| The Best Things in Life |
Chapter 10 |
Page 7 |
Jesus did not talk about his cross, and he would have us bear our silently. Some people seem to want to carry their cross so that every one will see it. But that is not the way the Master would have us do. His voice was not heard in the street. He made no complaint, no outcry. He never called attention to his suffering. He is pleased with silent cross bearing in his friends. He wants them to rejoice, even in pain. We should not take up our cross vaingloriously.
There is blessing in our cross, first, for ourselves, and then for others. Christ’s cross lifted him to glory. Our crosses will also lift us to higher things. If we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with him. Then our crosses are meant also to be blessings to others. A writer has a strange fancy of a woman who carried a sword in her heart. She kept it concealed under her garments and went bravely on with her work. One day she met a blind woman who was groping along, with no staff to support her, and she gave the woman her sword. “Oh, this is a good staff,” said the blind woman; “now I shall get on well.” The woman looked, and lo! Her sword had become a staff indeed in the blind woman’s hand. The cross of Jesus was to him a cruel and terrible instrument of torture, a sword piercing through his heart. Now to men and women everywhere it is a staff to lean on, a guiding hand to lead them, a shelter from the storm, and a refuge from the heat. We may so bear our crosses that they shall become blessing to all about us. A good woman was telling how a great grief which it seemed she could not possibly endure had enabled her to be a comforter of those in sorrow, through her sympathy with them, and that in giving love and help her own burden had been lightened, her sorrow turned to joy.
Thus it is that the crosses we take up obediently and cheerfully, and bear in faith and love, become wings to lift us, and then benedictions to those to whom we minister. The cross of Christ is saving the world. Just so far as we take up our cross in the spirit of our Master will we become blessing to the world. Selfishness never made any spot holier or any life better. Accept your cross, take it up and bear it victoriously, and there will be a new song in your own heart, and you will start songs in the hearts of many others.
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