The Culture Of The Cross
The Cross was an open secret to the first disciples, and they climbed the steep ascent to heaven by the Royal Way of the Holy Cross, but its simplicity has been often veiled in later days. A glamour has been cast over the modern mind by the simplicity of the symbol. Jesus’ Cross has been taken out of His hands and smothered in flowers: it has become what He would have hated, a source of graceful ideas and agreeable emotions. When Jesus presented the Cross for the salvation of His disciples, He was certainly not thinking of a sentiment, which can disturb no man’s life, nor redeem any man’s soul, but of the unsightly beam which must be set up in the midst of a man’s pleasures.
—John Watson.
Being Virtuous And Being Innocent
Friend, thou art seeking thy light in the dispersion of the cloud, and all the time thy light is tn the cloud. Thou art asking God for an explanation of thy darkness, and thou art expecting an answer from all quarters but one—the darkness itself. Yet it is there, and nowhere else, that the secret lies. Thy cloud is thy fire-chariot; thy trial is thy triumph. The best gift of Divine love to thee has been thy pain; it has taught thee what is the difference between being virtuous and being innocent. Thou hast been self-deceived, O my Brother. Thou hast been down in the valley of the shadow, and thou hast been looking up to the calm heavens to find thy God. The calm heavens have not answered thee, and thou hast said, “Verily, Thou art a God that hidest Thyself.” Yet all the time thy God has been beside thee in the valley, a sharer in the shadow of thy life. Thou hast been looking too far to find Him; thou hast cried to the heavens when He was at thy very door. The night under which thou hast murmured has been hiding in its folds a wondrous treasure—the very essence of the King of Kings.
—George Matheson.
Alternate Reading: II Kings 4:1-7.