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Bearing the Cross

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 27, 1863

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 21, No. 9.

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Bearing the Cross.

By F. M. Bragg

SAID the Saviour, "He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." Mark x, 38.
He spoke these words in reference to the hatred and persecution which was to follow those who received Christ and the truths he taught. They had peculiar force to those whom he addressed, who had left their homes and followed Jesus from city to city, and through the wilderness, or sat by the sea-side, or on the dreary mountain listened to his discourses.But the words of the Saviour are no less to us. As he bore the cross on Calvary's rugged brow for our sins, we have a cross to bear in following after him. His truth is no more popular now than when he addressed these words to the twelve apostles, and hatred and persecution is ever the portion of those who love him.
Unless we take the cross and follow after Christ, we are not worthy of him. How shall we bear the cross so as to be worthy of Christ? By becoming like him, by doing his will, as he did his Father's will. We are to purify ourselves by obeying the truth.
We bear the cross when we crucify the inclination of the carnal heart. This is our work under the third angel's message, to bring the feelings and propensities of the natural heart into obedience to the commandments of God and faith of Jesus, or teaching of the New Testament.
Let us take a retrospective view of Christian experience, and bearing the cross.
The carnal heart is selfish and self-willed. The Spirit of God softens the feelings, bends the will; and it yields to the mind and will of God. This change, by the Spirit of God, does not change the disposition, or make all alike of the same abilities, or of one gift. The apostle Paul says there are diversities of gifts, but of the same Spirit. The different gifts being set in their proper places in the church, by the one Spirit, a most perfect and beautiful harmony is disclosed. This change produced by the Spirit of God, bends the faculties of each mind to another object. As we loved and served self, we now love and serve God. As the Spirit makes a change in the feelings, propensities, and will, we are to continue in obedience, to keep the mind of Christ; for if we refuse or cease to obey, we fall from this change back to the carnal mind.
God does not act upon the mind as we act upon a machine. Our will must first consent. It is necessary that we willingly obey. The promise is to the willing and obedient.
As we follow on after the Saviour, we advance and progress as the light of truth shines. The light of to-morrow being greater than of to-day, duties and responsibilities increase; so on from day to day. To keep ourselves in the love of God, we keep bearing the cross, not as the door turns on its hinges, going and coming, bringing no good to itself, but we gain new light, increasing strength, and new victories.
By this experience we bring the lower and selfish feelings and propensities of the carnal mind into subjection to the higher, better, feelings and principles, which are begotten by the Spirit of God, as it affects the will.
This process of purifying ourselves commences in pain to us, but should end in pleasure and peace. It is at first painful to crucify the natural selfish feelings to benevolent feelings, but the more we practice and cultivate the right and crucify the wrong, the easier it becomes, until we prove it true that Christ's yoke is easy, and his burden is light.
But the progress of experience in purifying ourselves, takes our lifetime. We must ever bear the cross. We ever have some self to subdue or keep in subjection. The great apostle labored to keep his body under. It is a continual warfare with self and the world, and the enemy of all righteousness. We are not to lay down the cross until the victory is gained and the crown is won.
Said the Saviour, "Watch, that ye enter not into temptation." His words were full of instruction, lest in some unguarded moment we should depart from the true and right way, and thus be thrown back instead of progressing in our experience; and then our work must be done over. The apostle Paul says, if we sin we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. But he exhorts us not to sin because grace abounds. He also points out the way in which we can return to our advocate; and we have no promise that we can be accepted in any other way than that of the cross, confessing and forsaking our sins and errors, that we may be free from them; and then we can, again, go on unto perfection. The apostle James says, "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed." The prodigal son, when he saw his sin, said, I will go to my
father, I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. David was a man after God's own heart, not in the sense that he had never sinned, but because he repented, and forsook his sins. Thus repentance makes us peculiarly favored of God. It never degrades, but ever elevates to the approbation of all heaven.
The father, when he saw his prodigal son returning, had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and said, Put the best robe on him, and put a ring on his finger, and shoes on his feet, and bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.
Although our heavenly Father is of great compassion, and of tender mercy to the erring, and the angels of God and the church rejoice over one that returns, yet few heartily confess and forsake their sins and errors. Many pass them by lightly, like a debtor who casts up the account without paying his debts. It ever stands against him.
The merits of Jesus pay the great debt for us, but we are sure of the merits of the Son of God only by way of the cross, heartily to confess our sins and errors to the heavenly sanctuary, and to one another. Thus they are laid on Jesus, and will be blotted out in the time of the refreshing. When we confess, it is our privilege to believe that we are healed. He that confesseth his sins shall find mercy; but he that covereth him shall not prosper.
The way of the cross is the way for all. We enter by the same way, are kept by the same power, and strengthened by grace. None are yet perfected; but as Paul says, we follow on that we may attain.
We should anxiously inquire whether we are striving for the mastery. If we strive lawfully, we shall obtain; and those who are thus striving are of one heart and of one mind in this great work. When some err from the truth, we do not rejoice over their downfall, but we entreat them to return to the right path again. We faithfully warn them of their danger, and urge the necessity of confessing and forsaking their sin. We try to enforce upon them the happiness of returning to the right path again. We cannot apologize for them or sympathize with them without partaking of their sin, and strengthening them in their wrong course.
Those who faithfully warn the erring, expose themselves to the censure of false sympathizers. Often do these sympathizers charge the faithful with being in the same wrong of those whom they are in love endeavoring to restore to the right path again. It is one of the enemy's great schemes to so blend the wrong with the right as to prevent distinguishing one from the other; but truth makes a great difference between them; and if we have, through obedience, the spirit of the present sanctifying message, we shall discern truth from error.
It is easy to imbibe wrong views; but it is not so easy for the natural heart to see, confess, and forsake wrong, for the right. Error brings wrong feelings, and a wrong spirit. Truth alone can sanctify. It is of the greatest importance to us to forsake every sin and error. We should ever be ready to bear the cross by confessing and forsaking them. We are to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and through the word of our testimony.
The blood of the Lamb is the means, but our testimony is the channel through which his blood flows to us. If the channel becomes impure, Christ's blood cannot avail for us. By word of mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The spirit of confession binds the hearts of God's people together. It restores more than former confidence. It shuts out the spirit of the enemy; jealousies and evil-surmisings cannot live where a true spirit of confession reigns. It keeps out all fanatical influences, and brings the sweet blessing of heaven upon us. Let us remember that the apostle teaches first, purity, and then peace.
Union has ever been sought in the churches, by covering sin and error. But error and sin work their own discord if left in the heart. Our only way to secure union and the peace of God, is by way of the cross. Beneath the cross the crown lies. Said the Saviour, "He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." He came to do his Father's will, and he has left a perfect pattern for us to follow in his steps.
F. M. Bragg.
Cambridge, Wis.