feet-eight-inches, 190 pounds, knock-kneed and barrel-shaped, he was dubbed “the Ape.”  “Some of the veterans didn’t know what to make of me,” he said.  “I guess it was because of my stumpy build, and my speech and grammar weren’t always the best, and because I sometimes read comic books by my locker.”  Yogi’s response:  “I’d just brush that stuff off and tell anyone it didn’t matter if you’re ugly in this racket, because all you’ve got to do is hit the ball and I never saw anybody hit one with his face” (p. 26).

2.  His Morale.  He learned to keep his spirits up, no matter what.  It was a lesson taught him by Joe DiMaggio.  “Once I was unhappy after I popped up and sort of moped out to right field after the inning.  Joe trotted over to me and said, ‘Always run out to your position, kid.  It doesn’t look good when you walk.  The other team may have gotten you down, but don’t let ‘em know it’” (p. 31).  It was a moment Yogi never forgot.

3.  His perseverance.  If there is one recurring theme to the book, it’s keep pressing on and plugging away, win or lose:  “One thing I learned in baseball is you don’t panic, just do what you’re supposed to do” (p. 149).  “If ever I learned anything in baseball, it’s don’t give up and don’t let up” (p. 167).  “When you go slack in something, I don’t care if it’s baseball or business or badminton, it’s hard to get that crispness back” (p. 170).

My favorite Yogi-Quote in the book is on page 207.  “Sometimes in baseball, you don’t know nothing.”

The book is titled Ten Rings:  My Championship Seasons by Yogi Berra with Dave Kaplan.