Christlikeness: Humility

In another particular also, is the Savior's character deserving of our notice. He exhibited, in his daily deportment, a very meek, humble, and quiet disposition of mind. Every attentive reader of the Gospels will recollect, that this interesting and beautiful trait shows itself in his personal history, in a very remarkable manner. He said of himself, "I am meek and lowly of heart." In the language of the Apostle Peter, "When he was reviled, he reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him, who judgeth righteously." It was said of him prophetically, and before his advent into the world, "He  was oppressed and afflicted; yet he opened not his mouth."  Isa. 53:7. And again in the same Prophet, "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets." Isa. 42:3. At a certain time, when there was a disposition among some of his disciples to put forth personal pretensions, and to claim the preeminence over others, he remarked to them, "Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant; even as the son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many." Mat. 20:28. But it is hardly necessary to make particular references, when his whole life, in all the varieties of its situation, was a beautiful illustration of this divine trait. He had compassion upon the ignorant, he made his dwelling with the poor; he traveled on foot from place to place in weariness and sorrow; he sat at meat with publicans and sinners; he washed the feet of his disciples. In  the possession of the inestimable trait of meekness and quietness of spirit, let all, who  seek the highest degree of purification and sanctification of heart, be imitators of the example of Jesus Christ; who, in the language of the Apostle Paul, "made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant." Philip. 2:7. Whatever pretensions any of us might justly put forth as natural men or as men of the world, or, in other words, whatever we might justly claim from the world on the world's principles, we should, nevertheless, be willing, in imitation of the blessed Savior's example, to be made of no reputation, and to become the servants of our brethren.

— edited from The Interior or Hidden Life (1844) Part 2, Chapter 13.