+IV. Because of its moral effects.+--Not only in the superstitions and idolatries it has destroyed, the barbarous nations it has civilised, the cruel customs it has abrogated, and the kindly influence it has shed upon the laws and manners of nations; but in its moral effect on individuals, producing the most ardent love to God and kindling benevolence towards all--_Richard Watson._ _The True Glory of the Christian._ +I. The disposition of mind denoted by the expressions--"The world is crucified unto me; I am crucified to the world."+--1. The nature of it--a total rupture with the world. 2. The gradations of which it admits. Deadness to avarice and pride--in respect to exertion and actual progress--in respect of hope and fervour. 3. The difficulty, the bitterness, of making a sacrifice so painful. +II. In such a disposition true glory consists.+--Comparison between the hero of this world and the Christian hero. The hero derives his glory from the greatness of the master he serves, from the dignity of the persons who have preceded him in the same honourable career, from the brilliancy of his achievements, from the acclamations his exploits excite. How much more the Christian hero! +III. The cross of Christ alone can inspire us with these sentiments.+--If we consider it in relation to the atrocious guilt of those who despise it, in relation to the proofs there displayed of Christ's love, in the proofs it supplies of the doctrine of Christ, and in relation to the glory that shall follow.--_Saurin._ _The Cross a Burden or a Glory._ +I. There is the constant ordinary discipline of human life.+--Life when it is earnest contains more or less of suffering. There is a battle of good and evil, and these special miseries are the bruises of the blows that fill the air, sometimes seeming to fall at random and perplexing our reason, because we cannot rise to such height of vision as to take in the whole field at once. +II. There is the wretchedness of feeling self-condemned.+--Law alone is a cross. Man needs another cross--not Simon's, but Paul's. He took it up, and it grew light in his hands. He welcomed it, and it glowed with lustre, as if it were framed of the sunbeams of heaven. +III. The same spiritual contrast, the same principle of difference between compulsory and voluntary service, opens to us two interpretations of the suffering of the Saviour Himself.+--Neither the cross of Simon nor the cross of Paul was both literally and actually the cross of Christ. Its charm was that it was chosen. Its power was that it was free. The cross becomes glorious when the Son of God takes it up; there is goodness enough in Him to exalt it. It was the symbol of that sacrifice where self was for ever crucified for love.--_F. D. Huntington._ _The Cross--_ +I. The sinner's refuge.+ +II. The sinner's remedy.+ +III. The sinner's life.+ _The Glory of the Cross._ +I. The cross was the emblem of death.+