I strolled forth one day, buffeted and afflicted, with my little Testament in my hand.  I prayed earnestly that, on opening the Book, I might find some text which should sustain me.  The first text which caught my eye was this, "They found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they compelled to bear his cross." You know Simon is the same name as Simeon.  What a word of instruction was here--what a blessed hint for my encouragement!  To have the cross laid upon me, that I might bear it after Jesus--what a privilege! It was enough.  Now I could leap and sing for joy, as one whom Jesus was honoring with a participation in His sufferings.  And when I read that I said, "Lord lay it on me, lay it on me; I will gladly bear the cross for Thy sake." And I henceforth bound persecution as a wreath of glory round my brow I (Quoted by A. J. Gordon in Two-Fold Life.)

Such is the pathway and victory, yea, the glory of the Cross.  Again, and yet again, we must be brought to the end of ourselves.  That is the work of the Cross.  At Calvary, Christ laid down His life.  We, too, must learn to lose our lives, learn to lay them down gladly for Christ's sake.  Let us learn to bind upon our brow, as a wreath of victory, every circumstance of life which brings us to new heart searchings, and humblings, and self-surrender, and the courageous sacrifice of every idol.  Let us be bold, and deathless, and uncompromising, and uncomplaining, as we embrace our cross daily; and then, let us look unfalteringly unto Jesus crucified to carry us up with Himself into new resurrection power and liberty.  In spite of all that the great apostle of suffering went through from the moment that he met the Crucified on the way to Damascus, Paul cried out at the last of his life, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death" (Phil. 3:10, A.S.V.). Gordon Watt says, "We do need to be careful not to emphasize a truth out of right proportion; not to preach what I have been calling the death side of the Cross so as to forget the life side of the Cross.  That is what many, I fear, are doing today--forgetting that the constant reassertion of the self-life can be dealt with only by the Cross, and that only in the measure in which we enter into the death-union with Christ can we know the resurrection life of Christ."

Most Christians fail to follow Paul into the deepest meaning of the Cross.  Paul had long known Christ and "the power of his resurrection." But when we find Paul longing for fuller maturity in the spiritual life--"not as though I had already attained"--we find him longing for a still deeper fellowship with Christ in His sufferings.  Paul has as his goal, "becoming conformed unto his death." As C. A. Fox has expressed it, "The climax of the risen life gravitates, strange to say, back to the Cross." We fear that many Christians are attempting, through determination and imagination, to seat themselves in the heavenlies without being incorporated more deeply into their death-union with Christ.  "Conformity to His death" will come to be experienced in very practical and commonplace ways.  For instance:

Christ was "crucified through weakness." Am I "weak with Him?" Or, do I unconsciously try to skirt the Cross and continue asking for baptisms of power?  It is only as "the Crucified" that He pours upon us of His Spirit.
Christ emptied Himself, becoming the poorest of the poor.  Should I utterly avoid this likeness to Christ?  Am I soft in spending upon myself?

Jesus was made in all things like unto His brethren.  Have I ever been poured into the mold of my brother's misery?  Such may be my cross.

My Lord was set at nought.  Has anybody yet set me at zero and found me uncomplaining?

Christ was willingly classed with criminals.  Do I seek the better society?  "Men of high degree are a lie."

Christ made Himself of no reputation.  Am I seeking in any way to make one?

Christ and all the apostles were "made a spectacle (or theater) unto the world and to angels and to men." Do I shun the path of becoming a laughing-stock?  Do I honestly esteem "His reproach greater riches" than the smile of the world, even the religious world?  Am I outside the camp, or am I still reckoned among the respectably proper?

Jesus went a little farther and fell on His face.  Have I certain limits where I say, "Thus far and no farther will