THE K I N G ’ S BUS I NE S S
252
By ARTHUR HEDLEY This beloved English clergyman brings a heart-searching message to every believer,
+ deficient child who commands most of her time and at tention. Some are sorely persecuted for their Christian faith, even in their own homes, whilst others are tried by their fellow Christians. A mill lass told me that her “heaviest cross” was a fellow church member who worked next to her. Each soul has its own peculiar cross to bear, and some have such an exceedingly heavy one that we marvel they do not sink beneath its weight. Yet they bear up and prove the reality and sufficiency of God’s grace. Our Attitude But the all important question is this: What is our attitude toward our cross? Everything depends on the answer. Two persons may pass through a similar trial: One adopts the right attitude and comes forth en riched, ennobled and enlarged; the other manifests the wrong spirit and misses the blessing. So many of us by our impatience and infidelity cheat our soul of the good God has designed for us. We face trouble in a stoic- like spirit and say, “What can’t be cured must be en dured.” When we thus passively accept our cross as our fate we become hard, selfish and cynical. Some Chris tians who feel that God has dealt very hardly with them are full of inward anger and rebellion- at what they be lieve to be the injustice of God. Thus the heart is full of conflict and misery for “our cross and trials do but press the heavier for our bitterness.” There is a better and nobler way of dealing with our cross. If trial is inevitable, if God in His infinite wis dom does not see fit to remove it, we can accept it trust fully and cheerfully, making God's choice for us our own choice. This was the way of our Lord. He earnestly prayed that the cross might be avoided, but fully aware of its inevitableness if He would achieve His great mis sion of redemption and fulfill His Father’s will, He made it IliS own glad choice. In the blessed words, “Not my will, but thine, be done,” He submitted. The Apostle Paul accepted his fiery trial in the same spirit as did his Lord. When, after much prayer, he found that his thorn was to remain, he embraced it joy fully. “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me,” is the precious testimony which has come down to us. When that gifted and saintly soul, Frances Ridley Havergal, was laid upon a bed of suffering and had to give up her beloved labors for Christ, she exclaimed, "The cross is sharp but I do kiss it!”
S OONER or later every Christian discovers that dis- cipleship brings with it a cross. In the light of experience we come to understand the reality and meaning of our Lord’s word, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me.” The disciple who is resolved to be “faithful even unto death” finds that the cross is essen tial and inevitable. It is necessary for the discipline of thè soul, for the destruction of selfishness and sin, and for thè development of a Christ-like character. What Is Best? God in His infinite love and wisdom knows just what kind of trial is best suited to each individual case. He sees the end from the beginning. He knows the future good He has designed for us though it may be hidden from our eyes. With the passing of the years we dimly discern the meaning of some great sorrow or suffering which, at the time we went through it, seemed so cruel, mysterious, and meaningless. When Dr. Rainy, the emi nent Scottish scholar and preacher, was a boy, his father gave him an early lesson in life by relating to him cer tain things in his experience so sore that they seemed "intolerablé.” Yet, as he looked back, this father ad mitted that of ail that had befallen him, these testings were what he could not possibly have done without. Many have found themselves gravely handicapped in youth, or in the prime of ' manhood or womanhood, through some bodily weakness—the loss of sight, hear ing, or the use of their limbs. For them the battle of life becomes exceedingly difficult. Think of those who have set their hearts on serving God in the Christian ministry or on the mission field, only to have some do mestic crisis shatter their hopes. The cross which many a dear mother carries is a sadly deformed or mentally
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online