The Secret of Stooping

“That thou shouldest receive him for ever, not now as & servant, but above a servant.’ — Puixem. 165, 16.

PAUL had sent back to his master a runaway slave. The slave had fled to Paul under the belief that the faith which he professed would require the immediate abolition of bondage. Paul knew that society was not ripe for this. What he wanted in the meantime was individual purity, not social revolution. Accordingly, he converted the man and bade him return bearing a letter to his master. In that letter Paul tells the master not to be angry at his temporary loss. He tells him that by this temporary loss he has got a better servant than he ever had before — one who by his runaway escapade has gained an experience which will make him a more valuable helper than in all the days of the past, “more than a servant.” The thought opened up by these words is a very striking one. It was a common view in Paul’s day and is hardly less common in our own, that elevation of mind is unfavourable to service — that a man or woman works best in proportion to the want of intelligence. The spread of education has often been deprecated on this ground. Paul felt this to be a delusion. He felt that the higher the man the lower would he stoop in service. And he felt truly. That which makes a man or woman demur to menial work is not a sense of dignity but the want of it. I have seen a youth object to carry a parcel. “A very proud young man” was the common verdict. Mine was “A very humble young man.” He must have felt that it would take very little to lower him. A Christian is extremely humble just because he has an extremely strong sense of personal dignity. He has learned that his personal dignity consists in stooping — that the thing which makes him a man is the power of sacrifice. The ability to stoop is the only thing he is proud of; it is the mind that was in Christ Jesus, and therefore the mind of royalty. Paul says that the Christian hope “maketh not ashamed.” He does not mean that it makes one feel small, but that it makes one feel big. When a man gets this hope he ceases to believe that any trivial thing can take him down, that any hands soiled in the service of humanity could for a moment rob him of his lineage from the house of God.

My brother, art thou in need of a service which involves stooping. Do not think it is most likely to be given by an inferior nature! ’ It is not the small mind that best does the humble work. Wouldst thou have one to speak in parables to those who are simple. Do not choose him from their own level; bring him from the height! The teacher of beginners must not be a beginner himself; the master alone can break the bread. Not by companionship with other children does thy child grow. It grows by the talk of those above it. Select its governess from the most accomplished, its schoolmaster from the most learned! Think not that an illiterate sick-nurse is the most helpful with her hands! The hands follow the sympathies, and the sympathies depend on the power of imagination. The true sick-nurse must be a poet; she must figure the scenes she stoops to. Hast thou not read that the Son of Man was “crowned with glory and honour that He should taste death for every man.” He stooped by reason of His previous glory; He bent because He was beautiful. It will be ever so. Wouldst thou be served, seek not the slave but the seraph! Ask thy help from the hills! Bring thy needs to the noble! Tell thy wants to the winged angels! Send for thy staff to the stars! Cast thy burden on the beatified Lean thy head on the high! Commit thine errands to the exalted! Heaven will be thy healer. The Son of Man will be thy minister. The crowned heads will bear thy cross. Thy troubles may come from the ground; but it is the men of the sky that will lift them. Seek thine aid from the heights, O my soul!