HUMILITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 976, 20 May 1930, Page 14

HUMILITY

REV- WALTER BENTLEY ON CHRISTIAN VIRTUE There was a large attendance last evening at St. Matthew’s Church, when the Rev. Walter Bentley, the Anglo-American evangelist, spoke on the greatest Christian virtue, which he declared to be “Humility.” The greatest people arer the most humble and the ‘ifirst virtue in a great man,” according to Ruskin, “is his humility.” Our Lord, said the speaker, was meek and lowly in heart. He stooped to the lowest to lift them to the highest. He was born in a stable instead of a palace, reared in a carpenter’s shop in place of a king’s chamber and His throne was the Cross. His whole life, teachings and actions were characterised by this virtue. When the great Augustine was asked which was the greatest virtue he replied, “Humility.” What is the next? “Humility.” What is the third? “Humility.” ' God through nature teaches the same truth. The more important a man becomes in his own sight the less approachable he is and the less useful to society. Shakespeare hit the nail on the head when he said, “The fool thinks he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.” Napoleon swept the world in his thirst for glory and was finally caged on a little isle in the Atlantic. The Kaiser “tried the same game and had to sneak as a fugitive into neutral Holland for safety. What makes Lincoln so great but his deep humility? the speaker asked. His name is the synonym for the highest and best, and Britain honours him as much as his native land. MODEST YOUNG MAN Lindberg conquered the Atlantic, carrying leters of introduction, and when he arrived in Paris found the world at his feet. Admiral Byrd is a bashful and modest young man and equally hates publicity. “Your Governor-General is the greatest gentleman in the Dominion because he is the humblest and most lovable, as I have every reason to know,” said Mr. Bentley. “The truly high-minded people are the humble, for in everyone they meet they look for the good points they may emulate rather than the bad, which they ignore. The uppish, self-important who look down on others and contrast them to their own advantage are ' essentially vulgar—the only true barbarians left in society.” Humility is the greatest virtue because it is truth in action and without this trait as the groundwork of life we cannot get anywhere either in religion or any other sphere, the speaker concluded. Tonight at 7.30 Mr. Bentley will speak on the two next greatest virtues —Gratitude and Forgiveness—and all questions submitted will be answered.