1 Corinthians 4:7 For who makes you to differ from another? and what have you that you did not receive? now if you did receive it, why do you glory… Jehan Hering, who was a close observer of ants and their doings, once gave an account of a battle royal which he watched between two of the smallest of the species. It took place on the stem of a leaf; the cause was a scrap of food. The contestants fought until one killed the other. "The victor," says Hering, "then strutted to and fro in view of the other ants. Napoleon could not have been more sure of his own mighty place in creation. 'For me,' he seemed to say, 'was this world made.' The mite was actually inflated with vanity." An observer watching the throng of human beings passing along our crowded thoroughfares, would often be reminded of Hering's ant. So many are the men and women who express in their walk, their manner, their voice, a sense of their own importance. Here is a middle-aged tradesman who has just driven a sharp bargain; there is a schoolboy who ran a winning race last week; yonder is a young man who is pushing his way successfully into business or into fashionable society, and here comes a young girl whose only claim to distinction is a new hat. These are not strong proofs of superiority to the swarming millions of people on the earth. Yet these men and women bear themselves as if, like the ant, each of them thought, "This world was made for me!" Theodore Hook, viewing a vain member of his college strutting along in cap and gown, approached presently, and. timidly demanded, "If you please, sir, are you anybody in particular?" How many of us, when most secure in our vanity, could stand that probing question? The men and women who have real work in life as a rule forget themselves, and acquire that total lack of self-consciousness which is the basis of the finest manners. Parallel Verses KJV: For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it? |
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