[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-1017":3},"OCTOBER 17\r\nGod forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus   Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world (Gal. 6:14).\r\nThey were living to themselves; self with its hopes, and promises and dreams, still had hold of them; but the Lord began to fulfill\r\ntheir prayers. They had asked for contrition, and had surrendered\r\n\r\nfor it to be given them at any cost and He sent them sorrow; they\r\nhad asked for purity, and He sent them thrilling anguish; they had\r\nasked to be meek, and He had broken their hearts; they had asked to be dead to the world, and He slew all their living hopes; they had\r\nasked to be made like unto Him, and He placed them in the furnace,\r\nsitting by \"as a refiner and purifier of silver,\" until they should   reflect His image; they had asked to lay hold of His cross, and when He had reached it to them it lacerated their hands.\r\nThey had asked they knew not what, nor how, but He had taken them\r\nat their word, and granted them all their petitions. They were hardly willing to follow Him so far, or to draw so nigh to Him.\r\nThey had upon them an awe and fear, as Jacob at Bethel, or Eliphaz in the night visions, or as the apostles when they thought that\r\nthey had seen a spirit and knew not that it was Jesus. They could\r\nalmost pray Him to depart from them, or to hide His awfulness. They found it easier to obey than to suffer, to do than to give up, to\r\nbear the cross than to hang upon it But they cannot go back, for\r\nthey have come too near the unseen cross, and its virtues have pierced too deeply within them. He is fulfilling to them His\r\npromise, \"And 1, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me\" (John 12:32).\r\nBut now at last their turn has come. Before, they had only heard of the mystery, but now they feel it He has fastened on them His look of love, as He did on Mary and Peter, and they can but choose to   follow.\r\nLittle by little, from time to time, by flitting gleams, the\r\nof His cross shines out upon them. They behold Him lifted up, they   gaze on the glory which rays from the wounds of His holy passion;   and as they gaze they advance, and are changed into His likeness,  and His name shines out through them, for He dwells in them. They five alone with Him above, in unspeakable fellowship; willing to\r\nlack what others own (and what they might have had), and to be unlike all, so that they are only like Him.\r\nSuch, are they in all ages, \"who follow the Lamb he goeth.\"\r\nHad they chosen for themselves, or their friends chosen for them,   they would have chosen otherwise. They would have been brighter here, but less glorious in His Kingdom. They would have had Lot's  portion, not Abraham's. If they had halted anywhere--if God had\r\ntaken off His hand and let them stray back--what would they not have lost? What forfeits in the resurrection?\r\nBut He stayed them up, even against themselves. Many a time their  foot had well nigh slipped; but He in mercy held them up. Now, even in this fife, they know that all He did was done well. It was good\r\nto suffer here, that they might reign hereafter, to bear the cross    below, for they shall wear the crown above; and that not their will but His was done on them and in them. --Anonymous.",1783499793951]