| Strength and Beauty |
Chapter 3 |
Page 5 |
We, too, must have the print of the nails in our hands and feet if we truly belong to Christ. This is the family mark, without which none are indeed Christ’s own. It is not to be understood that literally in our hands and feet the very scars of nails must be seen. We do not need to be actually crucified, as Jesus was. There would be no virtue in such crucifixion for its own sake. It is claimed of Francis of Assisi that the stigmata of Christ really appeared in his flesh. But, even if this was true, these sacred marks were but the physical impression of an inward conformity to Christ which led the saint into the very experiences of Christ himself. It is in the life, not on the body, that the print of the nails must appear.
There is, in the midst of earthly ease, continual danger that we give way to the spirit of self indulgence. Too many of our friends are ready to make Peter’s mistake when we stand before duties which demand self denial or sacrifice, saying to us, “This shall never be unto you!” They insist that we are not really called to such costly service, and they would dissuade us from it. But such voices are not the Good Shepherd’s – they are for the time the voices of strangers. We should know them by their earthly tone. That is not the way Christ speaks to us. He would never have us withhold ourselves from any service because of its cost.
Indeed, we may set it down as a principle that the print of the nails is on everything we are called to do for Christ. This does not mean that everything pleasant and agreeable is of the Evil One; nor that discomfort and suffering are always marks of Christ likeness. In ministries which are full of gladness there may be the spirit of Christ – humility and unselfishness. In services that are hard there may not be even a trace of Christ likeness. The essential thing in the cross is love serving without question, without stint. “The nails of the true cross, today,” says one, “are precisely those acts and decisions of ours which transfix our common selfishness. Whenever we deny ourselves willingly for the love of others who do not love us, whenever we spend pains and patience to understand those who have no sympathy with us, whenever we give up ease, profit, or reputation for the unthankful and the evil, we are beginning to receive these sacred marks of the Crucified.”
“He took full measure of the grief
Of every separate saint,
As one by one, each on his cross,
Must tremble and grow faint.
He knew, though he had given them rest,
They first must find sore strife;
Must seek, e’en through the gates of death,
His promised gift of life.”
Page 5