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Humility

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Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 29, 1883

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 9, No. 45.

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Humility.

By E. Hilliard

The Saviour came to our earth to save the lost. So interested was he to rescue man from the ruin to which, through the fall, he was doomed, that he eagerly watched for every opportunity to turn the mind of the sinner toward Heaven. Whenever he saw a poor, afflicted mortal reaching forth to touch but the hem of his garment, or crying after him for help, he was ready to relieve.
One day as he was traveling through the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, a woman of Canaan, being in the same coast, came crying after him to have mercy on her, for her daughter was grievously vexed with a devil. Not a word does the Saviour utter in reply to her entreaties. The Master’s silence develops the spirit of perseverance and earnestness in her, and also the spirit that is in the hearts of his disciples. They did not have that deep love for the suffering that the Master had, and becoming weary of hearing those pitiful tones, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David,” they besought the Master to send her away.
The lovely Jesus, who was always touched with the cry of distress, gave his disciples to understand that it was just such poor, worthless creatures that he came to save; so he replied, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” The woman, drawing near to him, worships him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
The Master, wishing her to fully realize her unworthiness, said to her, “It is not meet to take the children’s bread and cast it unto the dogs.” She did not become offended with an answer that set forth in such strong terms her humble condition. Nor did she, like many, of to-day, when they see their true condition, fall into despair. Acknowledging the truth of the Saviour’s statement, and willing to take the same place at his feet that the dog occupies in his master’s dwelling, she said, “Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” The heart of our blessed Lord was touched, and he exclaimed, “O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt; and her daughter was made whole from that very hour.”
The Lord requires that we shall see and acknowledge our sins; then that we shall seek him in great earnestness and humbleness of heart, and in faith believing that he can and will help us. Medford, Minn. E. Hilliard.