Daily Devotionals

Bowen's Daily Meditations

Devotional: July 13th

’’ If we suffer, we shall also reign with him." - 2 Timothy 2:12.

When he was on the earth, leading a life of sorrows and perfecting his acquaintance with grief, no man appeared to covet the privilege of suffering with him. John and James, indeed, before they had obtained a glimpse of the cross, were bold to say, " We are able to drink of thy cup, and to be baptized with thy baptism." Thomas also said, " Let us also go that we may die with him.’ Peter said, " I will lay down my life for thy sake." So likewise said they all. Yet when the hour of his enemies came, and the power of darkness, he was left to tread the wine-press alone. His disciples forsook him; or if they ventured to approach the place where he was a prisoner, it was only to increase his suffering by the exhibition of their unbelief and pusillanimity.

Imagine yourself there. You are in the secret. You know that this is indeed the very king of the Jews, though they mock him with a crown of thorns and with some faded and tattered robe of state. You know that legions of angels are waiting to receive his commands; though these servants of servants smite him and revile him. You know that there is buried within that suffering body, glory sufficient to bathe all the mountains of the earth in radiance, and suffuse the heavens with splendor in the absence of the sun; you know that there is a joy set before him unspeakable, inconceivable, and that it will be the sublimest of destinies to participate in that joy. Well, what is the course you adopt? It seems to you - does it not? - that you must hasten to his side; nay, cast yourself at his feet, and solicit the honor of suffering with him; confessing withal that, if you had the goodness of an archangel, you would still be most unworthy of such a privilege. Christ is not willing that you should be debarred this privilege. He did not take his cross away to heaven with him. Ages have not extinguished the opposition of the world to him. Are you sure that you are really willing to perceive, to enter, and to pursue the via dolorosa? There does indeed seem something most base in the refusal to join this king of glory in the hour of his humiliation; but is it very certain that you are not this very day demonstrating your spiritual affinity to those who cried out, " Not this man, but Barabbas?" Have you not turned aside from many a path, chiefly because you caught a glimpse of something like calamity, and concluded that duty did not call you to enter it? Does not the anticipated elements of loss, shame, or danger, assist you much too readily in reaching your conclusions as to what is duty?

Formerly, in the days of the Church’s simplicity, Christians ascertained their path by the plain sense of Scripture. But now the Church has become exceedingly wise and prudent, and discovers that the old paths are many of them quite unnecessary. One is ashamed to differ from so many wise and good men. And it is certainly a very foolish thing to run after suffering. Yet is it a far more foolish thing to disregard the admonitions of the Spirit. It is the acme of folly to do anything that may jeopard our hope of reigning with Christ, in the day that the kings of the earth shall be crouching in dens and caves.

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