pon Him, listen to His teachings, give
ourselves up every day, that He may be all to us, and by the power of
Christ the denial of self will be a blessed, unceasing reality. Never for
one hour do I expect the Christian to reach a stage at which he can say, "I
have no self to deny;" never for one moment in which he can say, "I do not
need to deny self." No, this fellowship with the cross of Christ will be an
unceasing denial of self every hour and every moment by the grace of God.
There is no place where there is full deliverance from the power of this
sinful self. We are to be crucified with Christ Jesus. We are to live with
Him as those who have never been baptized into His death. Think of that!
Christ had no sinful self, but He had a self and that self He actually gave
up unto death. In Gethsemane He said, "Father, not My will." That unsinning
self He gave up unto death that He might receive it again out of the grave
from God, raised up and glorified. Can we expect to go to Heaven in any
other way than He went? Beware! remember that Christ descended into death
and the grave, and it is in the death of self, following Jesus to the
uttermost, that the deliverance and the life will come.

And now, what is the use that we are to make of this lesson of the Master?
The first lesson will be that we should take time, and that we should
humble ourselves before God, at the thought of what this self is in us; put
down to the account of the self every sin, every shortcoming, all failure,
and all that has been dishonoring to God, and then say, "Lord, this is
what I am;" and then let us allow the blessed Jesus Christ to take entire
control of our life, in the faith that His life can be ours.

Do not think it is an easy thing to get rid of self. At a consecration
meeting, it is easy to make a vow, and to offer a prayer, and to perform an
act of surrender, but as solemn as the death of Christ was on Calvary--His
giving up of His unsinning self life to God,--just as solemn must it be
between us and our God--the giving up of self to death. The power of
the death of Christ must come to work in us every day. Oh, think what a
contrast between that self-willed Peter, and Jesus giving up His will to
God! What a contrast between that self-exaltation of Peter, and the deep
humility of the Lamb of God, meek and lowly in heart before God and man!
What a contrast between that self-confidence of Peter, and that deep
dependence of Jesus upon the Fath