Sentence Sermons (Christian Inspiration) #98 --- Pride

Ambition properly regulated is a good thing, but ambition improperly regulated is dangerous. The peril lies in promoting oneself rather than promoting the Master. ...

It is exasperating to see people sulk and sour if they are not made president of the organization, or chairman of one of its most important committees. People who will not work unless they can head theŠ organization ought to be left out of the organization.

People seem more interested in promoting their own positions than in promoting the Kingdom of God.

Jesus gave such a self-seeking spirit a just rebuke:

If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all and servant of all.

Self-seeking on the part of the disciples was disgusting to the Master. Oh, for the day when the office will seek the man rather than the man seek the office in the religious realm! Wire-pulling ecclesiasts often are more contemptible than wire-pulling politicians. ...

What constitutes greatness? It is not the office you hold but how well you do your work. Let the man honor the office rather than the office honor the man.

We reach the height of greatness by serving rather than by campaigning for promotion. Greatness consists in serving the most helpless, the most easily wronged, and those most likely to be neglected.

---William M. Woodfin, Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa., April 22, 1933.

Pride is a blind passion. ... Pride alienates one from the sympathy and love of others. No one can love a selfishly proud person. It blinds the eyes to the real conditions around, and its victim is in the clutches of Satan ere he is aware. It is a great weakness. The self-sufficient scholar "who knows it all" is not teachable. Pride alienates one from God, for there is no way of approach to Him except through humility. Jesus was the humblest man the world has ever known. It was pride that caused the apostasy of Satan from the high standing of an arch-angel of God down to the open enemy of all righteousness.

---Charles T. Alexander, The Baptist Chronicle, Alexandria, La., May 4, 1911.

Pride crucifies the diviner impulses of our nature, and bars the doorway to true wisdom.

---William M. Anderson, Sr., Christian Observer, Louisville, Ky., May 27, 1896.

Pride, or self-exaltation, is the opposite of humility. It is never attractive to us in anybody, and certainly is no indicates a wrong conception of life and its opportunities, and improper, unjust appreciation of its duties and privileges, a narrowness of mind, and shallowness of heart that are to be condemned.

---William M. Anderson, Sr., Christian Observer, Louisville, Ky., May 27, 1896.

Pride is usually the cause of all great mistakes.

---William M. Anderson, Sr., Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, April 24, 1921.

Pride is the morbid overestimate of self; moral auto-infection.

---Frank Crane, The Chicago Daily News, Chicago, Ill., Aug. 28, 1916.

Snobbery is a manifestation of pride by those who are not sure of their position and is proof that they are unworthy of it.

---H.W. Knickerbocker, Houston Post-Dispatch, Houston, Texas, Feb. 25, 1929.

Pride is an opiate that takes away the pain of our imperfections.

---H.W. Knickerbocker, Houston Post-Dispatch, Houston, Texas, May 25, 1931.

Pride is a large impediment to progress in knowledge. Under the influence of this passion, men seek honor but not truth. They do not cultivate what is most valuable in reality, but what is most valuable in opinion.

---H.W. Knickerbocker, Houston Post, Houston, Texas, April 11, 1932.

Some people have such an exalted idea of themselves that they think God will let them into heaven on personal grounds.

---F.M. McConnell, Baptist Standard, Dallas, Texas, Oct. 25, 1900.

---The "big head" is simply a cancerous condition of the introspection.

---W.A. MacKenzie, Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla., Oct. 3, 1923.

Some people shout about their importance so loudly that when opportunity calls they think it's onlyŠ an echo and fail to answer.

---W.A. MacKenzie, Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville, Fla., Dec. 25, 1923.

One can always elevate his position by lowering his pride.

---Dewey O. Miller, Wesleyan Young People's Journal, Syracuse, N.Y., February 1942.

When Satan can get one to pat himself on the back it is a spiritual death-blow.

---Dewey O. Miller, The Wesleyan Youth, Marion, Ind., November 1962.

