I and Thou | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Oct 8, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 38.

I and Thou.

BEFORE one learns the important lesson of humility—of human emptiness and weakness and divine fullness and strength—he will be much given to the use of the pronoun I. "God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess." Twenty-nine words and five I's; or one I to every six words. This choice bit of human composition was gotten off for a prayer, but it was simply a piece of bragadocio. It was the result of a man's praying "with himself" as a good many do. When a man prays to God he works in some other pronouns. There is a difference between I a saint and "me a sinner."

There was a disciple who stands on record as a representative of human boasting and weakness. He had not then learned that to stand up for Christ we must know that "underneath are the everlasting arms." "Although all shall be offended, yet will not I. And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. But he spake the more vehemently, If I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said they all." Mark 14: 29-31. Peter was not the only boaster. It is natural for all to tell what great things they have done or are going to do. "Likewise also said they all." Peter might have been foremost in it, the others saying amen to his sentiments, little thinking how it was going to sound, or come out; the same as some do nowadays in the exuberance of spirits. Be careful how and when you say amen. The next time that we notice that Peter gets conspicuously into conversation with the Lord, he puts the brakes down on the pronoun I. It is "thou knowest, thou knowest, thou knowest, thou knowest, that I love thee." John 21: 15-17. It is necessary and proper of course to use the pronoun I occasionally; but bury it up well with "thou knowest." "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Gal. 2: 20. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith." Consider him.—