February 23, Evening

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"Take up the cross, and follow Me." — Mark 10:21 · KJV

You have no hand in making your own cross, though unbelief is a master carpenter at cross-making; nor are you permitted to choose your own cross, though self-will would gladly be lord and master; but your cross is prepared and appointed for you by divine love, and you are cheerfully to accept it. You are to take up the cross as your chosen badge and burden, and not stand quibbling over it. This night Jesus bids you put your shoulder to His easy yoke. Do not kick at it in petulance, or trample it in vainglory, or fall under it in despair, or run from it in fear, but take it up like a true follower of Jesus. Jesus was a cross-bearer; He leads the way in the path of sorrow. Surely you could not wish for a better guide! And if He carried a cross, what nobler burden could you desire? The way of the cross is the way of safety; do not fear to tread its thorny paths. Beloved, the cross is not made of feathers or lined with velvet; it is heavy and galling to disobedient shoulders. But it is not an iron cross, though your fears have painted it iron-colored; it is a wooden cross, and a man can carry it, for the Man of sorrows tried the load. Take up your cross, and by the power of the Spirit of God you will soon be so in love with it that, like Moses, you would not exchange the reproach of Christ for all the treasures of Egypt. Remember that Jesus carried it, and it will smell sweet; remember that it will soon be followed by the crown, and the thought of the coming weight of glory will greatly lighten the present heaviness of trouble. The Lord help you to bow your spirit in submission to the divine will before you fall asleep this night, that waking with tomorrow's sun you may go forth to the day's cross with the holy and submissive spirit that becomes a follower of the Crucified.