The Cross No Loss

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” — Matt. v. 17.

Christ is the only physician of the soul who does not restore by destroying; all other helpers cure by lopping off a limb. It is possible to cure in such a way. It is possible to make me good by deadening me. You can stop my flight into danger by depriving me of my wing. Many a child has been made obedient by destroying its power of will. Many a youth has been made moral by the mere exhaustion of his passions. Many a man has come to long for Heaven, only because he has lost the chance of ambition on earth. You may vanquish temptation at too dear a price — you may become too cold to feel. The benumbed heart will do no wrong. It will neither strive nor cry, neither plot nor scheme, neither fret nor scold; yet it is not thereby justified. It strives not, because it cares not; it has no temptation, because it has no desire. It has ceased to

51 D 2 hate, because it has ceased to love. It is salvation by death.

Not so is Thy coming, O Thou Saviour of Men. Thou dost not make the perfume by trampling on the flower. Man often gets the fragrance of a harmless life by breaking the ointment box. Not so dost Thou call forth life’s fragrance. Not by less, but by more love, dost Thou save us; not by diminished life, but by life “more abundant,” dost Thou make us beautiful. They tell me that Thou requirest the sacrifice of self. Nay, my Lord, not its sacrifice, but its enlargement. Thou breakest a wall in my room, but it is that I may include my brother’s room in mine. Not to destroy, but to fulfil, has the breakage come. I have been living in too small a house; I have been failing to see that my brother is a part of myself; I have been cherishing the delusion that the wall in my room is the limit of my interest. Therefore, Thou hast broken my wall, and let in the light beyond. Thou hast broken my wall and made me say, “I and my brother are one “; Thou hast broken my wall, and hast widened the range of my self-love. I have not sacrificed myself; I have grown into a bigger self. I have not lost respect for the members of my body, but I have added to their number the members of Thine. I

have not ceased to care for the calamities of life, but I have learned to say of these calamities, “Inasmuch as they did it unto the least, they have done it unto me.” My soul has not been crucified by yielding to Thy cross; Thou art not come to destroy, but to fulfil.