And the first reason for learning it is—­the COMMAND—­of Jesus.

When he had finished washing his disciples’ feet, he told them that “they should do as he had done to them.”  This was his command to his disciples, and to us, to learn the lesson of humility.  And this is not the only place in which Jesus taught this lesson.  He gave some of his beautiful parables to teach humility.  We find one of these in St. Luke xiv:  7-12.

On one occasion when he saw the people all pressing forward to get the best seats for themselves at a feast, he took the opportunity of giving his disciples a lesson about humility.  He told them, when they were bidden to a wedding feast, not to take the highest seats; because some more honorable person might be bidden, and when the master of the feast came in he might say to them ’let this man have that seat, and you go and take a lower seat’; then they would feel mortified, and ashamed.  And then he gave his disciples this command:  “When thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room,” or seat; “that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher:  then shalt thou have worship”—­or honor—­“in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.”  Here we have Jesus repeating his command to all his people to learn and practise the lesson of humility.

And then we have another of our Saviour’s parables in which he taught this same lesson of humility, and that is the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.  We find it in St. Luke xviii:  10-15.  The parable reads thus:  “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.  The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ’God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.  I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.’” Here we have a picture of a proud man.  He pretended to pray, but asked for nothing, because he did not feel his need of anything.  And so his pretended prayer brought him no blessing.

And then in the rest of the parable we have our Saviour’s description of a man who was learning the lesson of humility, and of the blessing which it brought to him.

Here is a story told by one of our missionaries of the way in which this parable brought a heathen man to Christ.

“That’s Me.”  A poor Hottentot in Southern Africa lived with a Dutch farmer, who was a good Christian man, and kept up family prayer in his home.  One day, at their family worship he read this parable.  He began, “Two men went up into the temple to pray.”  The poor savage, who had been led to feel himself a sinner, and was anxious for the salvation of his soul, looked earnestly at the reader, and whispered to himself, “Now I’ll learn how to pray.”  The farmer read on, “God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are.”  “No, I am not,” whispered the Hottentot, “but I’m worse.”  Again the farmer read, “I fast twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I possess.”  “I don’t do that.  I don’t pray in that way.  What shall I do?” said the distressed savage.