Pride groaned in anguish. “There is nothing I can do. For weeks and weeks I have thought about it and sought for some course of action to follow should this overwhelming catastrophe come upon us. But there is no solution, absolutely none. There is no way out but for me to die. Perhaps the Shepherd would help you then, but he will have nothing to do with me, for I have been his worst enemy all these years.”

“Pride,” said a quiet, commanding voice, “Pride, are you and Superiority willing to listen to me at last?” Looking up in the midst of their anguish and ruin, husband and wife then saw the Shepherd himself standing in the room beside them. His face was stern and his voice was stern, but there was a note of compassion and mercy in it also. Both trembled in his presence and sank down at his feet, bereft of strength, yet in the depths of their hearts both felt an indescribable sense of relief and comfort.

“Pride and Superiority,” went on the quiet, commanding voice, “all your lives you have been exactly what your names suggest, proud and superior toward others. But wherein did your fancied superiority consist? In the fact that you possessed wealth and possessions and privileges which others did not? Never once would you look at yourselves as you really were. Now that the wealth and possessions which gave you this superior attitude have been taken from you, wherein lies your superiority? On what can you pride yourselves now? Are you ready at last to learn of me who am meek and lowly in heart and to find rest to your souls? For humility is simply to see yourselves as you really are, and meekness is to admit the truth about yourselves and to act accordingly.”

The two bowed their heads before him and were at first speechless. Then Pride muttered with almost a sob, “You are right, Sir! It is all true. But how can we—how can I—come to you now asking for your help after proudly rejecting you all these years?”