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HUMILITY REPRESENTED
IN ST.
PAUL.
the
account
;
'
pride
spies
out
those excellencies
in
us
which
none
else
can
see,
while
it
conceals and
lessens
our
evil
qualities
so as to
reduce
them almost
to
nothing.
By
this means the
judgment that
we form
concerning
ourselves,
is
for the most
part
mistaken
and criminal
:
We
hearken
to
the prejudices
of
our self
-love
:
we
view
our virtues through a
magnifying glass in
the sunshine,
and
cast
our
vices
into shade
and concealment.
We
carry
always
about
us
these
false
representations of
our-
selves,
this
vain
picture
which
is
so
very unlike the
ori-
ginal
:
We speak, and
act,
and
live,
according
to this
bright
and
great
and mistaken
idea
of
'self,
and thereby
we
plunge ourselves into many
errors, iniquities and
mis-
chiefs.
And
especially
when
we
happen to compare
ourselves
with
others,
our
envy
arises to assist the
work,
and
offers
its wretched
and dangerous
aid
to
help on the
comparison. We soon
spy
out
all
their
blemishes
and
imperfections, and
lessen
their character in order to
exalt
our
own.
Thus
while
pride
on
the
one side
bright-
ens and aggrandizes
our
own image,
and on
the
other
side envy
detracts
from the image
of
our
neighbour,
sullies
his
virtues
and darkens
his
honours,
we
act
our
relative parts
in
the world
in a very
irregular
manner,
under
the
influence
of
these
erroneous sentiments and
ideas.
The
mean opinion
of
self therefore,
that
by the
pattern
of
the
apostle,
I
would
recommend
to
my own
heart
and
to
all my friends,
is
this,
that
in
taking a
just
estimate
of
every thing
that relates
to
ourselves
or
to
our
fellow
-
creatures,
we
should keep a
strict
watch
against
the
dan-
gers
of
these
selfish
passions
and prejudices
;
and
we
should
always
make large allowances for those
false
and
glaring
colours, wherewith
our
vanity paints and adorns
our
own image,
and for
those deceitful weights
which
pride
is
ever
flinging
into
our
own
scale,
to
make
our
virtues
appear
solid and
weighty; and
we
should
make,
the same allowances for those
dark
and
disgraceful
shades
of
vice
and
folly which
envy
spreads over our
neighbours'
character, and
for those
reproaches
where-
with
she
loads
the
opposite
scale while
we
are
weighing
the virtues
of
our
neighbours,
in
order
to make them
seem
lighter.