The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1886-08-11
HUMILITY.
Improvements Only osslble to Men who
Recognize Their Own Defects and Short
Comings.


Comings.
HE that humbleth himself shall be
exalted" +" But what if the exaltation
which humility promotes has no attrac-
ton for usP There are two modes of
exaltation; one worldly, the other
Heavenly. One lifts men to honor or
wealth or glory in the purely earthly
order; the other may, and often does,
promote the same outward result, but
its direct effect is to exalt us in WORTH
ness, in capability, in power; in one
word, in character. If man cares
but little what he Is, what he is making
of himself, what kind of man he is
developing into, If all this is secondary
in his thought, and is left to chance in
his plans, then true humility can not
render him the service he seeks of it,
but false or apparent humility may
serve his end. For whatever reason he
defers to his fellows, that Difference
will have its reward. On the lowest
plane of desire, the man who takes the
lowest seat at the feast may have q
higher seat assigned him by the mas
ter of ceremonies. 1t IS false belief
that men rise chiefly by self-asser-
ton and bold capture Of what
many desire. The theft of honor
arms opposition with resentment
and unites defeated rivals. A man
Is secure in no position to which he is
not elevated by choice which is wide
in proportion to the dignity of the
place he fills. Other mems minds
must be filed with sense of his fit
ness or his success, and no amount of
self-assertion will induce the proper
public in the case to abdicate its Office
as Judge. If it were not invidious,
we might refer to conspicuous in
stances in our public life where egotism
has armed foes and disguised friends.
The master of the feast, whoever he
may be or by whatever title addressed,
claims his right to select the seat of
each man at the feast. So that a show
Of Difference is trait in nearly every
successful man, and those who succeed
without it would have higher success
with it.
But q genuine humility forbids
man to stake his life on earthly honors.
1t Is related by its nature to a higher
order of aspirations. 1t seeks not the
field of heated rivalries, the races in
which many run and one obtains, but
those fields and contentious in which
whoever strives lawfully may obtain
the prizes. Happily, the world is full
of such honorable fields of enterprise,
and wise men who are producers or dis
tributors of human wealth instinctively.
seek and cultivate such fields. II others
are engaged In like work, the wise
man directs his cares to doing good
work, not to defeating his nefghbor.
He would not count it sue I
cess to damage his neighbor. He
would refuse to believe that he and
his neighbor are in pursuit of the same
dollar, and that only one of them could
get it. He would say, and believe it:
There is room and work enough for
us BOTH" A vast amount of good work
is done in the world on that principle.
Let a pastor begin to say: s''I am the
only good preacher in the city. My
church is the only true church. All
the people ought to come to me;" and
he will disgust his own supporters.
Let a merchant adopt similar tone,
and he will lose custom rather than
gain it. In schools, in all things, men
distrust self-assertion, and suspect pre-
tention and boasting. The common
sense OF mankind enforces in consid-
cradle measure the rulc that self-exalt-
alton shall be abased The greedy
lords have given place to the humble
people all over the world. The destiny
of all attempts to compel men to honor
or enrich this or that greedy person is ig-
nominious failure. We do not sec It when
aTweed is in his glory; We do see It
see 1t when fifty aldermen are getting
fat by the sale Of franchises; we do
see 1t when juries convict such alder
men Of bribery. A little patience and
q broad view win teach any man that
there Is some soundness In the social
and providential administration Of the
world.
While false humility may restrain
Y soul from grievous blunders Of ego
tism and greed, only genuine humil-
ity can make any OF as utterly safe.
II IL safe to be able to avoid the self
sins of the world by simple force Of
clean and honest instincts, It Ia un-
safe to have to check ourself by
processes Of reason aided by observa-
tion. Theft and greed and seif-ex-
altstion are not wrong because any
man has been ruined by them---the
ruin came because they are wrong,
every where and eternally wrong.
There is no safety but In the rock Of
character. II we ascend to that safo
eminsnoe we shall discover at once
that proper humility y q Ooudi-
ton Of all-wise building upon It.
The man whose orotinm telIs him