True Greatness
I had a good friend who preserved the axle of the cart in which he wheeled home his goods when he first came to London. It was placed over his front door, and he never blushed to tell how he came up from the country, worked hard, and made his way in the world. I like this a deal better than the affected gentleness which forgets the lone half-wit which worked in solitude with nothing in their pockets when they entered this city.
They are indignant if you remind them of their poor old father in the country, for they have discovered that the family is very ancient and honorable; in fact, one of their ancestors came over with the Conqueror. I have never felt any wish to be related to that set of vagabonds; but tastes differ, and there are some who think that they must be superior beings because they are descended from aristocrats.
Nobodies suddenly swell as if they were everybody. Observe that Jacob does not say, “Years ago I was at home with my father Isaac, a man of large estate.” Nor does he talk of his grandfather Abraham as a nobleman of an ancient family in Ur of the Chaldees, who was entertained by kings. No, he was not so silly as to boast of aristocracy and wealth, but he frankly owns his early poverty:—“With my staff, a poor, lonely, friendless man, I crossed this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.” It humbles him to think of what he was, but at the same time it strengthens him in prayer; for in effect he pleads “Lord, hast thou made two bands of me that Esau may have the more to destroy? Hast thou given me these children that they may fall by the sword?” So again I say, that which humbled also encouraged him: he found his strength in prayer in those very things which furnished motives for lowliness.
—C. H. Spurgeon
They are indignant if you remind them of their poor old father in the country, for they have discovered that the family is very ancient and honorable; in fact, one of their ancestors came over with the Conqueror. I have never felt any wish to be related to that set of vagabonds; but tastes differ, and there are some who think that they must be superior beings because they are descended from aristocrats.
Nobodies suddenly swell as if they were everybody. Observe that Jacob does not say, “Years ago I was at home with my father Isaac, a man of large estate.” Nor does he talk of his grandfather Abraham as a nobleman of an ancient family in Ur of the Chaldees, who was entertained by kings. No, he was not so silly as to boast of aristocracy and wealth, but he frankly owns his early poverty:—“With my staff, a poor, lonely, friendless man, I crossed this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.” It humbles him to think of what he was, but at the same time it strengthens him in prayer; for in effect he pleads “Lord, hast thou made two bands of me that Esau may have the more to destroy? Hast thou given me these children that they may fall by the sword?” So again I say, that which humbled also encouraged him: he found his strength in prayer in those very things which furnished motives for lowliness.
—C. H. Spurgeon
