It will engraft itself upon our holy things!

The following is from Octavius Winslow's sermon,
"Daily Cleansing, or Christ Washing His Disciples Feet"

"...so He got up from the meal, took off his
outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around
His waist. After that, He poured water into
a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet,
drying them with the towel that was wrapped
around Him." John 13:4-5

This lowly act of Christ is intended to
inculcate the precept of humility.

Here was the Infinite Majesty of heaven, the
Maker of all worlds and the Creator of all beings,
stooping to wash the feet of His disciples!

What a needed precept, what a holy lesson this!

The pride of our hearts is the deep
rooted evil of our depraved nature!

It is perpetually cropping up; notwithstanding
all the prunings by which God seeks to keep it
down, and lay it low.

Its forms are many, its name is 'legion.'

There is....
the pride of ancestry,
the pride of rank,
the pride of wealth,
the pride of place,
the pride of intellect, and the worst of all pride,
the pride of 'self righteousness'.

There is nothing too little and trivial
with which pride will not plume itself!

It can find its boast....
in a fine dress,
in a beautiful face,
in a splendid mansion,
in tasteful furniture,
in a rare picture,
in any work of man's device!

No, more, it will engraft itself upon our holy things!
How much sinful, hateful pride of heart is intermixed
with all our service for Christ! We are proud of our
spiritual gifts and graces, proud of our ecclesiastical
place and power, proud of our popularity and usefulness,
we taint and shade and mar all we do for God.

Pride compasses you about as with a chain; and
that chain, unless broken by the power of God,
will bind you down to regions of eternal despair!

If you are to be saved by Christ, the pride of
your heart, rising in rebellion against the doctrine
of a gratuitous salvation, must be brought down,
mortified, and slain root and branch.
Christ, must receive all the honor and glory...
of emancipating you from your sins,
of delivering you from condemnation, and
of bringing you to heaven.

But the grace of Christ is all sufficient, and
the believing soul will be entirely emptied,
root and branch, of this hideous, this God
abhorring sin, when it reaches that bright and
holy world where all bow in the profoundest
humility before the throne of God, and all the
glory of the creature is lost in the splendor
of the Lamb!