Its Hard to Hit an Object Near the Ground

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I think it is safe to assume that nearly everyone wishes to be credited for what he or she has accomplished and is often irked when the praise due to them is accorded to someone else.
Edwin and Lillian Harvey, co-authors of the compilation Royal Insignia, have devoted several readings in their book to this subject. The following are quotations from these readings:
“One day a friend of mine, when passing down a Glasgow street, saw a crowd at a shop door, and had the curiosity to look in. There he saw an auctioneer holding up a grand picture so that all could see it. When he got it into position, he remained behind it and said to the crowd, “Now, look at this part of the picture . . . and now at this other part,” and so on, describing each detail of it. Said my friend, “The whole time I was there, I never saw the speaker, but only the picture he was showing.” That is the way to work for Christ.


—Andrew Bonar. p. 170

“It is when we forget ourselves that we do things that are remembered.
—Eugene P. Bertin.” p. 170

“It is our truest happiness to live entirely for the glory of Christ—to separate between ‘I’ and ‘the glory of Christ.’ We are always saying, ‘What have I done? Was it my preaching, my sermon, my influence?’ Whereas we should be asking, ‘What hath God wrought?’”
–Robert Murray McCheyne, p. 173

Henry Venn relates how, in his associations with Mr. Fletcher, he noted how unfeigned was his humility and how spontaneous his hatred of personal gratification. He says: “When I thanked him for two sermons he had one day preached to my people at Huddersfield, he answered as no man ever did to me. With eyes and hands uplifted, he exclaimed, ‘Pardon, pardon, pardon, O my God.’ The words went to my very soul. Great grace was upon this blessed servant of Christ.” p. 154

“One man insists on seeing his fruit, and God gives way to him and lets him have what he seeks; he sees his work prospering in his hands, but, unhappily, it does not endure; there is in the end the bitterness of disappointment. Another asks but one thing—that he may please to the uttermost Him Who has called him to be His servant. He is willing to wait in apparent sterility until God shall give the increase. He knows that God is the Author of all true fruit and has the absolute control of all resources, and can accomplish by the wave of His hand the renovation of the world. Accordingly he puts his seed into the hand of God, sure that, in the best of times, he will see the best of harvests. Let us abide in Christ, bury ourselves in Him, be found in Him. ‘Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.’
—George Bowen p. 156

Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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Revealed Unto Babes

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Childhood often holds a truth with its feeble finger, which the grasp of manhood cannot retain, which it is the pride of utmost age to recover,” says John Ruskin.

“Spiritual childhood is better than natural childhood,” writes Alfred Cookman in the same vein, “for it combines all that is good in a child’s heart with what is valuable in that same heart when matured. The trust may be stronger and more perfect, and purity purer, something much more than the innocence of ignorance.”

Both these quotations on the importance of becoming as little children if we would discover the secret of spiritual fulfillment, are taken from the compilation on humility, Royal Insignia, page 159 The following page contains some stanzas from the poem by Trudy Harvey Tait on the same subject:

The nature of a little child,
I simply could not see
How such a nature ever could
Become a part of me.

The pride of years would never let
My Savior on the Throne,
But crowned me King and kept me where
I reigned, just I alone

This pride, oh, what a horrid thing,
Kept me from bending low,
So through the kingdom’s door, you see,
I simply could not go. . . .

Then, oh the wonder of that day,
I saw what I should do;
I said, “Lord Jesus, I step down
And give the throne to You.”

And so when I by faith obeyed,
A miracle of grace
Within this haughty heart of mine,
That moment did take place. . . .

Now would I, dare I, could I try
Once more the Kingdom’s door?
I longed to, yet it looked so low,
So near unto the floor.

But beckoned by the pierced Hand
Which had removed my sin,
Upon my knees, now weak and small,
A child, I entered in. . . .

