THE CHRISTIAN "GIVING UP."
It is a pitiful thing to see a young disciple going about and asking everybody how much he must “give up” in order to be a Christian. Unfortunately many of those who take it upon themselves to instruct him, give him the same impression of Christian discipleship, that it consists chiefly of giving up things that one likes and finds pleasure in. But a man in solitary confinement might as well talk about what he must “give up” if he is pardoned out of prison, or a patient in consumption about what he must “give up” in order to get well. The prisoner must give up his fetters, and the invalid his pains and his weakness—these are the main things to be sacrificed. It is true that the one has the privilege of living without work, and the other the privilege of lying a-bed all day; these are privileges that must be relinquished no doubt. And so there are certain sacrifices to be made by him who enters upon the Christian life, but they are “not worthy to be compared” with the liberty and dignity and joy into which the Christian life introduces us; and to put the emphasis on this negative side of the Christian experience, as so many are inclined to do, is a great mistake.