Pride is a dark curtain over our spiritual eyes, shutting out the glory of the finer things of life.

---Ransom P. Nichols, Salt Lake Herald-Republican, Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 6, 1911.

Pride is the most grievous of all sins, because it exceeds them all; in that turning away from God it commits the crowning constituent of all transgression.

---Ernest C. Wareing, Western Christian Advocate, Cincinnati, Ohio, April 22, 1926.

We were stopped by a traffic jam where the railroad went over a highway. Two traffic officers were on hand trying to straighten out the tangle. The trouble was caused by a truck load of hay being too high to go under the overpass and it was stuck and so was traffic. The warning sign on top of that overpass was very plain giving the height, the exact height, from the road level to the top. No driver could say he wasn't warned, but this driver was too ambitious and loaded his truck too high.

Here is a parable. A too ambitious man who will not respect the signs along the highway of human progress cannot only get himself in a jam but he can snarl traffic. Little men can sometimes get their heads too high in the air. There is nothing which ties up the traffic of progress like a thoughtless and cocky leader.

Men of small minds often get boosted into high places and their new position inflates their ego and they snarl the traffic. It is difficult for social progress to bypass an opinionated little man whose high hat has got fast in the low places. After all, it is the meek who inherit the earth. After all, humility is the true sign of greatness. After all, truly great people do not stand between us and the sun. The man who walks humbly before God is a safe man to lead the procession.

We like high-mindedness but not "high-hattedness." We like self-respect but not false pride. They do society no service who think that they can pile their selfish ambitions so high that they cannot travel the usual highways of life without obstructing the traffic of regular travelers. They endanger the sound sense of society who think they are not subject to the safe and sane rules of life. We who walk the pathway of progress must beware of too tall a feature in our caps.

P.S. A sure way to get a vehicle out of a tight place is to take the air out of the tires.

---Floyd Poe, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, Nov. 26, 1948.

Snobbering is a superficial superiority. It is a pretension to possession what we do not have. It is pride in something which is not real. There seems to be in insatiable appetite for boosting our own stock on the "prominency market," ... [to] connect [one's] name in some close way with a "distinguished merchant," "prominent lawyer," "influential banker," "wealthy banker," "wealthy oilman," "widely heralded artist or actor." It would be a better indication of true worth if we should often say, "a little child said," "in talking with the milk man," "the clerk in the store told me," "the taxi driver thought."

Do not misunderstand me. There is just as much snobbery and false pride in thumbing our noses at important people as in ignoring humble folks.

It is a source of great strength to me to know that many prominent men and women are my personal friends, but it is a still greater satisfaction to me to know that there are many, many children, women and men whose names never make the front page who love me and believe in me.

---Floyd Poe, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, March 2, 1951.

"Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." (1 Corinthians 13:4.) As love does not begrudge the gifts of others, so it is not eager to show off its own. It is not inflated with self-conceit; it is no boaster, no booster of its own moral wares. Love is not swaggerish, noisy, opinionated. It is not a braggart, nor the hero of its own stories. It does not seek admiration and applause. It is not fond of display nor does it partake of the spirit suggested by the pompous gait of the strutting peacock. From such bad taste andŠ moral indecency love is clear.

---Samuel Judson Porter, Baptist Standard, Dallas, Texas, June 22, 1916.

Some persons are very desirous that all their good deeds shall be known. If they should do anything praiseworthy, unless other people knew it, they would have but little pleasure. ... Guard against this feeling. Do not seek for the praise of men or their glory. And if you can do a deed that is praiseworthy, take no pains to have others see you do it, or to have them hear of your doing it. Do not hesitate to do good because what you do will not be seen. God sees you, and you will not fail to get your reward from Him. Have faith in God and in His power and godliness. Remember that the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.

---George Q. Cannon, Juvenile Instructor, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 1, 1867.

Do you have an undue sense of your own superiority? If so, you had better have your attitudes checked by someone who knows, and who can be trusted!

