The Destroyer!

The Destroyer! Spurgeon, "PRIDE THE DESTROYER" Pride may be set down as 'the sin' of human nature. If there is a sin that is universal, it is pride. Where is it not to be found? Hunt among the highest and loftiest in the world, and you shall find it there; and then go and search among the poorest and the most miserable, and you shall find it there. There may be as much pride inside a beggar's rags as in a prince's robe; and a harlot may be as proud as a model of chastity. Pride is a strange creature; it never objects to its lodgings. It will live comfortably enough in a palace, and it will live equally at its ease in a hovel. Is there any man in whose heart pride does not lurk? When we fancy that we have escaped from pride, it is only because we have lost the sense of its weight through being surrounded with it. He who lives in pride up to the neck, nay, he who is over head and heels in pride, is the most likely to imagine that he is not proud at all. Even in people who do know the Lord, see what relics of pride there will often be. Remember what John Bunyan said on one occasion; after he had done preaching, a brother came to him, and said, "You have preached an admirable sermon." "Ah!" said Bunyan, "you are too late; the devil told me that before I got down the pulpit stairs." There was one who used to say that he was not half so much afraid of his sins, as he was of what he conceived to be his good works; for his sins had humbled him full often, but what he thought were his good works had puffed him up, and done him much more mischief. I am more afraid of a lofty 'pride of self' than of anything else under heaven. He that is down need fear no fall, but he that rises very high in his own esteem, is not far from destruction. Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.