The apostle Paul was so humble that he considered himself “less than the least of all saints,” and “the chief of sinners;” and yet God honored and blessed him till he became the most famous and useful of all the apostles.

If we turn from the Bible, and look out into the world around us, we may compare proud people to the tops of the mountains; these are bare and barren, and of little use to the world.  We may compare humble people to the plains and valleys.  These are fertile and beautiful, and are the greatest blessing to the world, in the abundance of grain, and fruit, and other good things which they yield.

And then, if we take notice of what is occurring in the scenes of daily life, we shall meet with incidents continually which furnish us with illustrations of the part of our subject now before us, that God crowns the humble with his blessing.  Let us look at one or two of these illustrations.

“The Little Loaf.”  In a certain part of Germany, some years ago, a famine was prevailing, and many of the people were suffering from hunger.  A kind-hearted rich man sent for twenty of the poorest children in the village where he lived, to come to his house.  As they stood on the porch of his house, he came out to them bringing a large basket in his hand.  He set it down before him and said:  “Children, in this basket there is bread for you all.  Take a loaf, each of you, and come back every day at this hour, till it shall please God to send us better times.”

Then he left the children to themselves and went into the house, but watched them through the window.  The hungry children seized the basket, quarreled and struggled for the bread, because each of them wished to get the best and largest loaf.  Then they went away without ever thanking the good gentleman for his kindness.

But one little girl, named Gretchen, poorly but neatly dressed, remained, humbly standing by, till the rest were gone.  Then she took the last loaf left in the basket, the smallest of the lot.  She looked up to the window where the gentleman stood; smiled at him; threw him a kiss, and made a low curtsey in token of her gratitude, and then went quickly home.

The next day the other children were just as ill-behaved as they had been before, and the timid humble Gretchen received a loaf this time not more than half the size of the one she had on the previous day.  But when she came home, and her poor sick mother cut the loaf open, a number of new silver pieces of money, fell rattling and shining out of it.

Her mother was frightened, and said, “Take the money back at once to the good gentleman; for it must certainly have dropped into the dough by accident.  Be quick Gretchen! be quick!”

But when the little girl came to the good man and gave him her mother’s message, he kindly said, “No, no, my child, it was no mistake.  I had the silver pieces put into the smallest loaf as a reward for you.  Continue to be as humble, peaceable, self-denying, and grateful as you have now shown yourself to be.  A little girl who is humble enough to take the smallest loaf rather than quarrel for the larger ones, will be sure to receive greater blessings from God than if she had silver pieces of money baked in every loaf of bread she ate.  Go home now, and greet your good mother very kindly for me.”  Here we see how God’s blessing attends the humble.