JESUS Said "Deny Yourself, And Take Up Your Cross Daily And Follow ME."

Constant multiplication of corrupted copies!

(J.A. James, "Earnestness in Personal Religion" 1847)

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Our idea of the nature of earnest 

individual piety must be taken, not from 

the conventional customs of the age--

but from the Word of GOD. 

Once give up the Bible as the only true 

standard of personal piety, and there 

is no rule left but custom, which is ever 

varying with the opinions and corruptions 

of the times.

Yet how prevalent is the disposition to 

conform ourselves to the prevailing 

religion of the day and of the church 

to which we belong, and to satisfy 

ourselves with the average 

measure of piety around us! 

"I am as good as my fellow members!" is 

the shield with which many a professor 

wards off the allegation of his living 

below his Scriptural duty.

This has been the fatal practical error 

of the church through every age of its 

existence, by which . . .
  its beauty has been disfigured,
  its power weakened, and
  its usefulness impeded!

Professing Christians, instead of looking 

into the perfect standard of Scripture, 

and seeing themselves reflected from 

that faithful mirror, and adjusting 

their character and conduct by 

its infallible revelations--

placed before themselves 

the standard of the Christian 

profession as it was found in 

the church of the day, and regulated 

their behavior by what they saw in

the prevailing character of their 

fellow Christians! 

Thus a constant multiplication 

of corrupted copies has ever been 

going on! And religion, as seen in 

the conduct of its professors, compared 

with that which is described in the pages 

of its own inspired rule--

have been quite different things!

Let us turn away from the religion 

we see in the church--

to the religion we read in the Bible! 

Let us not go to the imperfect 

and blurred copy--

but to the perfect and 

unspotted original! 

The Bible's representation of the nature 

of true piety is intended for us as our 

guide, and is obligatory upon us!

But the inspired, unalterable, and 

infallible standard of Scripture is . . .
  too spiritual,
  too devout,
  too unearthly,
  too humbling,
  too self-denying,
for many professors.

"Deny yourself, and take up your cross 

daily and follow ME"(Luke 9:23b)

is still the stern, unbending demand 

of CHRIST.

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