Bearing the Cross
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." "And He bearing His cross."—John 19:17. When did Jesus bear the cross? Not that moment alone, surely, when the bitter tree was placed on His shoulders, on the way to Golgotha. Its vision may be said to have risen before Him in His infant dreams in Bethlehem's cradle; there, rather, its reality began; and He ceased not to carry it, until his work was finished, and the victory won! A cloud of old, hovered over the mercy seat in the tabernacle and temple. So it was with the Great Antitype—the living Mercy-seat—He had ever a cloud of woe hanging over Him. "He carried our sorrows." Reader! dwell much and often under the shadow of your Lord's cross, and it will lead you to think lightly of your own! If He gave utterance to not one murmuring word, can you complain? "If we were deeper students of His bitter anguish, we would think less of the ripplings of our waves, amid His horrible tempes