SELF-NEGATION: WHAT IS IT?

SELF-NEGATION: WHAT IS IT?

“Take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9: 23). Every day is to be a day of self-abnegation, but also a day of following Jesus, walking here as He walked. This does not consist in vexing or over-taxing oneself, as if there were any inherent virtue in bodily exercise, but in refusing ever thing in us which interferes with our following the Lord. To follow the Lord in every detail, and not to follow one’s own will, is the only true rule or course. If one were simply following the Lord and avoiding self-will, one would find that the body would not be unduly taxed, or uncared for, and there would be less suffering to mind and body, than in serving the world. Not but that there is bodily suffering in service, but that is an honour and not an evidence of neglect. The Lord cares for the body; His word is “Come ... apart ... and rest awhile” (Mark 6: 31). He provides for the exigence of the day before the day comes, as He provided the manna for Israel before the sun was up. “He knoweth our frame”. He does not require that ^[p. 178] I should exert myself beyond my strength, but that I should use my strength for Him and not for myself This is self-negation; not overtaxing the strength, or vexing the creature, but devoting it to another instead of to oneself. And as there is surrender of what one naturally might use in order to distinguish or set off oneself, a fragrance will fill the house, as it filled the house at Bethany. Neither the Pharisee nor the Judas will approve of this personal devotedness to Christ, but still the fragrance is there.

Fragrance is within the compass or reach of the youngest in Christ, and the most retired. It is the property of flowers from the lily of the valley to the rose of Sharon, and it is also the property of ripe fruit. It is the peculiar delicate appeal that arrests and charms one, without insinuating any claim to attention, and which while contributing, is unobtrusive and unofficious as the air which is the medium of its communication. It is dispensed to all impartially, and each one’s share depends on self. Self-denying devotion to the Lord produces this. Giving up what I naturally would like to expend on myself fills the house with this fragrance. There may be the fragrance of flowers or that of ripe fruit. When “the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear ... the time of the singing of birds is come ... the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell” (Song of Songs 2: 11 - 13). Both flowers and the ripe fruit have the one common property. But for the fragrance of fruit there must be maturity which all have not attained to, while that of the flower is within the reach of all and any. The lily grows in the valleys among thorns. In the multitude of atomic contributions it forms an atmosphere of its own. The fig-tree and the vine bear their fruits. Special deeds are performed by them, their works are fragrant. Fragrance crowns the ripe fruit. For fruit there must be a tree, an amount of woody fibre and stamina; one cannot be practitioner until one has been fitted for it;

^[p. 179] You must receive before you confer. You must be out of the nest and have learnt to fly, before you can build a nest and serve others. But as the lily of the valley you may fill a circle with fragrance before the tender grape gives a good smell. You may not have the ripe fruit, but you may always be the lily. The more simply devoted you are to Him who is worthy of all devotion, the more fragrance there will be in all your ways, for it will be manifest that you are not seeking yourself, not wincing because your rights are invaded, or that you are not as much cared for as you are entitled to be; but that there is only one governing thought of your life about everything, and that is, how you may distinguish Him who fills every blank in your heart, and lights it up with unfading joy.