The Cross

And who has not found, in the first approaches of God to his soul, in the first dealings of the blessed Spirit with his conscience, great mountains and hills in the way? Some of these are from natural, but not for that less trying, quarters. How our relatives and friends oppose, perhaps persecute us; how our temporal interests often stand in the way of our conscience, and how, as was particularly my own case, all our worldly prospects and all our long and deeply cherished plans stand as a mountain in the way of taking up the cross and following Christ. My first stroke was the cutting down of all my worldly prospects, for those who could and would have advanced me to emolument and honour were deadly enemies to the truths of the Gospel which I had embraced. The second was sharper still, for it took away my all, and almost stripped me to my last penny. When I was in the Church of England, I thought nothing could bring me out, for I dreaded the prospect of poverty and sickness, as I was at that time in a bad state of health. Oh, what a mountain this was before my eyes! The very thought of leaving, how it worked in my mind, until conscience knocked at the door again and again; and the voice of conscience at last obliged me to listen and obey. But so different was the prospect from the reality, that the day after I left was one of the most comfortable I ever had in my life; and truly wonderful, for more than twenty-three years since, have been the Lord s providential dealings with me.