owers. But to Jesus and the men of His
time it had a grim, hard, painful significance. In Roman usage a man
condemned to this death was required to take up the crude wooden cross
provided, carry it out to the place of execution, and there be
transfixed upon it. Plainly to these men listening, Jesus' words meant:
Let him say "no" to his self, and then nail it up on the cross and leave
it there _to die_.

Paul understood this thoroughly. To help the young christians in Galatia
he explains his own experience by saying: "_I have been crucified_ with
Christ;" and to the unknown friends in Rome he writes: "if ye by the
Spirit _put to death_ the doings of the self life ye shall live." The
only thing to do with this self is to kill it.

In Luke's account an intensely practical word is added to Jesus' remark:
"Let him take up his cross _daily_." A cat is said to have nine lives,
because it is so hard to kill. I do not know what your experience may
have been, but, judged by this rule, the self in me is tougher-lived
than that. It has about ninety-nine, or nine hundred and ninety-nine
lives. I put it on the cross to-day in the purpose of my will by the
power of the Spirit, and I find it trying to sneak down and step into
active control again to-morrow through some sly, subtle suggestion which
it hopes may get past the vigilance of my sentinel. That word _daily_
becomes, of necessity, my constant keynote--a _daily_ conflict, a
_daily_ sleepless vigilance, and, thank God, a _daily victory_.

Every man's heart is a battlefield. If self has possession, Jesus is
lovingly striving to get possession. If possession has been yielded to
Jesus, there is a constant besieging by the forces of self. And self is
a skilled strategist. In every heart there is a cross, and a throne, and
each is occupied. If Jesus is on the throne, ruling, self is on the
cross, dying. But if self is being obeyed, and so is ruling, then it is
on the throne. And self on the throne means that _Jesus has been put on
the cross_. And it seems to be only too pathetically true that not only
in New Testament times, but in these times, there are numbers of
professing christians, who, in the practice of daily life, are
crucifying the Son of God afresh, and openly exposing Him to shame
before the eyes of the crowd.

Suppose that to-night I determine to make this absolute surrender to
Jesus as my Master. To-morrow in some matter, possibly a small
matter--speaking a word to s