Christianity in Action: Lesson 5: Humility
A Lesson for Christmas
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Luke ii. 1-20.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted " (St. Matt. xxiii. 12).
A Lesson for Christmas
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Luke ii. 1-20.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT : " Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted " (St. Matt. xxiii. 12).
HYMNS : " Once in royal David's city " and " While shepherds watched."
COLLECTS for Christmas Day and Palm Sunday.
Aim: To teach the class what St. Teresa used to teach her nuns: “Humility is Queen and Empress and Sovereign over all the virtues."
I. THE QUEEN OF VIRTUES.
(a) This year we are trying to learn what " being good " means, what kind of virtues a Christian ought to possess. When the famous American Benjamin Franklin was quite a young man he determined to try in a practical and systematic way to live a good life. He bought a note-book, and made a list of what seemed to him the twelve most important virtues. He ruled columns, and resolved at the end of every day to mark down how many times he had failed in each virtue, and to go on trying until he could get a page with no black marks. It was an excellent list : it included Honesty, Truthfulness, Industry, Justice, Temperance, Cleanliness, Order. But one day he showed his list to an old Quaker friend, who said,, " Lad, thou hast made a great mistake ; thou hast left out the most important of them all." " Why," said the lad, " what is missing ? " " Surely thou knowest," said the old man, " that the first of Christian virtues is Humility." Was he right ?
(b) Here is a much older story taken from a book written as long ago as 1480: An Abbot was summoned to give Communion to a dying hermit. The hermit had lived for years a life of strict self-denial, and the whole neighbourhood honoured him as a saint. While the Abbot was there, a robber came to the door of the hermit's hut, a man detested by all for his cruelty and greed. As he watched the hermit die, tears came into his eyes, and he grew sorry for his evil life, and he said, “Would that I were such as you are!” And the hermit looked up and replied, “You may well wish that you were like me." The hermit died, and at the same moment the robber fell down dead. That night the Abbot had a vision. He saw the hermit and the robber arrive at the gate of Paradise. The robber was welcomed by Angels who sang, " A broken and contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise." But the door was shut in the hermit's face with the terrible words, " The proud cannot enter here." What was the matter with the hermit ? He was proud ; he lacked humility. One quaint old preacher said : " Swelled heads will never fit a heavenly crown."
(c) Now for a modern story. A French girl, Rose Tannisier, began to have curious dreams and visions. People wrote to the Pope declaring that she ought to be recognized as a modern saint. The Pope sent a Bishop to investigate. As soon as he entered her cottage he asked, " "Is it true that you are a Saint ? " " Yes, Father," she replied. " Then," he said, " I am quite sure that you are not." Why did he decide so quickly ? Because she lacked humility. The American Quaker, the mediaeval writer, and the modern Roman Catholic Bishop all agreed that humility was a virtue of the first importance.
(d) John Ruskin said : " I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility."
II. THE DANGER OF PRIDE
(a) What is the opposite of Humility?—Pride. In olden days, when men drew up the list of the Seven Deadly Sins—the seven sins which they believed to be most deadly to the soul—they put Pride first on the list.
(b) If we get conceited, we shall never improve. Those who are satisfied with themselves make no attempt to over-come their faults. The French writer, Rousseau, began the Story of his Life with an extraordinary sentence : " When the last trump shall sound, I will come with this book in my hand before the Sovereign Judge and say, This is what I have done. When all mankind unveil their thoughts at the foot of Thy Throne, will a single one dare to say, I was better than that man ? “He evidently thought that he was almost perfect, yet everyone who reads his book says, “What a disgusting and horrible man he must have been.”
(c) If five-year-old Bobbie declares : " I could drive fifty horses at once " ; and a few minutes later adds, " I could kill a lion with my fist," and then a little later, " I could build a house with a hundred rooms in it," we must not merely laugh at him. Unless he is checked, he will get into a very dangerous habit. And we must take care that we do not slip into the same fault. Every one detests a boaster, and, if we grow conceited, we shall never improve.
III. OUR LORD'S HUMILITY.
(a) What was the most surprising thing about the Christmas Story? Surely the way in which our Lord came to visit us. He might, like St. John the Baptist, have been born into a priest's comfortable home. He might have been born in one of the rulers' palaces. He chose for His mother a poor girl from a northern village, a mother who had nowhere to sleep but a stable, nowhere to lay her baby but a manger. Let one of the class tell the story, while the other children fill in any details that the first child leaves out. The teacher's part will be to draw out the lesson of His humility ; as our Advent collect says : " He came to visit us in great humility." Read Passage.
(b) The rest of His life showed the same humility : the thirty years in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth ; the second temptation. A boy was asked, " Why did not our Lord throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, and let all the crowds of worshippers below see how wonderful He was ? " He answered, " Because it would have been swank " ; and he was right. The way in which Christ hardly tried to be recognized by the great men of Jerusalem, but quietly gave Himself to the training of twelve poor workingmen. He was worse off than the foxes, for He had no shelter for His Head. He borrowed a donkey for His last ride. He borrowed a room for His last supper. He was buried in a borrowed grave. " Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor."