And so, diminished as I am,
Stripped of all else but grace,
I live, a trusting little child.
And look upon His face. . . .
—Trudy Tait.
Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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Self Love

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Edwin and Lillian Harvey, authors of the compilation Royal Insignia, included quotations from many authors, preachers, and missionaries who discovered by personal experience that pride is, as J. N. Darby puts it, “the greatest of all evils that beset us. “And,” Darby continues, “of all our enemies it is that which dies the slowest and hardest; even the children of the world are able to discern this. Madam de Stael said on her deathbed, ‘Do you know what is the last to die in man? It is “self-love.”’


“God hates pride above all things because it gives to man the place that belongs to Him Who is above, exalted over all. Pride intercepts communion with God, and draws down His chastisement, for ‘God resisteth the proud.’ Royal Insignia, p. 87.

But not only does Royal Insignia include many warnings regarding the danger of pride, it extols the beauty of being nothing. “If I be content to be nothing,” says R. C. Chapman, “I cannot take offence; and when I am really humble and know myself a worm, I shall not complain if trampled on. Ibid, p. 82

Luther said, “Never are men more unfit than when they think themselves most fit, and best prepared for their duty; never more fit, than when most humbled and ashamed under a sense of their own unfitness.” P. 96

What is all righteousness that men devise?
What, but a sordid bargain for the skies?
But Christ as soon would abdicate His own,
As stoop from Heaven to sell the proud a throne.
—William Cowper. P. 96

Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online Christian Bookstore.

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Deepest Humblings in the Presence of the Highest One

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“As we draw nearer to God,” says Helena Garratt, “and better understand His ways, we learn to make records according to His mind. We begin to count His humiliations, His testings, His chastenings, as our most cherished spiritual experiences. The saint who has had the best year in God’s sight is not the one who has had an easy path, or has achieved the highest success; not the one whose praises filled the lips of men, but the one who has known the deepest humblings in the presence of the Highest One, and who has bowed lowest at His feet. The Lord Jesus said, ‘Whosoever shall humble himself . . . the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’


The above quotation is taken from pages 81-82 in Royal Insignia, written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey. John Newton echoed the same sentiment a few pages further on:
“One great cause of our frequent conflict is that we have a secret desire to be rich, and it is the Lord’s design to make us poor: we want to gain an ability of doing something, and He suits His dispensations to convince us that we can do nothing. We want a stock in ourselves, and He would have us absolutely dependent upon Him. So far as we are content to be weak that His power may be magnified in us, so far shall we make our enemies know that we are strong, though we ourselves shall never be directly sensible that we are so. Only by comparing what we are with the opposition we stand against, we may come to a comfortable conclusion that the Lord worketh mightily in us (Psa. 41:11). Ibid, p. 86

Then learn to scorn the praise of men,
And learn to lose with God;
For Jesus won the world through shame,
And beckons thee His road.
God’s glory is a wondrous thing,
Most strange in all its ways,
And, of all things on earth, least like
What men agree to praise.

As He can endless glory weave
From what men reckon shame,
In His own world He is content
To play a losing game.
—Frederick Faber. Ibid, p. 88
Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online Christian Bookstore.

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Walk as He Walked.

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Royal Insignia, compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, contains many inspiring quotations on varied aspects of humility which, as the title suggests, is the badge of every true believer in Christ. The following excerpts are on the subject of nothingness, a subject none too popular in today’s culture but indispensible, nevertheless, to those of us who strive to follow in our Master’s footsteps.

Thus though worn, and tried, and tempted,
Glorious calling, saint, is thine;
Let the Lord but find thee emptied,
Living branch in Christ, the Vine!
Vessels of the world’s despising,
Vessels weak, and poor, and base,
Bearing wealth God’s heart is prizing,
Glory from Christ’s blessed face.

