hing but service, to be the ultimate
purpose, the one great desire, on which the souls of His followers
should be set, as His own soul is set, upon it continually.

What is it that Christ has left to be His symbol in the world, that we
put upon our churches, what we wear upon our hearts, that stands forth
so perpetually us the symbol of Christ's life? Is it a throne from which
a ruler utters his decrees? Is it a mountain top upon which some rapt
seer sits, communing with himself and with the voices around him, and
gathering great truth into his soul and delighting in it? No, not the
throne and not the mountain top. It is the cross. Oh, my brethren, that
the cross should be the great symbol of our highest measure, that that
which stands for consecration, that that which stands for the divine
statement that a man does not live for himself and that a man loses
himself when he does live for himself--that that should be the symbol of
our religion and the great sign and token of our faith? What sort of
Christians are we that go about asking for the things of this life
first, thinking that it shall make us prosperous to be Christians, and
then a little higher asking for the things that pertain to the eternal
prosperity, when the Great Master, who leaves us the great law, in whom
our Christian life is spiritually set forth, has as His great symbol the
cross, the cross, the sign of consecration and obedience? It is not
simply suffering too. Christ does not stand primarily for suffering.
Suffering is an accident. It does not matter whether you and I suffer.
"Not enjoyment and not sorrow" is our life, not sorrow any more than
enjoyment, but obedience and duty. If duty brings sorrow, let it bring
sorrow. It did bring sorrow to the Christ, because it was impossible for
a man to serve the absolute righteousness in this world and not to
sorrow. If it had brought joy, and glory, and triumph, if it had been
greeted at its entrance and applauded on the way, He would have been as
truly the consecrated soul that He was in the days when, over a road
that was marked with the blood of His footprints, He found His way up at
last to the torturing cross. It is not suffering; it is obedience. It is
not pain; it is consecration of life. It is the joy of service that
makes the life of Christ, and for us to serve Him, serving fellow-man
and God--as he served fellow-man and God--whether it bring pain or joy,
if we can only get out of our souls the tho