IV. IN HIS STEPS.
(a) One collect says that Christ lived and died " that all mankind should follow the example of His great humility " (Sunday before Easter) ; and the best Christians have tried to do this. Think of the story of St. Swithun. He was a great Bishop of Winchester, the closest friend of the King, and the most influential man in the kingdom. Yet he would never ride on horseback as other Bishops did. He would not even wear shoes, which were regarded in those days as a sign of luxury. But with bare feet he used to trudge alone through the great oak forests searching out the most outlying hamlets of his diocese, the companion and the friend of the poorest of the poor. But soon he was distressed to learn that people were praising his humility, and were waiting at the cross-roads to see him pass by. So then he took all his journeys by night. This was often dangerous. The forests were full of wolves, and it was easy to lose one's way. But he would rather lose his life than seem to be showing off. " As he lay a-dying," says the old chronicler, " he begged that none would bury him in the church, but in a humble place, where the feet of wayfarers might tread upon his grave, and the rain of Heaven fall upon him. For he loved no pomp in his life, and none would he have after his death." Most Bishops were buried in grand tombs inside the Cathedral, but for more than a hundred years St. Swithun's body lay under the grass without even a tombstone. Then the people of Winchester prepared a marble tomb inside the Cathedral ; but when they tried to remove the body it rained for forty days and forty nights and stopped the ceremony, and every one said that this was the saint protesting against an honour which his humility disliked.
(b) St. Francis of Assisi created the great Order of the Grey Friars. It was entirely his own idea. It spread into every land. It had a most marvellous success, and through the mission preaching of its members brought back thousands to God. Every one recognized to-day that St. Francis was the greatest man of the Middle Ages. Yet those foolish friars after a time began to think that they could manage the Order better than St. Francis, and, as soon as St. Francis heard this, with the most beautiful humility he at once resigned the Headship, and for the rest of his life served and obeyed the new leaders whom they appointed. He did not fight for his position. Though he was head and shoulders greater than any man in the Order, he was quite content to take a back place. And of all the Christ-like acts of his life his resignation is the most Christ-like.
(c) Let us close with two Proverbs and two Sayings of our Lord : " A small mind always has plenty of room for pride." " Pride is a weed that only grows on very poor soil." " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth " (St. Matt. v. 5). " Whosoever shall humble himself like this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven " (St. Matt. xviii. 4).
Aim: To teach the class what St. Teresa used to teach her nuns: “Humility is Queen and Empress and Sovereign over all the virtues."
I. THE QUEEN OF VIRTUES.
(a) This year we are trying to learn what " being good " means, what kind of virtues a Christian ought to possess. When the famous American Benjamin Franklin was quite a young man he determined to try in a practical and systematic way to live a good life. He bought a note-book, and made a list of what seemed to him the twelve most important virtues. He ruled columns, and resolved at the end of every day to mark down how many times he had failed in each virtue, and to go on trying until he could get a page with no black marks. It was an excellent list : it included Honesty, Truthfulness, Industry, Justice, Temperance, Cleanliness, Order. But one day he showed his list to an old Quaker friend, who said,, " Lad, thou hast made a great mistake ; thou hast left out the most important of them all." " Why," said the lad, " what is missing ? " " Surely thou knowest," said the old man, " that the first of Christian virtues is Humility." Was he right ?
(b) Here is a much older story taken from a book written as long ago as 1480: An Abbot was summoned to give Communion to a dying hermit. The hermit had lived for years a life of strict self-denial, and the whole neighbourhood honoured him as a saint. While the Abbot was there, a robber came to the door of the hermit's hut, a man detested by all for his cruelty and greed. As he watched the hermit die, tears came into his eyes, and he grew sorry for his evil life, and he said, “Would that I were such as you are!” And the hermit looked up and replied, “You may well wish that you were like me." The hermit died, and at the same moment the robber fell down dead. That night the Abbot had a vision. He saw the hermit and the robber arrive at the gate of Paradise. The robber was welcomed by Angels who sang, " A broken and contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise." But the door was shut in the hermit's face with the terrible words, " The proud cannot enter here." What was the matter with the hermit ? He was proud ; he lacked humility. One quaint old preacher said : " Swelled heads will never fit a heavenly crown."
(c) Now for a modern story. A French girl, Rose Tannisier, began to have curious dreams and visions. People wrote to the Pope declaring that she ought to be recognized as a modern saint. The Pope sent a Bishop to investigate. As soon as he entered her cottage he asked, " "Is it true that you are a Saint ? " " Yes, Father," she replied. " Then," he said, " I am quite sure that you are not." Why did he decide so quickly ? Because she lacked humility. The American Quaker, the mediaeval writer, and the modern Roman Catholic Bishop all agreed that humility was a virtue of the first importance.
(d) John Ruskin said : " I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility."
II. THE DANGER OF PRIDE
(a) What is the opposite of Humility?—Pride. In olden days, when men drew up the list of the Seven Deadly Sins—the seven sins which they believed to be most deadly to the soul—they put Pride first on the list.
(b) If we get conceited, we shall never improve. Those who are satisfied with themselves make no attempt to over-come their faults. The French writer, Rousseau, began the Story of his Life with an extraordinary sentence : " When the last trump shall sound, I will come with this book in my hand before the Sovereign Judge and say, This is what I have done. When all mankind unveil their thoughts at the foot of Thy Throne, will a single one dare to say, I was better than that man ? “He evidently thought that he was almost perfect, yet everyone who reads his book says, “What a disgusting and horrible man he must have been.”
(c) If five-year-old Bobbie declares : " I could drive fifty horses at once " ; and a few minutes later adds, " I could kill a lion with my fist," and then a little later, " I could build a house with a hundred rooms in it," we must not merely laugh at him. Unless he is checked, he will get into a very dangerous habit. And we must take care that we do not slip into the same fault. Every one detests a boaster, and, if we grow conceited, we shall never improve.
III. OUR LORD'S HUMILITY.
(a) What was the most surprising thing about the Christmas Story? Surely the way in which our Lord came to visit us. He might, like St. John the Baptist, have been born into a priest's comfortable home. He might have been born in one of the rulers' palaces. He chose for His mother a poor girl from a northern village, a mother who had nowhere to sleep but a stable, nowhere to lay her baby but a manger. Let one of the class tell the story, while the other children fill in any details that the first child leaves out. The teacher's part will be to draw out the lesson of His humility ; as our Advent collect says : " He came to visit us in great humility." Read Passage.
(b) The rest of His life showed the same humility : the thirty years in the carpenter's shop at Nazareth ; the second temptation. A boy was asked, " Why did not our Lord throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, and let all the crowds of worshippers below see how wonderful He was ? " He answered, " Because it would have been swank " ; and he was right. The way in which Christ hardly tried to be recognized by the great men of Jerusalem, but quietly gave Himself to the training of twelve poor workingmen. He was worse off than the foxes, for He had no shelter for His Head. He borrowed a donkey for His last ride. He borrowed a room for His last supper. He was buried in a borrowed grave. " Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor."
IV. IN HIS STEPS.
(a) One collect says that Christ lived and died " that all mankind should follow the example of His great humility " (Sunday before Easter) ; and the best Christians have tried to do this. Think of the story of St. Swithun. He was a great Bishop of Winchester, the closest friend of the King, and the most influential man in the kingdom. Yet he would never ride on horseback as other Bishops did. He would not even wear shoes, which were regarded in those days as a sign of luxury. But with bare feet he used to trudge alone through the great oak forests searching out the most outlying hamlets of his diocese, the companion and the friend of the poorest of the poor. But soon he was distressed to learn that people were praising his humility, and were waiting at the cross-roads to see him pass by. So then he took all his journeys by night. This was often dangerous. The forests were full of wolves, and it was easy to lose one's way. But he would rather lose his life than seem to be showing off. " As he lay a-dying," says the old chronicler, " he begged that none would bury him in the church, but in a humble place, where the feet of wayfarers might tread upon his grave, and the rain of Heaven fall upon him. For he loved no pomp in his life, and none would he have after his death." Most Bishops were buried in grand tombs inside the Cathedral, but for more than a hundred years St. Swithun's body lay under the grass without even a tombstone. Then the people of Winchester prepared a marble tomb inside the Cathedral ; but when they tried to remove the body it rained for forty days and forty nights and stopped the ceremony, and every one said that this was the saint protesting against an honour which his humility disliked.
(b) St. Francis of Assisi created the great Order of the Grey Friars. It was entirely his own idea. It spread into every land. It had a most marvellous success, and through the mission preaching of its members brought back thousands to God. Every one recognized to-day that St. Francis was the greatest man of the Middle Ages. Yet those foolish friars after a time began to think that they could manage the Order better than St. Francis, and, as soon as St. Francis heard this, with the most beautiful humility he at once resigned the Headship, and for the rest of his life served and obeyed the new leaders whom they appointed. He did not fight for his position. Though he was head and shoulders greater than any man in the Order, he was quite content to take a back place. And of all the Christ-like acts of his life his resignation is the most Christ-like.
(c) Let us close with two Proverbs and two Sayings of our Lord : " A small mind always has plenty of room for pride." " Pride is a weed that only grows on very poor soil." " Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth " (St. Matt. v. 5). " Whosoever shall humble himself like this little child, the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven " (St. Matt. xviii. 4).
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