The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-07-30
DR. EDN0NDS'S
 SERMON
YOUNG PASTOR MAKES STRONG
 APPEAL.
Take Up The Cross And Follow Mes The Burden of Ministers Address To Large CongreEafion At
 Morning Service


 Rev. H. M. Edmonds, acting pastor of the First Presbyterian Church. preached to large congregation yes- terday morning. from text found in Mark. 3:s4.
 1T any man would come after me, me,
 From the beginning to the end of his address he held the closest att tention or the congregation. His text was one that would admit of many questions. would admit of many am swers, but his method of answering the questions was out of the usual, and altogether strong and original Mir. Edmonds said:
 There have been great many idle questions about cross bearing--as to the exact meaning of the term. Many. many sermons hlve been preached on the subject, The usual explana- ton that we have heard has been that the Cross Is some irksome duty some difacult task of daily recur- renee, perhaps, some trying work some particular thing applied to each one or us that IS contrary to our pre- ference. but. which we ought, never theless, to do.
 They have told us that we must take up the cross and follow Jesus, which was very good, except that they
 
 what taking 1t up was. for what bear ing 1t was. This teaching as to cross- bearing has led a number of ill-advised people to imagine that every Christian thing that he doesn't like to do. but has to do.
 They have sought this cross up and down the world wondering; What is they have lighted upon some particular thing that perhaps was unnecessary, and have said: \ An. this IS my cross. I must bear must look pious and downtrodden when mention it, but I must bear. And incidentally l want as many peo- pie as possible to know about the iact that l am bearing the cross.
 Duty the Cross.
 = What then does the figure moan7 rake up the cross and follow me: Fol- low low me; there is hint. Where was christ going To Calvary. His life was march to Calvary. He never swery- ed nor halted His eye was fastened on the mount Golgotha, which, being interpreted. is the place of the skull. Follow Him to Calvary then. For lon. Christ then says unto us: Take up the cross and follow me te
 Here again we meet the rankest folly in connection with the first.
  Era1an, Domitian. Diocletian and others thousands and thousands of Christians lost their lives. One of the curious effects was to create in for martyrdom;. Men begged to be killed and rushed unasked into the jaws Of death, just to initiate Christ Then they put a figurative interperta- ton @ upon the Idea of the crucifixion of
 They fled the ease and Pleasure of life and betook themselve. to monas- teries. They subjected themselves 10 all kinds of privations and indiknities, going about with filth and vern1fn on their bodies, under, the vain delusion that since that nl0rtihed the hesh 1t was an imitation of the sufferings of Christ From about 1250 to 1850, great went through Southern Europe beat Ing themselves until the roads were black with their blood.
 But there are two very important in which this was not imi- tating Christ This was utterly use less: and Christ did no useless suffer ing. Again. they sought this, they hunted 1t out. they found 1t; Christ ti set in m front of Him and He H endured it. The other sufferings that He under went were incidental to His life.
 Yield To Christ's Win. broadest sense, 1t means obedience. that giving up of the will to Christ's will Just as Christ gave up Ills will to the will of His Father. Now this of course, separates Into all phases of living, Let us pursue one path and leave the other. Let us consider fol- lowing Christ Tin suffering.
 There is no more firmly established doctring in the Bible. especially in the writing of Paul, than that we are to suffer with Christ. And though we are not to waste our time seeking @ cross, and not to submit our bodies to arti- ficial insult, yet we surely are called upon to follow Christ in suffering. Pe- ter. in his first letter, calls himself a nartaker of the sufferings of Christ Paul prays that he may have the fel- lowship of His sufferers, and speaks of filling up what remaineth behind of the afflietions of Christ. He says also in Phillippian: also in Christ Jesus"
 He doesn't give a text that can be used to preach on the whole mind and character of Christ, for the sentence goes on: "who took upon himself the form of servant and became sub. missive unto death. even the death of the cross"
 So he means to say: 'I.et the mind of sacrifice and suffering be in you as 1t was in Christi"
 Jesus, also. when He asked James l and John if they could bo oaptised with | the baptism wherewith He was bap- | tised, certainly referred to the suffer-