"In order to humble yourself, know yourself.
Know your ignorance; know how very little you know; and that what you know, might still be unknown but for the grace of God.
Know your weakness; that you are not occasionally, and by accident, and by reason of untoward circumstances, weak; but that you are constitutionally weak and helpless, and that in yourself you have not the power to think one good thought, or to do one righteous deed.
Know your sinfulness; that your heart is a fountain of corruption; that with all your attainments in the divine life, you have still in you the elements of every sin that was ever committed.
Know your nothingness; that you have nothing, that you are nothing, and that you can do nothing of yourself.
Know your dependence; that you have been created a dependent being; and that you must for evermore be a dependent being."
— George Bowen (1816–1888) · The White Sadhu of Bombay"In order to humble yourself, know yourself."
— George Bowen · Humility is not a posture adopted. It is the accurate assessment of what you are.✦ The Five Things
Bowen does not instruct the soul to feel humble. He instructs it to see clearly. And the seeing produces the humbling — automatically, without performance, without posture. Five things to know:
Your ignorance — you know almost nothing, and what you know you did not discover alone.
Your weakness — not occasional but constitutional. Deuteronomy 33:25: as your days, so shall your strength be — because you have none of your own.
Your sinfulness — not occasional failure but a fountain of corruption. The nature He knew perfectly before He took it in hand.
Your nothingness — not low self-esteem but accurate theology. Apart from Him, nothing. John 15:5.
Your dependence — the design, not the deficiency. Baker's will that cannot be replenished with less than infinite. The soul was made to need God.
"And whence this knowledge? Not from the book of nature, as it has been called; not from observation of our fellow-creatures; not from philosophy, nor yet from the law; but from the cross of Christ.
It is the knowledge of himself which God gives to a man through Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
The fall of man was a fall into pride. The knowledge which tends to reverse that fall is a knowledge that tends to humble. The knowledge that I am a wretched sinner is not a discovery in which I may pride myself. It is a knowledge of which the cross is the source; let me go to that source of knowledge from time to time."
— George Bowen (1816–1888)✦ The Source of Knowledge
Not self-analysis. Not introspection for its own sake. The cross is the mirror. Standing at the foot of the cross, the soul sees simultaneously what it cost to redeem and what was being redeemed. The price measures the love. The love measures the debt. And the soul that sees both clearly is humbled — not crushed, but freed.
The fall was a fall into pride. The recovery is a descent into humility. And the knowledge that produces this descent does not come from philosophy or observation. It comes from one place: Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
"Humility is a kind of annihilation of self in the sight of God, which is the profoundest form of worship. To be humble is to be happy.
For it is pride that makes the creature miserable. To have a fellow-creature exalted above me, regarded as better than me, given the preference, that is misery; that is, it is misery to the proud man; nay, it is hell. Where there is no pride there is no hell.
Humble yourselves, therefore; humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up; lift you up into the light of the knowledge of God, which is the true and the only paradise."
— George Bowen (1816–1888)"To be humble is to be happy. Where there is no pride there is no hell."
— George Bowen · Pride is the source of misery. Humility is the entrance to paradise."To humble is to be free from pride and yourself. What great freedom is to humble yourself in the sight of the Lord. He shall lift you up."
Freedom through humility. The world says freedom is the absence of submission. Bowen says the opposite — the soul that humbles itself is the soul that is lifted. And the lifting is not reward for performance. It is the natural result of being in the right position. The soul on its knees is higher than the soul on its throne — because the one on its knees is in the light of the knowledge of God, which is the true and the only paradise.
Know Yourself
Ignorance, weakness, sinfulness, nothingness, dependence. Not feelings to adopt but realities to see. The seeing is the humbling. The humbling is the freedom.
The Cross as Mirror
The source of self-knowledge. What it cost to redeem measures the love. What was redeemed measures the debt. Both seen clearly at the foot of the cross.
Lifted into Light
To be humble is to be happy. Where there is no pride there is no hell. He shall lift you up — into the knowledge of God, which is the true and only paradise.