could not fall, but you trust yourself." Do let us believe that the cause
of every failure in the Christian life is nothing but this. I trust this
cursed self, instead of trusting Jesus. I trust my own strength, instead of
the almighty strength of God. And that is why Christ says, "This self must
be denied."

Then there is self-exaltation, another form of the works of self. Ah,
how much pride and jealousy is there in the Christian world; how much
sensitiveness to what men say of us or think of us; how much desire of
human praise and pleasing men, instead of always living in the presence of
God, with the one thought: "Am I pleasing to Him?" Christ said, "How can ye
believe who receive honor one of another?" Receiving honor of one another
renders a life of faith absolutely impossible. This self started from hell,
it separated us from God, it is a cursed deceiver that leads us astray from
Jesus.

Now comes the third point. What are we to do to get rid of it? Jesus
answers us in the words of our text: "If any man will come after me, let
him take up his cross and follow me." Note it well.--I must deny myself and
take Jesus himself as my life,--I must choose. There are two lives, the
self life and the Christ life; I must choose one of the two. "Follow
me," says our Lord, "make me the law of your existence, the rule of your
conduct; give me your whole heart; follow me, and I will care for all." Oh,
friends, it is a solemn exchange to have set before us; to come and,
seeing the danger of this self, with its pride and its wickedness, to cast
ourselves before the Son of God, and to say, "I deny my own life, I take
Thy life to be mine."

The reason why Christians pray and pray for the Christ life to come in to
them, without result, is that the self life is not denied. You ask, "How