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Royal Insignia—Blog No. 2
Royal Insignia by E. & L. Harvey focuses on the theme of humility Here is what several saints of the past had to say on this subject:

Archbishop Fénelon: “He who is conscious,” he said, “that he is lowering himself has not yet reached his true place, which is below all lowering. Such as these are very proud in their humility, which, indeed, is often but a subtle spirit of vain glory. And this is not the humility which will enter into Heaven, unless it acquires pure charity, which alone is worthy of God, and which He delights to fill with Himself.


“They who are really thus filled never feel either humbled or lowered, for they count themselves as below all humiliation. Before they could humble themselves, they must rise from whence they are, and they would not leave that place to which
God has called them. They are not humbled by men’s contempt or condemnation, neither do they triumph in any applause, for neither concerns them. They think that One only, in taking upon Him the nature of man, humbled Himself.” (p. 10).

Patricia St. John:

“My Master has an elixir that turns
All base and worthless substances to gold.
From rubble stones He fashions palaces
Most beautiful and stately to behold.
He garners with a craftsman’s skilful care
All that we break, and weeping cast away.
His eyes see uncut opals in the rock
And shapely vessels in our trampled clay.
The sum of life’s lost opportunities,
The broken friendships, and the wasted years,
These are His raw materials; His hands
Rest on the fragments, weld them with His tears.

“A patient Alchemist!—He bides His time,
Broods while the South winds breathe, the North winds blow,
And weary self, at enmity with self,
Works out its own destruction, bitter slow.
Then when our dreams have dwindled into smoke,
Our gallant highways petered out in mire,
Our airy castles crumbled into dust,
Leaving us stripped of all save fierce desire,
He comes, with feet deliberate and slow,
Who counts a contrite heart His sacrifice.

“(No other bidders rise to stake their claims
He only on our ruins sets a price).
And stooping very low engraves with care
His Name, indelible, upon our dust;
And from the ashes of our self-despair
Kindles a flame of hope and humble trust.
He seeks no second site on which to build,
But on the old foundation, stone by stone,
Cementing sad experience with grace,
Fashions a stronger temple of His own.”
—Used by permission. (p. 18).

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

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