How dangerous vanity also may be is shown by a few words of the Saviour, Who said to His disciples when they exulted in this vanity, I saw Satan like lightning fall from heaven,’’
Luc. 10. 18
and Who says to the Jews when once they excused themselves, But what is lofty among men is an abomination in the Lord's sight.’’Luc. 16. 15
By these and by that most notorious case of the Pharisee who excused himself, we gather that vanity and proud self-esteem are the destroyer of all good things, when the Pharisee's vainly extolled goods perished and the publican's self-confessed sins vanished away. Then let no large word proceed from a monk's mouth, lest his own large labour perish.