A Test of Our Discipleship.
WILLINGNESS to share the glory of Jesus is not necessarily willingness to share his cross. There are thousands of men and women who would gladly become disciples of Jesus, if to begin the Christian life were to enter at once into the complete delights of the heavenly kingdom. But to deny one's self, to take up the cross and bear it for many a weary mile, to follow Jesus in his humiliation, rather than in his exaltation—that indeed seems hard for flesh and blood, which yearn for the delights of this life. And it is hard; but there is no other way of following Jesus. He who would wear the heavenly crown must first bear the earthly cross. He who would sit down to the joyous feast in the land that is not very far off, must first follow his Guide over hill and valley, through desert places and through storms of the night. And this is the test for the false and the true followers of Jesus. He who loves Christ simply for the crown and the feast of rejoicing, will not follow the Lord when his path leads into dark valleys and into dwelling-places of pain. Into these abodes of gloom and sorrow only he follows who loves his Master, not for the promised reward, but for what he knows the Lord to be in himself. To one who knows the Master so, Jesus, thorn-crowned and crucified, is a better portion than all the kingdoms of this world, with all their splendor and glory and joy, but without the Man of Sorrows, beneath whose bitter cross every sore, stricken heart may find rest and shelter, and the power of an endless life.—S. S. Times.