We must lay down self

      This is a text from the book The Light and the Glory: "We must lay down self...  Therefore, because it is not in us to help our self, let us lay all at the feet of Christ...  because Christ and self service cannot stand together, to have self in anything is to put out Christ: no man can serve two masters..." Matthew 6:24
    "Thus you have seen the first means of becoming disciples, vis, self denial.  Now we come to the second; take up the cross.  You must not think to go to heaven on a feather bed;if you will be Christ's disciples, you must take up His Cross, and it will make you sweat.  By the cross, we understand troubles, because  the death of the Cross,was the bitterest and most accursed; therefore, it is put for all misery, trouble, affliction and persecution.  A man must take up his cross, because it is his own... We must not bring misery on ourselves; there is no credit or comfort in this.  The text does not say "Let him make his cross," no, it is made already.  So long as we have the world and our own corrupt hearts, and as long as there are devils in hell, there are troubles enough..."
     "Shall I not drink the cup which my Father gives?  There is the force of the argument. God prepares it, therefore drink it, so the Apostle Paul reasons... God would have us live. If the patient be persuaded that the Physician has the skill, he will be willing to receive the potions prescribed to him."