Humble souls

(Thomas Brooks, "The Unsearchable Riches of Christ!")

None on earth are so near to God, and so high in their communion with God — as humble souls. And as they have the clearest visions of God — so God gives them the fullest sight and knowledge of their own sinfulness and nothingness.

"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear — but now my eye has seen You. Therefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes!" says Job.

In a vision the Lord reveals His glory to the prophet Isaiah, "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!" Oh, the vision that I have had of the glory of God, has given me such a clear and full sight of my own vileness and baseness, that I cannot but loathe and abhor myself!

When Abraham draws near to God, then he accounts himself nothing but dust and ashes! Genesis 18:27.

When Peter saw that glorious miracle wrought by the Lord Jesus, he cries out as one very sensible of his own weakness and sinfulness, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" That is, "a man, a sinner" — a compound of dirt and sin! Ah! I am not worthy to be near such majesty and glory — who am a mere bundle of vice and vanity, of folly and iniquity!

The angels who are near God, who stand before Him, in humility cover their faces with two wings, as with a double scarf, in Isaiah 6:2.