THE TRAPPINGS OF PRIDE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 17, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 20.

THE TRAPPINGS OF PRIDE.

ALL the outward manifestations of pride are but the indications of the selfishness that reigns within. We expend brain and nerve force in preparing fine clothes in order that we may outshine our neighbors. We put on jewels and diamonds so that it may be said of us that we outshine every one about us.

We pride ourselves upon our ancestry. We like to have it understood that it is no common blood that is flowing through our veins. We lift our heads in admiration of ourselves at the thought that we belong to the titled nobility, or that great and noted men were our fathers.

But there is no love in any such things, except it be a selfish love. While in such a condition, we have no regard for any one except those of our own privileged class. And even then, if adversity comes to one with whom we have been accustomed to associate, we cast him away from our society as a disgrace to us. All of this is simply because of pride, and pride is but another name for self-love.

The individual who is filled with self-love has no love at all for any one else. At first you may be inclined to think that such can not be the case. But do not be hasty in your decisions. Just think a moment.

The person who is full of love for himself

may think that he loves another, but let him analyze his motives, and he will be horrified to find that what he had supposed was love for another was only love for himself. He seems to love the other person, but the motive back of it all is a desire for some personal pleasure, gain, or advantage. Let the personal element be withdrawn by taking away all hope that the individual may get any enjoyment or gain for himself, and he finds at once that all his supposed love is gone. And this should show him that what he had so fondly hoped was love for another is, after all, only love for himself.

This will readily explain how it is that what seems to be such glowing love may all be quenched in one short hour. We see the young husband and wife. They seem to be fully devoted to each other, and the bonds of pure, true love seem to securely hold them. But reverses come. The husband is no longer able to dress his wife so that she can appear as the finest of any in the neighborhood, and then the seeming devotion is gone. Her pride is touched. She has come of one of the best of families, and why should she endure such humiliation? And some passing whim may just as suddenly and also permanently turn away the husband's apparent love for his wife.

Many a professor of Christianity may be awakened also to find that his supposed love for Christ, or for the members of the Master's household, is only a selfish love. He may be professing the name of Christ solely for the purpose of gaining heaven for himself. "O, if I were only sure I would be saved!" is an exclamation that we often hear. But such words come only from the heart of faithlessness and self-love. The individual may profess the name of Christ and join the church with the object in view of helping his business. But what a selfish act that is! He may join some particular church so that it will give him a better standing in society, but how self-centered and full of pride is such an act! He may join the church that has the finest house of worship, and the most eloquent preacher, and the most attractive music, and the most wealthy members. But this is another one of the trappings of pride, and is all for self.

Contrast with all this the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly he was the most truly noble being that ever came into the world. He was the "Son of the Highest." He was not merely a king, but He was the King of kings and Lord of lords. He was the Creator and Supporter of the whole universe. He could have come to this earth surrounded with such glory that no human eye could have endured it. But did He do it?—No, by no means. He came as the lowliest of the most lowly. He was born in a stable among the cattle. He was reared in the most despised little village of all Palestine. He worked at the common trade of a carpenter. He chose for His earthly parents no higher nobility than the commonest peasants of Nazareth. He chose to be reared without a single one of the trappings or luxuries of the so-called royal nobility.

What a wonderful lesson there is for humanity in all this! He who commanded all the great storehouse of all the power, and all the vast resources of all the worlds, came to us with no sounding of trumpets or none of the insignia of pride that so dazzle and attract the attention of the world. His was a true, pure, unselfish love for humanity. He loved men on their own account, and not on His personal account.

He saw how pride and vanity would cultivate the hateful seeds of selfishness, and He did not put a single thing into His life anywhere that could be so construed as to minister to pride and self.

It is pride and self-love that have been the ruination of the world, and the Master has ever sought to open our eyes to this great truth, and to win us away from the destroying evil. Will we let Him teach us the lesson? T.