The growth of pride leads to personal elimination. The more pride grows, the sooner you will be out of circulation. It's a decoy. In its growing time, it is accompanied by gratifying self-praise, the end of which is destruction!

Ingrown pride is spoken of in the Bible as a chain that binds. Pride places self before every door that opens, and thereby thwarting freedom of entrance.

Did you ever know anyone who could not see an idea or a great cause, for looking at himself? If you have, then you have seen someone whose "haughty spirit goes before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18.) This is a warning to any who have a high look and a proud heart!

The Bible has been so clear in evaluating personality that its advice has never been questioned. But when it comes to accepting that advice, it seems so necessary--and also interesting to apply it to the other fellow!

So many times, the "proud heart" is apparently unconscious of his destruction.

What a fine gesture toward self-preservation in this world of seeking humans, if occasionally we could stand aside and watch ourselves go by!

"Take heed while you stand lest you fall!" means self-examination. But, how uninteresting one's self, when one would much prefer stimulating one's ego by throwing epithets at another!

Conceit is God's gift to little men! Humility is the result of experience sprinkled with wisdom!

---Carlysle H. Holcomb, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, Feb. 14, 1952.

Pride is one of the first and most subtle sins of the old life. ... Pride must be conquered before one is qualified to serve the meek and lowly Christ. A haughty, stubborn disposition makes it impossible to please God.

---J.B. Hunley, Christian Standard, Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 6, 1940.

Man's greatest earthly creation may be insignificant the spiritual glory of the God he worships, but he must give expression of the love of God within him in so far as lies within his power.

Man must, though, avoid that ever-present danger of forgetting, as he contemplates the church of his building, that the true church cannot be seen by mortal eyes, that all man can create is but the evidence of something that can be witnessed only by the eye of faith.

Too many churches, in the past, have permitted themselves to become blind to the real truth because they have looked only upon the worldly wealth in buildings and in possessions they have accumulated and built.

Too many ... have come to ignore the eternal truths of the Sermon on the Mount as they permitted pride in their own theologies, rituals or customs to close their eyes to the reality of which these things are but the testimony.

In years of sorrow and tragedy man draws nearer to the truth, learns to know his God better than he can in the easy days of peace and of plenty.

And so we must guard, as we try to build our longed-for better world, against permitting and obscuration of the truth of the spirit by the pride we shall feel in our material possessions. ...

Let us ... always remember that the prayer of a man who knows his God, even though that prayer arises from a broken shanty or a windy cave, is of more avail than all the orisons which may arise from the pulpits of all the million-dollar churches where the one who prays is lost in the pride of his surroundings and appearance.

---Ralph T. Jones, The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Ga., Jan. 2, 1944.

Some will run into debt to gratify pride, and they will really rob themselves and their creditors just to keep up with this fanciful thing called fashion. ... Let us abide by what God has given us and be content therewith; and if we really want more let us make a little extra exertion, and before we spend money let us earn it. ... A little economy and self-denial would relieve us very much from the embarrassment and encumbrance. I believe the good book says, Except a man shall deny himself, take up his cross and follow me he cannot be my disciple. Do we seek to deny ourselves or to gratify ourselves? Which is the greatest labor, to gratify or to deny ourselves? I will tell you that if we would bestow as much labor in denying ourselves as we do in gratifying ourselves we should feel better and should be happier, and the heavens would plead our cause more effectively. How comfortable a man feels when he can say to himself, Though I have but little, thank God I do not owe anybody anything. ... I believe that if we will ... be honest and really pay our debts and obligations, we have no great reason to fear anything injurious proceeding from any quarter.

---Orson Hyde, Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, Utah, June 18, 1870.

The man who continually pats himself on the back is liable to break his own arm of accomplishment.

---Gloria Young, Baptist Standard, Dallas, Texas, July 28, 1932.

When a man becomes greater than God in his own estimation, he is the smallest he'll ever become.

---Gloria Young, Baptist Standard, Dallas, Texas, Feb. 11, 1937.