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Chapter
XXI
THE CROSS AND ATTAINMENT
Continued
WE ARE SO LIKELY TO FAIL
to relate a little thing like godly contentment to the life of Christian
victory. Through complaint, or murmur, or an inward refusal of some
providential place or circumstance, we can refuse the Cross. Madame
Guyon, whose life of victory has lighted the way for many suffering saints,
felt it necessary after a very severe sickness, to move a few miles away
from the lake where she had been situated. Concerning the only house
she could obtain, this lady of French society said:
It had a look of the greatest
poverty, and had no chimney except in the kitchen, through which one was
obliged to pass to go to the chamber. I gave up the largest chamber
to my daughter and the maid. The chamber reserved to myself was a
very small one; and I ascended to it by a ladder. Having no furniture
of my own except some beds, quite plain and homely, I bought a few cheap
chairs, and such articles of earthen and wooden ware as were necessary.
I fancied everything better on wood than on plate. Never did I enjoy
a greater content than in this hovel. It seemed to me entirely conformable
to the littleness and simplicity which characterize the true life in Christ.
The following letter is from
one of our old students who had experienced a wonderful redemption from
sin and fast society. This letter was written to one of her fellow
students from the sanitorium to which she had been sent 'just one
year prior to her graduation. It reveals such a deep spiritual insight
into the various principles of the Cross that we quote from it at some
length:
Today, I have been meditating
about "bearing your cross," the "thorn in the flesh," and "suffering shame
for His name"--three aspects of the Christian life that are very often
confused with one another, I believe. It all came to me this way:
Real friends, writing or visiting, have gone sickly sweet at times with
such words as, "oh, you poor, dear girl. Your cross is heavy to bear,
etc., etc." Others have said: "Rejoice that you are counted worthy to suffer,
dear girl, for His name." It all seems so ridiculous that it makes me disgusted.
I don't count this illness
as even a thorn in my flesh, for, if it were a thorn it would have to be
grievous, would it not? But it hasn't been. It has been blessed.
It is not "bearing my cross" because "taking up the cross" is what Christians
are free to choose to do. I didn't exactly choose to come out here,
or to be ill, did I? Nor is it suffering for His name, because that would
mean I was being persecuted for Christ's sake, and that has no part with
my illness, though it has been part of my blessed experience here at times.
Aren't Christian people careless
in the way they pick up a biblical phrase and apply it to any and every
situation? It is positively irritating at times. The straw
that broke the camel's back, so to speak, was a drippy, "sedimental" letter
from a good Chris-tian lady the other day. She feels so sorry for
me "bearing my hard, cruel cross out here alone." I wanted to shout so
loud that she could hear me way up in the city, that I wasn't bearing any
cross by being ill, and that I wasn't alone either.
That all started me thinking.
If we feel a thorn prick, we raise our heads and wait acclaim for a sacrificial
spirit; or we heave a sigh and say to ourselves, "my cross is heavy, but
I will bear it." But our "cross" is not "a thorn." The cross is different,
is it not? It is something far too easily shunned and gotten out
from under. But a thorn God gives, and it is not escapable.
I think it is health sometimes. Milton's thorn was probably his blindness.
I think I will find my inability to do much even after I am dismissed from
the sanitorium, my thorn, in that it will be somewhat of a handicap to
the work I would do for the Lord. It is probably a thorn to you too,
is it not? But we would never think of this handicap as a cross,
would we? The cross is indeed obligatory to a Spirit-filled life
of discipleship, but it is something we love, and rejoice to carry.
We embrace it, and the cross becomes sweet to us making all bitter waters
through which we pass, sweet also. Suffering shame for His name is
extra; it Is an added blessing after the cross, I think. Not everyone
is counted worthy to suffer shame for His name. |
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