The Dangers of Praise.
I. It is more than probable that, if men speak well of you, their judgment of you is fallacious; you do not deserve it. "In the like manner did their fathers unto the false prophets." Men are fallible judges of one another's real character.
II. However fallacious the popular estimate, it has a direct tendency to carry us along with it. We naturally adopt other men's judgments, as upon other subjects, so also upon this, our own character.
III. And then follow certain practical consequences, all of them, in a Christian point of view, serious and even disastrous. (1) The first of these is the loss of humility. How can he, of whom all men men speak well, know what true humility is? He may, and he probably will, wear a mask over his pride, for that is a condition of being well spoken of; but the pride itself will be only hidden, not unmoved; and where pride is enthroned, there cannot be the mind meet for God's kingdom. (2) With the decay of humility comes the loss of watchfulness. If we are not conscious, and painfully conscious, of infirmity and of sinfulness, how can we watch? Why should we watch? (3) And with the loss of humility and the loss of watchfulness comes, as a natural consequence, the loss of strength. Praise is an essentially enfeebling and enervating thing. It relaxes the sinews of the mind as sultry weather those of the body. Praise promotes repose; self-satisfaction first, and as its natural result the intermission of effort. (4) Again, it is an effect of being well spoken of, to make a man covet that approbation, and at last live for it. It is a pleasant thing to be popular; human nature loves it, and finds it very hard either to sit loose to it when gained, or to do anything which may endanger it. (5) The praise of men has a direct tendency to attach us to earth, and make us forget heaven. To be a Christian is to have your heart in heaven, where Christ sitteth. What a distracting effect must the sound of earthly applause have upon one whose ear is attentively listening for the still small voice from heaven!
C. J. Vaughan, Memorials of Harrow Sundays,p. 175.
References: Luke 6:26. F. W. Aveling, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 4.Luke 6:31. Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 260; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 244; J. B. Walton, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 43.Luke 6:32; Luke 6:34. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxvii., No. 1584.