Precept & Practice – MAY 4 – Self-deception

The next ingredient of humbleness is, that a man must have a right estimate of himself.   There is a vast amount of self-deception on this point.   We say of ourselves that which we could not bear others to say of us.   A man truly humbled would take it only as his due when others treated him in the way that he says that he deserves.   But, my brethren, we kneel in our closets in shame for what we are, and we tell our God that the lowest place is too good for us:  and then we go into the world, and if we meet with slight or disrespect, or if our opinion be not attended to, or if another be preferred before us, there is all the anguish of a galled and jealous spirit, and half the bitterness of our lives comes from this, that we are smarting from what we call the wrongs and the neglect of men.   My beloved brethren, if we saw ourselves as God sees us, we should be willing to be anywhere, to be silent when others speak, to be passed by in the world’s crowd, and thrust aside to make way for others.

The Reverend F. W. Robertson

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW