Tj Phillips Brooks reminds us that the sacrifice of old was offered to the sound of the trumpets with joy, and there ought to be a sort of joy — a real joy — about self-sacrifice in bearing the cross. The pictures of our Lord on the cross, the earliest repre- sentations, were not like later ones ; they were of a victorious figure in the prime of life, with no nails through His hands and feet, with an upright head, and a look of joyful self-sacrifice. And that is what we must aim at : we must bear the cross joyfully ; " take up " the cross — it makes all the difference — lying down under it is one thing, taking it up is another. Take it up bravely, joyfully, cheerfully, and you will find the cross com- paratively easy to bear.1
But if Himself He come to thee, and stand Beside thee, gazing down on thee with eyes That smile and suffer, that will smite thy heart, With their own pity, to a passionate peace; And reach to thee Himself the Holy Cup (With all its wreathen stems of passion-flowers And quivering sparkles of the ruby stars), Pallid and royal, saying, " Drink with Me," Wilt thou refuse ? Nay, not for Paradise ! 2
4. Discipleship demands perseverance. " Let him follow me." There is no discharge in this service. It is a lifelong compact. The disciple must follow the Master to the last limit of self-denial and cross-bearing. But the Master lives to help us to be and to do what He shows in His own life is the highest of all goodness and nobleness. So near does He keep to us in His indwelling Presence that He wishes to strengthen us to " walk even as he walked " (1 John ii. 6). We are to feel that though we cannot see Him with our bodily eyes, yet there is no such living Power in the universe as He is ; and as we continue to ponder His life and sufferings we shall seem to see Him standing out before our hearts "full of grace and truth," and shall become gradually transformed into His likeness so as to be fitted for living with Him through eternity in His unveiled vision, and for engaging in His sinless service.
1 A. P. "W. Ingram, Joy in God, 178. * H. E. Hamilton Kins;.
332 THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
TJ It is easy to take up one's cross and stand ; easier still to fold it in the arms and lie down ; hut to carry it ahout — that is the hard thing. All pain shuns locomotion. It is adverse to collision, adverse to contact, adverse to movement It craves to nurse its own bitterness; it longs to be alone. Its burden is never so heavy as when the bell rings for daily toil. The waters of Marah seek repose. If I could only rest under my cloud I might endure; but the command is too much for me — "Go, work to-day in my vineyard." If I could go without my cross, it would be something; but I cannot. I can no more escape from it than I can escape my own shadow. It clings to me with that attraction which repulsion sometimes gives. It says, "Whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge." >
Tf The followers of Christ are not as Frederick the Great, who in the midst of the Seven Years' War wrote thus : " Happy the moment when I took to training myself in philosophy ! There is nothing else that can sustain the soul in a situation like mine." This same Frederick, three years later, wrote that it was hard for man to bear what he endured : " My philosophy is worn out by suffering," he confessed ; " I am no saint, like those of whom we read in the legends ; and I will own that I should die content if only I could first inflict a portion of the misery which I endure." But Charity never faileth. When Christians grow weary of their efforts, when they are tempted to give up their Christian service because of discouragements in the work, or because of rebuffs and unkindness from their fellow-workers, they remember what sort of Captain they follow, and what sort of strength has been vouchsafed to them.2
Tj Drawing his sword, Pizarro traced a line with it on the sand from east to west. Then, turning towards the south, " Friends and comrades ! " he said, " on that side are toil, hunger, nakedness, the drenching storm, desertion, and death ; on this side, ease and pleasure. There lies Peru with its riches ; here, Panama and its poverty. Choose, each man, what best becomes a brave Castilian. For my part, I go to the south." So saying he stepped across the line. He was followed by the brave pilot Ruiz ; next by Pedro de Candia, a cavalier, born, as his name imports, in one of the isles of Greece. Eleven others successively crossed the line, thus intimating their willingness to abide the fortunes of their leader, for good ur for evil. Fame, to quote the enthusiastic language
1 G. Blatheson, S<-archinrn in the Silence, 56. 1 C. N. Mooiiy, Lows Long Campaign, 266.