Page:Three Thousand Selected Quotations from Brilliant Writers.djvu/178

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170
CROSS BEARING.

If Jesus bore the cross, and died on it for me, ought I not to be willing to take it up for Him?


We must bear our crosses; self is the greatest of them all. If we die in part every day of our lives, we shall have but little to do on the last. O how utterly will these little daily deaths destroy the power of the final dying!

Fenelon.

All you have really to do is to keep your back as straight as you can; and not think about what is upon it. The real and essential meaning of "virtue" is that straightness of back.


Thou, Everlasting Strength, hast set Thyself forth to bear our burdens. May we bear Thy cross, and bearing that, find there is nothing else to bear; and touching that cross, find that instead of taking away our strength, it adds thereto. Give us faith for darkness, for trouble, for sorrow, for bereavement, for disappointment; give us a faith that will abide though the earth itself should pass away—a faith for living, a faith for dying.


Dear Lord, forgive my sinful, foolish fears
     And give me daily, strengthening grace, I pray,
And one thing more I ask with humble tears,
     Take not my cross away!


There is an immeasurable distance between submission to the cross and acceptance of it.