[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0914":3},"SEPTEMBER 14\r\nWhosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Mark 8:34).\r\nThe cross which my Lord bids me take up and carry may assume different shapes. I may have to content myself with a lowly and\r\nnarrow sphere, when I feel that I have capacities for much higher work. I may have to go on cultivating year after year, a field\r\nwhich seems to yield me no harvests whatsoever. I may be bidden to cherish kind and loving thoughts about someone who has wronged\r\nme-be bidden speak to him tenderly, and take his part against all\r\n\r\nwho oppose him, and crown him with sympathy and succor. I may have to confess my Master amongst those who do not wish to be reminded    of Him and His claims. I may be called to \"move among my race, and\r\nshow a glorious morning face,\" when my heart is breaking.\r\nThere are many crosses, and every one of them is sore and heavy.   None of them is likely to be sought out by me of my own accord. But never is Jesus so near me as when I lift my cross, and lay it\r\nsubmissively on my shoulder, and give it the welcome of a patient and unmurmuring spirit\r\nHe draws close, to ripen my wisdom, to deepen my peace, to Increase my courage, to augment my power to be of use to others, through the   very experience which is so grievous and distressing, and then--as\r\nI read on the seal of one of those Scottish Covenanters whom\r\nClaverhouse imprisoned on the lonely Bass, with the sea surging and sobbing round--I grow under the load. --Alexander Smellie.\r\n\"Use your cross as a crutch to help you on, and not as a stumblingblock to cast you down. \"\r\nYou may others from sadness to gladness beguile, If you carry your cross with a smile.",1783499793853]