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Oh to be but emptier, lowlier,
Mean, unnoticed, and unknown,
And to God a vessel holier,
Filled with Christ and Christ alone!
Naught of earth to cloud the glory,
Naught of self the light to dim,
Telling forth His wondrous story,
Emptied, to be filled with Him.
–Paul Gerhardt, Royal Insignia, p. 108

We are nothing unless we abide in God; we can do nothing apart from Christ. We know and admit this as a doctrine, but to realize it as a fact, painful and humbling experience is often needed. But in this lowest humiliation is our true and highest exaltation. God takes all things from us that we may turn again to Him as our sure Portion; He makes us feel our weakness, our poverty, our ignorance, in order that we may return to Him.—Adolph Saphir in The Hidden Life, quoted in Royal Insignia, p. 112

Beware of too sublime a sense
Of your own worth and consequence.
The man who dreams himself so great,
And his importance of such weight,
That all around in all that’s done
Must move and act for him alone,
Will learn in school of tribulation
The folly of his expectation.
—William Cowper. Royal Insignia, p. 114

Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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Royal Insignia, The Low Door of the Cross

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Royal Insignia is a collection of 98 two-page readings on the subject of humility and is compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey. One of these readings is entitled “The low door of the cross,” and contains a poem written by Annie Johnson Flint who was barred from entering her chosen career as a concert pianist by crippling arthritis.

“Oh, straight and narrow is the door,
The little door of loss,
By which we enter in to Christ,
The low door of the Cross:
But when we put away our pride,
And in contrition come,
We find it is the only way
That leads to God and Home.

“Oh, strait and lowly are the doors
By which Christ comes to us;
We bar the entrance gates of joy,
And when He finds them thus,
By strange, small doors of woe and want,
Of trial and of pain,
He enters in to share our lives
To our eternal gain.

“The narrow doors He brings us to,
The little doors and low,
What large rooms they will open on,
If we will only go:
The strange, small doors of work and want,
Strait doors of grief and pain,
What riches they will lead us to!
What everlasting gain!” Royal Insignia, p. 78
In the next reading, “The Door of Destitution,” there is a quotation along the same lines by Oswald Chambers, taken from his book, He Shall Glorify Me:
“We learn to welcome the patience of Jesus only when we get to the point of human destitution. It is not that God will not do anything for us until we get there, but that He cannot. God can do nothing for me if I am sufficient for myself. When we come to the place of destitution spiritually we find the Lord waiting, and saying, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.’ There are hundreds at the place of destitution and they don’t know what they want. If I have been obeying the command of Jesus to ‘go and make disciples’ I know what they want; they want Him. We are so interested in our own spiritual riches that souls are white unto harvest all around us and we don’t reap one for Him.
Some men enter the Kingdom of Heaven through crushing, tragic, overwhelming conviction of sin, but they are not the greatest number; the greatest number enter the Kingdom along this line of spiritual destitution—no power to lay hold of God, no power to do what I ought to do, utterly poverty-stricken.” Royal Insignia, p. 69.

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Humility, Brokenness, Lowliness

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“Is it wrong, the wish to be great?” asks young Willie of his father in George MacDonald’s poem “Willie’s Question. ” The following two stanzas are taken from the end of the poem and summarize the father’s response:
“The Man Who was Lord of fate,
Born in an ox’s stall,
Was great because He was much too great
To care about greatness at all. . . .


“You long to be great; you try;
You feel yourself smaller still;
In the name of God let ambition die;
Let Him make you what He will.”
These stanzas are quoted in the book Royal Insignia, compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, In the same reading, entitled “Disdaining Praise,” the authors have included a quotation by John Elliot, an early settler who became a missionary to the Indians:
“I am come to a conclusion to look for no great matters in the world, but to know Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I make best way in a low gale. A high spirit and a high sail together will be dangerous, and therefore I prepare to live low. I desire not much; I pray against it. My study is my calling, so much as to attend that without distraction. . . . By my secluded retirement I have advantages to observe how every day’s occasions insensibly wear off the heart from God and bury it in itself, which they that ever live in the noise and lumber of the world cannot be sensible of.”
Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online Christian Bookstore.

