We have an account of this lesson in St. John xiii:  4-15.  It is taught us in these words:—­“He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girdled himself.  After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash his disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.”  Then occurs the incident about the objection which Peter made to letting Jesus wash his feet, and the way in which that objection was overcome.  And then the story goes on thus:—­“So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, ’Know ye what I have done unto you?  Ye call me Master, and Lord; and ye say well; for so I am.  If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye ought also to wash one another’s feet.  For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.’”

This was a very surprising scene.  How astonished the angels must have been when they looked upon it!  They had known Jesus in heaven, before he took upon him our nature, and came into this fallen world.  They had seen him in “the glory which he had with the Father, before the world was.”  They had worshipped him in the midst of all that glory.  And then, when they saw him, girded with a towel and washing the feet of poor sinful men whom he came from heaven to save, how surprising it must have seemed to them!  And when Jesus told his disciples that his object in doing this was to set them an example, that they should do as he had done to them, he did not mean that they should literally make a practice of washing each other’s feet; but that they should show the same humility to others that he had shown to them, by being willing to do anything, however humble it might be, in order to promote their comfort and happiness.  It is not the act itself, here spoken of, that Jesus teaches us to do; but the spirit of humility in which the act was performed that he teaches us to cultivate.  We might go through the form of washing the feet of other persons, and yet feel proud and haughty all the time we were doing it.  Then we should not be following the example of Jesus at all.  When Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, what he wished to teach them, and us, and all his people, is how earnestly he desires us to learn this lesson of humility.  And when we think of the wondrous scene which took place on that occasion, the one thought it should impress on our minds, above all others is—­the importance of humility.

And if any one asks what is meant by humility?  No better answer can be given to this question than we find in Romans xii:  3, where St. Paul tells us “not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to think soberly.”  Pride is “thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.”  Humility is—­not “thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.”  And humility is the lesson we are now to study.  This is the lesson that Jesus wishes all who love him to learn.  It is easy to speak of five reasons why we should learn this lesson.