Our Cross is prepared and appointed for us
'Take
up the cross, and follow Me.'-Mark 10:21
You have not
the making of your own cross, although unbelief is a master
carpenter at cross-making; neither are you permitted to choose
your own cross, although self-will would fain be lord and
master; but your cross is prepared and
appointed for you by divine love, and you are cheerfully
to accept it; you are to take up the cross as your chosen badge
and burden, and not to stand cavilling at it. This night Jesus
bids you submit your shoulder to His easy yoke. Do not kick at
it in petulance, or trample on it in vain-glory, or fall under
it in despair, or run away from it in fear, but take it up like
a true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; He leads the
way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not desire a better
guide! And if He carried a cross, what nobler burden would you
desire? The Via Crucis is the way of safety; fear not to tread
its thorny paths.
Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers, or lined with
velvet, it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders; but it
is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it with
iron colors, it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for
the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by
the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with
it, that like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of
Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus
carried it, and it will smell sweetly; remember that it will
soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming
weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of
trouble. The Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to
the divine will ere you fall asleep this night, that waking with
to-morrow's sun, you may go forth to the day's cross with the
holy and submissive spirit which becomes a follower of the
Crucified.
- C. H. Spurgeon -
Morning and Evening (2/23 - PM)
