THE CROSS by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 20, 1880

THE CROSS.

By Charles Haddon Spurgeon

AH, but let me put it in other words than you have stated it. You say, if you follow Christ you will be persecuted. And does not the word of God tell you the same? And is it not expressly said, “He that taketh not up his cross and followeth not after Me cannot be my disciple?” Did not the apostle say, “He that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution”? What! is nature to be changed for you? Must the apostles and the martyrs endure and suffer great things, and are the little trials that you have to bear to be valid excuses for you? No, by that host who waded through slaughter to a throne—the slaughter of themselves—no, by the men who wear the crowns which they have won on racks and stakes, I pray you do not think that this shall be any excuse for you at God's great day. Or, if you think that it be an excuse that is valid for you now, remember if you reject Christ you reject the crown. If you cannot bear the reproach of Christ, neither shall you have Christ's riches. If you will not suffer with him, neither shall you reign with him.

—Spurgeon.