ii. The Suffering Saviour.
When we speak of " the Cross " we do not mean only the cross which Christ bore to Calvary and on which He suffered ; we mean the very sufferings of Christ Himself. But do we really think of what we mean when we speak of the sufferings of Christ, the Sin-bearer of the world ? Christ, we know, voluntarily took His cross. He gave Himself for us. He laid down His life for us. Even when the weight of the cross was taken from Him for those few moments, while Simon bore it, He was most really bearing it. His soul was wounded; His spirit was crucified. He lays down the cross which may be seen, the instrument of torture, at the bidding of others, that He may the more truly bear the inward cross.
^ Very reverently, and with few words, one would touch upon the physical weakness of the Master. Still, it does not do us any harm to try to realise how very marked was the collapse of His physical nature, and to remember that that collapse was not entirely owing to the pressure upon Him of the mere fact of physical death; and that it was still less a failure of His will, or like the abject cowardice of some criminals who have had to be dragged to the scaffold, and helped up its steps ; but that the reason why His flesh failed was very largely because there was
^ J. Stalker.
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laid upon Him the mysterious burden of the world's sin. Christ's demeanour in the act of death, in such singular contrast to the calm heroism and strength of hundreds who have drawn all their heroism and strength from Him, suggests to us that, looking upon His sufferings, we look upon something the significance of which does not lie on the surface, and the extreme pressure of which is to be accounted for by that blessed and yet solemn truth of prophecy and Gospel alike — "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."
iii. Christ's Cross and Ours.
1. We are wont to speak of trouble of any kind as a cross ; and doubtless any kind of trouble may be borne bravely in the name of Christ. But, properly speaking, the cross of Christ is what is borne in the act of confessing Him or for the sake of His work. When any one makes a stand for principle because he is a Christian, and takes the consequences in the shape of scorn or loss, this is the cross of Christ. The pain you may feel in speaking to another in Christ's name, the sacrifice of comfort or time you may make in engaging in Christian work, the self-denial you exercise in giving of your means that the cause of Christ may spread at home or abroad, the reproach you may have to bear by identifying yourself with militant causes or with despised persons, because you believe they are on Christ's side — in such conduct lies the cross of Christ. It involves trouble, discomfort, and sacrifice. One may fret under it, as Simon did ; one may sink under it, as Jesus did Himself ; it is ugly, painful, shameful often ; but no disciple is without it. Our Master said, "He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me."
2. " There are three things," says Vaughan,^ " which make a ' cross ' — shame, and suffering, and self -mortification."
(1) Shame. — "Bearing the cross after Jesus" frequently entails misunderstanding, coldness, suspicion, disgrace. To do it is a real pain ; and there must be such a victory over self that self is nowhere. No one knows, — but those who have to do it, — what a martyrdom that is to a sensitive mind. No physical pain is greater, and no act of heroism is more honour- able. It needs the compulsion of a strong, irresistible motive ;
^ Sermons, xv. 149.
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of a conscience quickened and kindled by the love of God. That is a " cross," — ignominy borne for Christ's sake.
(2) Suffering. — It is the part of every Christian to "know the fellowship of Christ's sufferings." To bear the pain of the Cross of Christ would be a great thing; but to rise above the pain to the joy that is in it, and to turn the suffering to happiness, and the shame to glory, and the death of the natural feeling into the very deliciousness of the higher life, — that is far greater ! Such was Christ's obedience, and such His love ! And this is the true and the grand view of every " cross."
(3) Self -Mortification. — The effort to keep all things in their place involves a mortified life. To stop short of indulgence, to drive away something that we are afraid is beginning to enslave us till we have taught it its proper place and admit it again later into our life as a useful servant ; to stand amidst the vast multitude of God's creatures with which the earth teems — persons, places, things, sorrows, joys, pleasures, and pains — a free man, enslaved by none but using all fearlessly; neither held back by fear nor attracted by mere pleasure, but using and accepting or rejecting each as it comes, in so far as it leads the soul Godward — this is indeed liberty ; but such liberty can be purchased only by mortification.