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Royal Insignia: William Shakespeare and George MacDonald

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The following quotation from Shakespeare’s Henry the Eighth, contains a truth that is reiterated time after time in Scripture:
“His overthrow heaped happiness upon him;
For then, and not till then, he felt himself,
And found the blessedness of being little!”


“The blessedness of being little!” How slow many of us Christians often are in coming to this conclusion. Edwin and Lillian Harvey, authors of the compilation Royal Insignia, have included this quote from Shakespeare in one of their two-page readings which is entitled “Cherished Humblings.” George MacDonald, whose writings greatly influenced C. S. Lewis, has also something to say on this subject:
“I learned that it is better, a thousandfold, for a proud man to fall and be humbled, than to hold up his head in his pride and fancied innocence. I learned that he that will be a hero will barely be a man; that he that will be nothing but a doer of his work is sure of his manhood. In nothing was my ideal lowered, or dimmed, or grown less precious; I only saw it too plainly to set myself for a moment beside it. Indeed, my ideal soon became my life; whereas, formerly, my life had consisted in a vain attempt to behold, if not my ideal in myself, at least myself in my ideal.” (Royal Insignia, p. 82.)

Royal Insignia is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online Christian Bookstore.

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The Venom of Pride, A little push downwards

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“He that is down needs fear no fall;
He that is low no pride;
He that is humble, ever shall
Have God to be his guide.”
—John Bunyan. Royal Insignia, p. 66


Many Christians will be familiar with these famous lines written by John Bunyan. Edwin and Lillian Harvey have included them in Royal Insignia, their compilation on humility, in the reading entitled “A little push downwards.” In the same reading they have included an epitaph written by William Cowper for his friend, Hooker:
“He that lay so long obscurely low,
Doth now preferred to greater honors go.
Ambitious men, learn hence to be more wise,
Humility is the true way to rise:
And God in me this lesson did inspire,
To bid this humble man, ‘Friend, sit up higher.’”
–William Cowper. Royal Insignia, p. 66

“In all the copious language of the Greeks,” says John Wesley, “there was not one word for humility till it was made by the great Apostle Paul. The whole Roman language, even with all the improvements of the Augustan age, does not afford so much as a name for humility.”—Royal Insignia, p. 69/em>

The above quote was taken from a reading entitled “The Venom of Pride.” In the same reading we have the following comment by Spurgeon on this “venom.” “There never was a saint yet that grew proud of his fine feathers, but what the Lord plucked them out by and by. There never yet was an angel that had pride in his heart, but he lost his wings and fell in Gehenna, as Satan and those fallen angels did. And there never shall be a saint who indulges self-conceit and pride and self-confidence, but the Lord will spoil his glories and trample his honors in the mire.”
—Royal Insignia, p. 69

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More truths from Zinzendorf

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“During the eight years that I labored in the Church as a lay catechist,” he Writes in 1735, “I never attempted expressly to interpret the Scriptures—that is to say, to positively declare that an apostle or a prophet meant to say such and such a thing when the matter was not so clear that every one, whether a Christian or not, would understand it in the same sense.

I confined myself, therefore, to well-known and incontestable truths, and this has always succeeded best with me. Indeed, although I was well aware that knowledge is not the essential thing, and although I had learnt fairly well to distinguish in theological principles those which are certain from those which are probable, and from those which are corollaries from both. I was, nevertheless, exceedingly afraid of falling into the slightest error, for I knew what influence it might have upon the will.
“Moreover, I regarded it as an extreme happiness not to fall into error myself or to lead others astray. By the grace of God, and by keeping to essential and fundamental and clearly and repeatedly revealed truths, this is not so difficult as one might suppose.”
—Published by, Harvey Christian Publishers Inc.
Obtainable at: www.harveycp.com

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