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William Wilberforce (1759- 1833)
The reality is that our humility grows in proportion to our growth in grace. Humility is in fact essential to Christianity; it is the quality that makes our faith live and thrive from beginning to end. When our humility grows, our faith will also flourish; but when our humility begins to fail, so will our faith. Humility allows us to accept the gospel's offers; it is the foundation of all our feelings and conduct, and is at the root of all our relationships, with God and with our fellow creatures and with ourselves. When one day we finally reach the realms of glory, our humility will be undiminished. On that day, we will fall down and cast our crowns before the Lamb; and ascribe blessing, and honor, and glory, and power to him that sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever.
Oh God, may You fill our hearts with true contrition, abiding humility, firm resolution in holiness, and love to You and to our fellow-creatures. God, your perfect purity allows you to see in us far more stains than we can see; what is more, in Your eyes they look larger and blacker than we can perceive. When we look at ourselves, we are most apt to have a deep impression of only our most recent and obvious sins. Many individual acts of selfishness smite us with remorse when we first commit them, but as the months and years go by, we forget our shame.
Time numbs our conscience, and our memories retain only a faint trace of our sins. We may no longer particularly remember the circumstances of these sins--we may only have a vague recollection of shame and embarrassment--but You will see them in all their original depth of coloring. To your pure eyes, this guilt will always appear far greater than it does to us. For You there is no past or future; whatever has been is retained in Your mind with eternal and unchanging endurance, just as though it had first happened.
Such thoughts should humble us in Your sight, for unless our offenses have been blotted out by Christ, through our repentance and living faith, we will appear before You clothed in the sins of an entire lifetime. Our hearts are so hard, our blindness so great, that we cannot get a due hatred of sin. Truly, Lord, we are wretched, and miserable, and blind, and naked. What infinite love, that Christ should die to save such sinners, and how necessary it is You should save us altogether, that we may appear before You with nothing of our own! Pride is our greatest stumbling block.
Your only-begotten Son became a human being and was crucified for us. When we have an accurate picture of our guilt after looking at the high price that was required to atone for it, and how much our souls must be worth to Jesus, we are nearly overwhelmed with mixed emotions of guilt and fear, shame and remorse and sorrow, unless our hearts have become numb and cold. When we think how rude and inconsiderate we have been toward You, and we reflect on the amazing love and compassion of Christ, we cry out in the words of the Publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner.”
We throw ourselves completely on Your undeserved mercy. You are full of love, and You will never reject us. We surrender ourselves into Your hands and solemnly resolve, through Your grace, to dedicate from now on all our abilities and powers to Your service. At this time, when war and tumult are at hand, may we serve You and fear nothing. May we boldly walk in Your might, and sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land. May we grow in humility, peace, and love, in meekness, holy courage, self-denial, active exertion, and discreet zeal. Amen.
