CHAPTER VIII.

THE STRIFE OF THE TRULY HUMBLE AGAINST VAIN GLORY AND SELF-LOVE.

DESPISE the favours and the praise of men. Desire not greatly to please nor fear to displease any one: 20study, however, to live so as to please all good men who truly love God. If God has denied thee beauty of form, acuteness of intellect, or the grace of eloquence, be not ashamed on that account, Nor be ashamed of such meanness of exterior as God and thy condition require; but he greatly ashamed of sin alone. Let those things only, I say, distress thee, which are contrary to the honour of God and the salvation of souls; although the true servant of God ought not to neglect a reasonable propriety of manners.

When thou art about to do any work of importance, if the desire of human favour assails thy heart, continue not thus the work; but, changing thy intention, desire to serve and to please God by what thou art doing; and so if the beginning or even the middle of the work has been corrupt, the end will be whole and undefiled. However praiseworthy may have been thy performance of the work, however much thy soul may be tempted by the solicitations of vain-glory; do thou oppose by thy reason the enticements of this evil passion, and, as far as lies in thee, keep thy mind free and tranquil. Imagine thyself to have put on the person of another, and that it was done not by thee but by some one else. Ascribe to God all that is good and worthy of praise.

Learn to listen with a patient and willing mind to those who point out to thee thy faults: esteeming their judgment to be more correct when they reprove thee, than thy own when thou excusest thyself. O that thou wert no more moved by just praises or unjust 21reproofs than if they were not spoken of thyself! thou wouldst ascribe the first to God, and impute the last to thyself, committing them to God. O that thou wouldst rather suffer contumely than receive praise! for it is safer and more useful to thee; unless thou wishest not that thou thyself be praised, but that God be praised in thee.

No doubt he who is truly humble wishes rather to be thought vile and abject, than humble and holy. For since he acknowledges himself before God to be a useless, unworthy, and ungrateful sinner; he desires not to seem other before men. When thou art justly reproached, humble thyself; be ready to correct whatever faults are in thee: and commending the rest to the divine care, remain at peace.

If thou hast rested thy peace of mind on the words of men, and not on the testimony of thy conscience and on thy God, thou wilt easily lose it, and be troubled. Let men have what opinion they will of thee; let it be enough for thee that thou art pleasing to Him who is “the searcher of hearts and reins” (Psalm vii. 10; Wisdom i. 6; Rum. viii. 27). Nevertheless, after the example of the Apostle St. Paul, “provide” good things not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men (Rom. xii. 17).