Low Thoughts of Self

It is Matthew who records those precious words of our Lord, “Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall iind rest to your souls” and it would seem that he had learnt this lesson of lowliness. For in the list of apostles given by him he designates himself “the publican,” and so magnifies the grace that had called him from his reproachful occupation to the high dignity of an apostle of the Lord.

The missionary Carey manifested something of the same spirit: when asked tauntingly by one of the East India Company’s officials if he had not been a shoemaker, he gave the lowly answer, “No, only a cobbler.”

Moreover, at his call to follow the Lord, Matthew does not tell us that “he left all” in order to do it, or that he made a “great feast” for the Lord, or that it was in his house that Jesus sat with “many publicans and sinners,” though these facts are placed on record for us by Luke.

This lowly spirit is not natural to us, we love to gain and maintain a reputation, but if we learn of Him who made Himself of “no reputation,” we too shall have

“Low thoughts of self, befitting Proclaimers of His praise.”

Unknown