Quotable

Nothing is less suited to a follower of the meek and lowly Son of Man than a contentious spirit and vainglorious bearing. Boasting and bitter words ill become one who has taken the place of death with Christ. If, in lowliness of mind, each esteems others better than himself, how impossible for strife and contention to come in. Alas, that it is so much easier to speak or write of these things than to practically demonstrate them!

It is not in the natural man to live out what is here inculcated. The man after the flesh “looks out for number one,” as he puts it, and is fond of reminding himself, and his fellows, that “charity begins at home.” But the Christian is exhorted to look not on his own things but on the things of others. A heavenly principle this, surely, and only to be attained by a heavenly man, one who walks in fellowship with Him who came from heaven to manifest His love for others. It is characteristic of man’s deceitful natural heart to suppose that his greatest pleasure can be found in ministering to his own desires. But the truest happiness is the result of unselfish devotion to the things of others. Were this ever kept in mind, what unhappy experiences would many of God’s dear children be spared, and how glad and joyous would fellowship in Christ become.

—H. A. Ironside