I have often been tempted to pride and the lifting up of my heart, and though I dare not say that I have not been infected with this, yet truly the Lord, in His precious mercy, has so helped me, that for the most part I have not much given way to such a thing. This is because it has been my portion every day to glimpse the evil of my own heart and to see such a multitude of corruptions and infirmities still therein that it has caused my head to hang down under my gifts and attainments. I have felt this thorn in the flesh to be the very mercy of God to me (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).
