in the steps which are marked with
bleeding feet, for 'He suffered and left us an example.' I will just add
one word, dear friends, to deepen the thought in its impressiveness,
that the cross of Christ it to be the pattern of our lives. It stands
alone, thank God, for mighty power in its relation to the salvation of
the world, and it stands alone in awful terror. You and I are, at the
very worst, but at the edge of the storm which broke in all its dreadful
fury over His head; we love to go but a little way down the hillside,
while He descended to the very bottom; we love to drink but very little
of the cup which He drained the last drop of and held it up empty and
reversed, showing that nothing trickled from it, and exclaimed, 'The cup
which My Father hath given Me have I drunk.' But although alone in all
its mighty power, and though alone in all its awful terror, it may be
copied by us in two things--perfect submission to our Maker, and
non-resistance and meekness with regard to man. There is only one way of
carrying the cross of Christ, which God lays on us all, and that is
bowing our back. If we resist, it will crush us, and if we yield we have
something to endure; and there is but one thing which enables a man to
patiently bear the sorrows and griefs which come to us all, and that is
the simple secret, 'Father, not as I will, but Thy will be done.' Christ
suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow in His
footsteps, and when we patiently do this the rod becomes a guiding
staff, and the crown of thorns a crown of glory.

But my text reminds me that the sufferings of Christ are not only our
gain and our pattern, but they are also our power to imitate--the power
to fight the battle for Christ. Example is not all. The world wants more
than that. The reason for men's badness is not because they have not
plenty of patterns of good. If a copyhead could save the world it would
have been saved long ago. Patterns of good are plenty; the mischief is
we don't copy them. There are footsteps in abundance, but then our legs
are lame, and we cannot tread in them, and what is the use of copies if
we have a broken pen, muddy ink, and soiled paper? So we want a great
deal more than that. No, my friends, the world is not to be saved by
example. You and I know that the weakness and the foolishness of men
know a great deal better than the wisest of men ever did, so we want
something more. Examples don't give the power nor