PRICE OF DISCIPLESHIP

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 83, 24 April 1937, Page 12

PRICE OF DISCIPLESHIP

mt, • -"If qny. man will come after Me, !et him deny ' himself.'^ — Matt. xvi.24. Th^ : rhesaage of Christ is: full ;of hard words, and tljis is tlie hardest.. Tbere chn be little 'doubt -that the rfeal stumbling-block . to Cbristianity lies here. Self-denial. is ndt popular to-day. Tjlie* .key-w.ord -.of ■ the modern world is self- expression— which often in practice becomes self-iiidulgence. The \vorld, gi'owihg ever riclier, calls out to be enjpyed; aud oVen though We reject the. gros^er forms, the heart protests against anytliing that seems to thwart •the crayiflg to-ehjdy. > LWhat is dtteit lorgotten,- however,| is that all vital living demahds sqme kind of * self-denigl. Business, study, -spo'rt, all demand it. Lova has ; its ' Ioyalty, which oiteu mearis narrow way, Eyen the rake * has* his tragic experience ; there are pure long'ings he has had to trampie underfoot, "eacln oue a m'urdered self." The faet is that we have all to choose which part of -ourseives, or which self, we shall deny. Is it to be the lower or the higher? Are we to seek fulfilment aloug the road of -what is -known as "self;'-pride and gEeed and ambition? Or are we to seek. it in. the service of Christ? What is further forgotten is that He asks this self-denial in the interests, liot of death, but of life. His keyword is life — always and all the time. It was life He caine to lead .us into., Sacrifice for its own sake bas no place iii the call of Christ. Let that become fixed onc« and for all in our mindsi If He asks the denial of some instinct along one line. it is that it may find its true fulfilment along a higher. He bids us refuse the false joy of indulgfed passion that we may find the true joy of a disciplined love. If He asks us to give up some coveted pleasure, it is that we may find the deeper joy in the service which will take its place. If He calls us to turn our, baok on some road of self-will, it is toc find the deeper peaee of doing the will of God. At this momeilt the gardener is pruning his rose-trees. It seems a, barbarous mutilation. The heart bleeds at the sacrifice of these fresh shoots of green so eagerly seekiug the Sun. But the sap thus forbidden to spend its strength will find a finer fulfilment in the beatlty oi the perfect blooms. It is the same with a river. Ufirestraified it will waste its waters in destrUctive floods or stagnant bog-lands that is sour and useless. The banks that restpain and control are the safeguard of its power. So Says Christ : "If any man will follow Me," will become like Me, will find life fulfilled in doing the Will of God, "let him deny hinlself." It is liot, of course, an easy road. The process of detachment by which our desires- are freed from the grip of self for Christ' s eontrol will often bring paitt. In some cases, Christ tells us, it may be a mutilatioii: "If thy liand or thy foot offend thfee, out them off and cast them from tliee." A lady who lately died give up a career in art to work among the Arabs in North Africa. Painting was het delight, and she had a genuine gift. But Christ called, and she tells how she had to put her gift on the altar- and "take iier hands off it to let God do what He would with it." He led into n road in which it seemed as if her art would be lost. It looked like mutilation. The only point of view from which such sacrifice can be finally accepted is that life jg eternal. What cannot find ful-

filment here will find it beyond. But is is not easy to w;ait. In lesser degree, life in Christ will call us all to self-denial. There are pieasures We must be ready to surrendel roads of selfish ambition which will be closed; little hntniliations which will break our pride; "plans we may have to change to take Christ' s way; possessions that will have to be yielded. It will mean a dying to self in various forms. Things which might seem lawful will become sin For sin is just satisfying desires apart from the ptirpose of life in Christ. But in Christ dying is part of living. The secret of the power to deny our-1 selves is to fix our minds on Him — on domg the will of God. His will holds in it all that is good both for us and the world — all beauty and love ahd joy. To be a chanhel of His will * ln all He seeks to do for men is the very glory of life. When We realise that, self •'denial loses its sombre loLk. It beeomes self-dedication — a joyful, liberating thing. The mother who denies herself for her children does not think of it at all. Like Livingstone, she would forbid us to speak of her sacrifice. But if she did she would call it tlie dedication of love, To see that is the way of release from self. And whem. we think of Christ is there any desire or pleasure we will want to keep for ourselves when He asks it of us for His service? Is there any power we will want to squandor when He wants Us to use it for Him? He 'wefit to Calvary — that was His road. He died to all that life could offer youth and ambition, that in the Cross jt might all flower into glory of infiuite redeeming love. And so it did. ln the light of the Cross is there aUy fuller and mor© effective day of living? Jesus was right; "He that loseth his life f or My sake shall find it." — Rev Jaines Reid, M.A.