138. Cross-bearing.

He that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. - Matthew 10:38.

BEFORE his crucifixion, our Lord has a foresight of it, and does not hesitate to realize himself as bearing his cross.

With equal prescience he foresees each true disciple receiving and taking up his own personal cross. He sees none exempted.

Picture to the mind's eye a procession led by the cross-bearing Jesus, and made up of his cross-bearing train.

This is not a pageant, but a real march of suffering. It reaches through all time.

The chief requirement of a disciple is to follow Jesus in all things, in cross-bearing as in all else.

Cross-bearing is trying, laborious, sorrowful, humiliating.

Cross-bearing is inevitable to the follower of Jesus. We are bound to take up our cross or give up all idea of being Christians.

Let us obediently inquire—

I. WHAT IS MY PECULIAR CROSS? "He that taketh not his cross."

1. It may be the giving up of certain pleasures or indulgences.

2. It may be the endurance of reproach and unkindness, or remaining in poverty and obscurity for the good of others.

3. It may be the suffering of losses and persecutions, for Christ's sake.

4. It certainly means the consecrating of all to Jesus: the bowing of my whole self beneath the blessed burden of service with which he honors me.

5. It also includes the endurance of my heavenly Father's will with patience, acquiescence, and thanksgiving.

My cross is well, wisely, kindly, and surely chosen for me by my Lord.

It is only meet that I should be made like my Lord in bearing it.

II. WHAT AM I TO DO WITH IT? "Taketh . . . followeth after me. "

1. I am deliberately to take it up.

· Not to choose a cross, or pine after another form of trial.

· Not to make a cross, by petulance and obstinacy.

· Not to murmur at the cross appointed me.

· Not to despise it, by callous stoicism, or willful neglect of duty.

· Not to faint under it, fall beneath it, or run from it.

2. I am boldly to face it. It is only a wooden cross after all.

3. I am patiently to endure it, for I have only to carry it a little way.

4. I am cheerfully to resign myself to it, for my Lord appoints it.

5. I am obediently to follow Christ with it. What an honor and comfort to be treading in his steps! This is the essential point.

It is not enough to bear a cross, we must bear it after Jesus.

I ought to be thankful that I have only to bear it, and that it does not bear me. It is a royal burden, a sanctified burden, a sanctifying burden, a burden which gives communion with Christ.

III. WHAT SHOULD ENCOURAGE ME?

1. Necessity: I cannot be a disciple without cross-bearing.

2. Society: better men than I have carried it.

3. Love: Jesus bore a far heavier cross than mine.

4. Faith: grace will be given equal to the weight of the cross.

5. Hope: good to myself will result from my bearing this load.

6. Zeal: Jesus will be honored by my patient endurance.

7. Experience: I shall yet find pleasure in it, for it will produce in me much blessing. The cross is a fruitful tree. 8. Expectation: glory will be the reward of it. No cross, no crown. Let not the ungodly fancy that theirs is a better lot: the Psalmist says, "many sorrows shall be to the wicked." Let not the righteous dread the cross, for it will not crush them: it may be painted with iron colors by our fears, but it is not made of that heavy metal; we can bear it, and we will bear it right joyously.