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‘And He said to them all, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’
Luk_9:23
After Christ’s death persecution by municipal authorities and by imperial edicts threatened the lives of Christians, and, while the Christian life became more dangerous, the real and Christian living grew more rigid, and the denying of self, which was required by the circumstances of our Lord’s day, grew and expanded until it was made to mean that all bodily delights and joys of the senses and affections were either positively wrong or were infirmities which should be discouraged.
But is there no practical life possible in these days which may be called Christian?
I. The Christian life in principle must always be the same, however it may vary in circumstances, and if the rule in all our conduct is the same spirit which ruled the conduct of Christ, then I think we should all say that that was a Christian life. We know that the spirit which ruled the life of Christ was to do not His own will but the will of the Father which had sent Him, and if we knew a man who ruled his whole conduct not by his own will, but by the will of his heavenly Father; if his conversation were ruled by the will of God, and his business and his political action were ruled by the will of God; if his conduct amid wife and children and servants were ruled by the will of God; if the maiden in her pursuits and pleasures and aims were governed by the will of God; if the mother and the matron in the management of their homes, and in the cultivation of society, in manners, in dress, in activity, in reading; if in all the intercourse of the sexes, God’s Holy Spirit were the ever-present ruling influence; if in the matter of expenditure, in duty to the State, and in deeds of charity, the one simple unchanging standard of action were that which was Christ’s standard of action, then I think we should say that would be a Christian life.
II. Taking up our own cross has become a phrase, because it just hits the facts of life. Here are some examples of crosses which some of you have to take up. A feeble and ailing body which ties you to one place and robs you of many joys—that is a cross. The peevishness or perversity or jealousy of a dweller in your home you cannot escape—that is a cross. To be denied the rank, preferment, or place to which you are entitled by the mischance of fortune, or the arrogance of powerful caprice—that is a cross. The unfaithfulness of friends and the infidelity of those you have done your best to serve—that is a cross. To be childless for some is a cross. Unrequited affection is a cross. The ill deeds of those who are dear to you is a cross. To be misunderstood, maligned, or hindered is a cross. To have your home made so desolate by death that each day stares cold and lonely upon you—that is a cross; and if I were to go on for an hour I should not complete the long sum of this world’s crosses. What are we to do with them all?
III. ‘Take them up,’ says Christ, that is, recognise them as your portion, and bear them uncomplainingly. Take them up ‘daily’—mark the word!—just as you put on your dress. They may chafe you at first, but as you think of Him Whose servant you are, and Whose eye is your guiding star, and Who Himself set you an example in bearing His cross, the burden will grow lighter until you scarcely feel its pressure. Listen to St. Paul as he takes up his daily cross. What words they are! ‘Most gladly, therefore, will I suffer my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest in me, for when I am weak then I am strong.’ And if he could not escape, can we?
—
Dean Page Roberts.
Illustration‘The Saviour hardly ever said words whose bearing is more direct upon the practical work of our daily living; and though it is a bold thing to make the assertion, we do not hesitate to assert that no words ever uttered by Christ were ever so misunderstood and misinterpreted by very many men, in many places and in many ages. Christ’s teaching was, that the earnest believer must be ready to give up anything, though it should be a right hand or eye, that tended to obstruct him in his Christian course; and that he must be ready to fulfil every Christian duty, however painful, and to bear every burden laid upon him by the hand of God, though it should press upon him heavily and sorely, as the weighty cross upon the poor criminal who bore it to the place of doom.’