r strength
will be met by His strength. May we be a docile flock, willing to be
cared for by Him, and every blessing will then be ours!

Self-Denial versus Self-Assertion.

"If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross daily, and follow Me.--LUKE ix. 23.

We might naturally have thought that if there was one thing in the
life of the LORD JESUS CHRIST which belonged to Him alone, it was His
cross-bearing. To guard against so natural a mistake, the HOLY GHOST
has taken care in gospel and in epistle to draw our special attention
to the oneness of the believer with CHRIST in cross-bearing; and also
to prevent misunderstanding as to the character of Christian
cross-bearing, and the constancy of its obligation. The LORD JESUS,
in the words we are considering, teaches us that if any man, no
matter who he may be, will be His disciple, he must--not he may--deny
himself and take up his cross daily and follow his LORD.

Is there not a needs-be for this exhortation? Are not self-indulgence
and self-assertion temptations to which we are ever exposed, and to
which we constantly give way, without even a thought of the
un-Christliness of such conduct? That we owe something to GOD all
Christians admit; and it may be hoped that the number of those is
increasing who recognise His claim to some proportionate part of
their income. But our MASTER claims much more than a part of our
property, of our time, of our affections. If we are saved at all, we
are not our own in any sense, we are bought with a price: our bodies
we must present to Him; our whole life must be for GOD.

Self-denial surely means something far greater than some slight
insignificant lessening of our self-indulgences! When Peter denied
CHRIST, he utterly disowned Him and disallowed His claims. In this
way we are called to deny self, and to do it daily, if we would be
CHRIST's disciples indeed. "I don't like this," or, "I do like that,"
must not be allowed; the only question must daily be, What would
JESUS like? And His mind and will, once ascertained, must
unhesitatingly be carried out.

As believers, we claim to have been crucified together with CHRIST;
and Paul understood this, not merely imputatively but practically.
That cross put the world to death as regards Paul, and put Paul to
death as regards the world. To the Apostle nothing could have been
more practical. He does not say, "I take up my cross daily," in the
light, moder