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T1iEAP1VAtITAGES
OP
HUMILITY
EsEOT.1V,
conceited
creatures
will
make
the
world know all
their
talents
of
body and mind,
and
will
carefully
spread
abroad
those possessions
of
equipage or
title, which help
to support
their pride
:
and
as
a noble
author
expresses,
"
they
are
so
top
-full
of
self
that
they
spill
it upon
all
the
company
;"
and a nobler person than
he confirms
the
reason,
" Out
of
the
abundance of their heart
the mouth
speaketh
!"
Mat.
xii.
34.
And surely
if
the
vessel
of
the heart were
not
brim-full
of
self it
would
not
be
always
running
over
at
the
lips.
They regard not
the advice
of
the
wisest
of
men
;
Prov.
xxvii.
2.
" Let
another
praise
thee
and
not
thy own
mouth
;
not
thy lips,
but
the
lips of
a
stranger."
Besides these vain
and
shameless
boasters there
is
an-
other tribe
of
creatures
who
are
as
vain
adorers of
self;
but
they
put
on
a
disguise
that
they may more effectually
and secretly secure the praises of their dear
and
beloved
idol. You
shall
hear
them
now
and then invent an occa-
sion,
without any incident leading
to
it,
to
drop
some
lessening
word
concerning
themselves
that
'the
company
may
give
them the
pleasure of contradicting
them.
It
is
not that
these appearing self
-
abasers
believe a word
of
what
they
say,
nor
is
it
said with
a desire
that
you should
believe them
when
they,
express
their
mean esteem of
their
own
talents or virtues
;
but
they
are
exceeding fond
to
hear
themselves
talked
of
to
advantage, and
when they
give you this occasion they
expect your
civility should
incline
yon
to
take it. These persons
are
always
angling.
for
praise,
and
some
of
them practise
it
in so
gross and
inartificial
a
manner,
that
the
design
of their
vanity too
plainly
discovers itself.
The bait
is
lost because
the
hook appears
;
and
when they have made
a
speech
of
their
own
unworthiness the company
sometimes
is
so
just
and
so wise as
to
allow
them to
be in
the
right, and
so
.
complaisant
as
not
to
contradict
them
:
But
then
how
abject, how mortified and
simple
they
look under
the
painful disappointment
!
They
fished
for
honour
and
to
their
sore
regret
they caught the
truth.
O when shall this haughty thing self unlearn
all its
vanity
?
When
shall we be
content
to
be
unseen and
unnoticed
in the
world
?
To
be
unknown,
as
Jesus
the
Son
of God
was,
for
thirty
years
-together
?
Jesus
the
brightness
of
his
Fathers
glory was
content
to
be
un-
known
in
.a
world which he
himself
created;
"
He
came