The Master said, "I am meek and lowly in heart." and St. Paul admonished the church at Philippi, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." Very different from this is the serpent's argument, "Ye shall be as gods," tempting mortals to exalt self and abase the divine idea, while the one who was greatest of all made himself the servant of humanity, and in his boundless love and compassion for sinners, by which he saved them from their sins, he calls us his "brethren"! At the last supper with his disciples,— to show that any lowly act of service to another is God's service, and is an expression of true humility and unselfishness,—Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. He thus taught that through meekness, lowliness of heart and deeds of unselfish love, they should serve and help each other and all mankind. He stooped to their plane of thought that they might be cleansed from all sense of sin, and that they might reflect the divine Mind and nature thus being lifted nearer his own spiritual heights. As an expression of his matchless love for humanity, his self-sacrifice, he became the servant of all working for and saving all mankind. He made nothing of self, and all of God, serving Him unceasingly.
Mary Magdalene, by her lowly act of humble love acknowledging and repenting her sins, and recognizing Christ's spiritual ascendency, gained the forgiveness and obliteration of those sins, her own salvation, and her Lord’s everlasting favor and approval! She washed his feet with her tears; bowed her head in anguish and meek repentance, her sins made clear to her by the presence of the sinless one,— the illuminating Christ. Truth revealed to her the unreality and powerlessness of the sin in which she had believed and by which she had been deceived. Tenderly she kissed the feet of the Master, as an expression of her penitence and humble love, and rose up from the bondage in which she had been held, purified, redeemed through Christ’s saving love and her own lowly act of humility and repentance.
We thus learn two great lessons,— that the humblest deed is glorified when prompted by love for our brother, and that in the forgiveness of sin repentance and reformation are essential factors. First, we must see and acknowledge error in ourselves, then, in the strength of that Life which is "the light of men," we must realize its nothingness, cast it out, and rise into that divine consciousness which is superior to the belief in evil, thus proving that we cannot be held in bondage by its chains! In this way do we win our Saviour's approval, and with it the great and glorious gift of his love. Through reformation alone are our sins, which are many, forgiven, wiped out, for like Mary we shall have loved Christ well enough to forsake all sense of sin for him, and thereafter to follow him faithfully! The wise man said, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." It requires great Christian grace and lowliness of heart to acknowledge, or confess, one's sins, for by so doing one acknowledges the nothingness of the self that claims it can sin, and the allness of God, good, divine Love, in whom is no sin! All true lowliness of heart means the exaltation of the divine Principle, Love! Thus self disappears and unselfish love takes its place!
