Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 184, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1918 — The Habit of Self-Denial [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Habit of Self-Denial

By REV. ED. F. COOK, D. D. J

Director MiMionarjr Coarse, Moody Bibl® I Xne Chicego

TEXT— It any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up hH cross dally, and follow me.—Luke 9:22.

It requires self-abnegation to follow Christ in the way of everlasting

life, and utmost self-denial to enter,fully with him into his program for the worm. In man’s relation to Jesus Christ selfdenial hi an essential mark of disdplesldp, and a first requisite to reality of spiritual- experience.. In man’s relation to man and to world betterment self-denial is fundamental to all effective ministry of the Gospel.

The self-denial of which 'she Master speaks in the text is not to be thought of as an Impulsive act, or as a spasm of self-forgetfulness, but rather as a habit of life. The self-denial to which he refers is more than unselfishness in meeting emergent demands. It is more than liberality in times of special public need; it is in reality a matter of dally practice. The Master no doubt places special emphasis upon “daily” when he says, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up bls cross daily, and follow me.” A self-denial which Is less than a fixed principle of life and less than a daily practice cannot usher a man into the comradeship of Christ in service. If ever we follow him truly it Is in the way which he here describes.

In the day of our nation’s glory and power, with the doors of Christian opportunity wide open in every land, we have failed to enter fully into the Master’s plan for his world. Christ has been too largely shut out of the life of the American people through a gradual yielding to the subtle temptations of great prosperity. We have accepted with Indifference his great commission and have put forth but meager effort to evangelize the nations. The love of luxury and ease has produced such softness and selfindulgence In the churches of America as renders difficult the response to a challenge which demands heroic self-denial and self-abnegating service. The American people have, however, been brought by the exigencies of war to the practice of self-denial, self-sac-rifice and liberality In giving to an extent unprecedented In our history. Splendid has been the response to the nation’s call for men and money. Both are being offered without stint The moving of the American heart in pity for human suffering, and the new evaluation of physical strength and moral power, have led the American people to pour out their wealth In order to feed the'hungry, heal the suffering, comfort the sorrowing, and to equip and protect our soldiers In both moral and physical efficiency. In the awful school of war we are learning lessons of great moral value. The peril is that after the war we may lapse again Into the softness and needless self-indulgence of other days. Weary of self-restraint and self-denial, it will be easy to rush again to the frivolities, and pleasures of the world and to the luxurious living to which the American people have become so accustomed.

In such a return to selfishness, seifindulgence and self-love, there are Imminent perils to our nation and to the cause of Christ Against such a peril our people must be protected. This can best be done by keeping before them the Master’s gfeat world-pro-gram : The enterprise of foreign missions. It alone of all human enterprises carries the full moral equivalent of war. It alone makes a like appeal to that of war—to love, to loyalty, to courage and self-sacrifice. The missionary enterprise alone presents the utmost appeal of love to God. and pf love to our fellow men. It develops as no other obligation or activity the sense of the Fatherhood of God and the consciousness of the brotherhood of man. If we would preserve in the heart of this nation the finest, the noblest, the best products in human character of this great war, we must make of America a great missionary nation, fired with a passion for worldwide service. To this end the churches of America must be held to a vision of the Master’s missionary program for the world. They must be led to see that victory for the allies is but a partial victory and the world-wide peace which the allies demand but a temporary peace, unless we hold the “salient * already driven into heathen darkness, and resolutely drive on to fullest success in the foreign mission enterprise. There is no possible basis of permanent world-peace which does not take account of Christ and his kingdom on earth. It is of supreme Importance, therefore, that we bear with new interest and resolution the Master’s challenge to self-denial. Having learned in war through love of country the meaning of willing self-sacrifice, let us now for love pf, Christ learn the full meaning of following him in sacrificial MtF ,ce * - >231