hes itself? Because, I presume, pride is begotten and born of
a lie, and God hates a lie, because all lies lead to ruin, and this lie
of pride above all. It is as it were the root lie of all lies. The very
lie by which, as old tales tell, Satan fell from heaven, and when he
tried to become a god in his own right, found himself, to his surprise
and disappointment, only a devil. For pride and self-conceit contradict
the original constitution of man and the universe, which is this--that of
God are all things, and in God are all things, and for God are all
things. Man depends on God. Self tells him that he depends on himself.
Man has nothing but what he receives from God. Self tells him that what
he has is his own, and that he has a right to do with it what he likes.
Man knows nothing but what God teaches him. Self tells him that he has
found out everything for himself, and can say what he thinks fit without
fear of God or man. Therefore the proud, self-willed, self-conceited man
must come to harm, like Malvolio in the famous play, merely because he is
in the blackest night of ignorance. He has mistaken who he is, what he
is, where he is. He is fancying himself, as many mad men do, the centre
of the universe; while God is the centre of the universe. He is just as
certain to come to harm as a man would be on board a ship, who should
fancy that he himself, and not the ship, was keeping him afloat, and step
overboard to walk upon the sea. We all know what would happen to that
man. Let us thank God our Father that He not only knows what would
happen to such men: but desires to save them from the consequences of
their own folly, by letting them feel the consequences of their own
folly.

Oh my friends, let us search our hearts, and pray to our Father in Heaven
to take out of them, by whatever painful means, the poisonous root of
pride, self-conceit, self-will. So only shall we be truly strong--truly
wise. So only shall we see what and where we are.

Do we pride ourselves on being something? Shall we pride ourselves on
health and strength? A tile falling off the roof, a little powder and
lead in the hands of a careless child, can blast us out of this world in
a moment--whither, who can tell? What is our cleverness--our strength of
mind? A tiny blood vessel bursting on the brain, will make us in one
moment paralytic, helpless, babblers, and idiots. What is our knowledge
of th