2. We have often to deny ourselves in matters that may be in themselves allowable. If they tend in our case to withdraw our hearts from Christ, we must be willing to give them up. Being innocent in themselves, we might be at liberty to choose them or not as we liked, but we have to think of the discipline and maturity of our Christian character, and in regard to this such voluntary sacrifices are in the sight of God of great price, moulding us as they do into a loving and wide embracing obedi- ence to Him. Again and again we may have to deny ourselves
1 A. Kuyper, The Work of the Holy Spirit, 505.
ST. MATTHEW xvi. 24 323
things that seem fitted for adding to our enjoyment, but when we think how Christ denied Himself the most ordinary comforts, not seeking to be ministered unto, but to minister, and giving His life a ransom for us, shall we for a moment hesitate to drink of His spirit that we may do likewise ? Very anxiously have we to remember that there is no Christian self-denial in anything that is done merely as self-denial — that all true self-sacrifice is uncon- scious of itself, strives not to think of itself, but longs simply to please Christ and to do His will and work, without reckoning the cost or trial.
T| It is said that prior to the rise of Christianity not one of the Western languages had any word for self-denial. The austere moralists of India, indeed, had long since taught the sacrifice of inclination to lofty ideals of duty. But Greece and Eome, nay, even Israel, had not contemplated self-denial as in itself essential to virtuous or devout character ; and so they had coined no word for it. But when one by one the Western nations were subdued by the spiritual weapons sharpened in the armoury of Christ, the idea and the word " self-denial " quickly came to the front in preaching and in practice. Nor will any student of the Gospels deny that this is quite a characteristic and typical utterance of Jesus : " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." 1
(1) We are constantly tempted to self-indulgence, to do simply what is easy and pleasant to us, agreeable to our tastes, inclina- tions, and habits, and leave others to do or leave undone altogether the things that are not according to our taste or that require from us any care or effort or sacrifice. All analogy, and all reason, and all Scripture teach us that we must not consult our own ease and pleasure, that we must not make a kind of pastime of religious service, that we must not be earnest and self-denying in our ordinary calling, and then come to Christ's work as an entertain- ment for our leisure hours, just playing with the great cause of God. We must not do that ; we must work if we would have God to work with us. It is when we do our part that we have any right at all to expect that God will do His part; it is when we do our very best — and we cannot do our very best without much thought, and much prayer, and much effort ; without facing difficulties, without strain, without doing some hard things, some 1 E. C. Armstrong, Memoir and Sermons, 195.
324 THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
painful things. We cannot do our best without all this, and it is when we do our best that we can expect God to do the most.
fl You have all, I dare say, seen lightning conductors put up on buildings in London ; and perhaps you wondered why they were put up. Well the reason is this : the lightning is on the look out for an easy way to come down to the earth ; it finds it very hard to go through the air. That is the reason why we hear the thunder : it is the noise the lightning makes because it has to come through the air so quickly. And the air tries to stop it coming at all. If it could get on to anything — on to the spire of this church, for example — and slide down, it would be a very ea6y way of getting along. But it wouldn't be a good thing for the spire ; and so they put up lightning conductors — rods right up into the air — so that if the lightning is coming anywhere near, it may get on to the rod and so slip right down into the earth, without doing any harm to the church. For it is always looking out for the easiest way down.1
(2) Self-seeking is another form of temptation that we must guard against. We are tempted to serve ourselves in God's service, to seek for our own ends when we are professedly and really engaged in His work. Sometimes the selfish end is indirectly sought by us, as when it is the glory, honour, power, and triumph of our party or sect or denomination that we labour for. Some- times the selfish end is directly before us, as when it is our own influence, or position, or honour, or praise that we seek after. The love of man's approbation is natural to us, and it is quite legitimate that we should seek it, and that we should appreciate it ; but how very apt it is to degenerate into downright selfishness, and how very often we are tempted in connexion with God's own work to seek chiefly, to seek unduly, our own selfish ends.