The meaning of the cross

Kagawa, Toyohiko, Publications Committee, St. John's Young Men's Bible Class, Wellington, N.Z., 1935

PUBLISHERS’ PREFACE.

The publishers desire to make grateful acknowledgment of Dr. Kagawa's permission to print the following pamphlet. On several occasions, during his recent tour of Australia and New Zealand, Dr. Kagawa spoke on "The Meaning of the Cross." On each occasion, while the substance of the address was the same, expressions, elaborations, and illustrations varied. Several stenographic reports of these addresses have been made available, and they are combined in one address in the following pages. The difficulties of this editorial task have been numerous, but Dr. Kagawa's actual words have been faithfully adhered to, with the usual exceptions, here and there, of adapting the spoken word and phrase to the necessities of print.

Those who heard Dr. Kagawa speak, and there must be few who did not, will soon discover In these words of his something of that vitality and incisiveness which is so much a part of his personality; and they will recognise and relish the vivid phrasing, the quaint idiom, and the un-English constructions, all serving to retain that charming and delightful freshness which was so characteristic of his style.

It is hoped that this pamphlet, capturing as it does the spirit of his message, will help to recollect and preserve the memory of Dr. Kagawa's visit to our country, and will therefore be valued by all who want to keep that memory fresh.

The publishers are grateful also to the stenographers who have made this publication possible, and to the Rev. J. R. Blanchard, 8.A., to whom Dr. Kagawa entrusted the editing of this address.

Issued by The Publications Comm‘ 'c

No. 5

of St. John’s Young Men’s Bible Class.

September 1935.

Wellington, N.Z.

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The original publication details are as follows:

Title: The meaning of the cross

Author: Kagawa, Toyohiko

Published: Publications Committee, St. John's Young Men's Bible Class, Wellington, N.Z., 1935

THE MEANING OF THE CROSS.

DR. TOYOHIKO KAGAWA.

Why is it that after Jesus was hanged on the tree more than nineteen centuries ago people still admire and worship Him? Jesus was not a king or a general; He was not a scholar or a scientist; He was a carpenter until lie was about thirty years of age. Then, three years later, He was hanged on a tree; and because He was hanged on a tree people still admire and love Him. It is really a wonderful thing that a man who was a carpenter, living only thirty-three years on the earth, could achieve such a wonderful thing within such a short period! When He left the carpenter's shop, He joined John the Baptist for about one year. When John the Baptist was imprisoned, Jesus left Judaea and went into Galilee, where He preached to and healed thousands of people who assembled there to listen to Him. But after one year had passed, John the Baptist was put to death; then Jesus went abroad into the North. He took a trip to Syrophoenicia, and after a time came again to Galilee. He found He had to take a second trip, because the spirit of revolution was so strong, so He went North again. After a year, He appeared in Galilee once more, and passed on through Peraea. This time He was determined to go to the Cross. So, roughly speaking, Jesus appeared only about a year to the mass of the lews. How can a man make such a tremendous achievement as Jesus has made within a year, without inventing any machines or discovering anything? Simply by having a consciousness about God, He has become the greatest personality in the world.

But the chief reason that we admire and worship Him lies deeper. It lies in His consciousness of the Cross, which is as mysterious as ever. When we think about the Cross of Jesus we sometimes do not understand the meaning of it. Though we have wonderful institutions in the name of Christ, in some way we have failed to realise the true meaning of the Cross; for we have failed to prevent terrible wars, depressions, panics; and there are millions of people out of jobs. We must take three aspects of the Cross of Jesus. Because sus was crucified by a Roman Governor, it is necessary to take it from the social aspect. But because Jesus went to the Cross on His own initiative, we must think about the ethical

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aspect of the Cross; but not in these only. There was in Jesus' own thought a deeper meaning of the Cross; so we must think of it from the third aspect —that is, from the religious aspect.

I.

Jesus was crucified not simply as a religious teacher. He was crucified because He was judged to be a traitor to the Roman Empire. When we read the first three gospels— Matthew, Mark and Luke—we do not understand the true reason why Jesus had to be crucified. That is probably because the censorship of the Roman Empire was so strict that it was difficult for those writers clearly to express what they had to say. But when we read the Gospel of St. John, we find the true reason why Jesus had to be put to death. In the Gospel of St. John, chapter 6, verse 15, it is written that the crowd was anxious to make Jesus a King, and tried to force Him to become one. But Jesus did not like that idea, and He declined the proposal. He could see that they were wanting Him to be the leader of a revolution against the Roman Emperor; so He told them that the revolution would not bring the eternal Kingdom of God upon earth. It was a big mass of people who were trying to force Him this way. St. Mark, in chapter 6 of his Gospel, tells us that there were 5,000 of them. So Jesus took a trip to Syrophoenicia, and waited a time until the agitation for revolution had died down. When He returned again to the Sea of Galilee, after a few months’ travel, He found about 4,000 people waiting for Him, eager to force Him to be a king. He saw that the agitation for revolution against Herod Antipas, and also against the Roman Emperor, was not quietened down, so He took another trip northward, travelling round the cities of Decapolis, and there He waited a time. When He went to Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples about their opinion of His mission, and Peter confessed that He was Jesus the Messiah. But Jesus said: “You must keep that story secret.” He never permitted them to speak about His Messiahship, because His conception about the Messiahship was different from that of the disciples. They took Him as an earthly King, while Jesus had a different view of Kingship. He knew in His own mind that He would have to die on the Cross, and until that time He could not be a true Messiah. So at this time He told them that He would be crucified, and ordered them to keep their mouths closed about His Messiahship. It would not be understood. They were annoyed at His speaking about

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the Cross, and pleaded with Him not to think about a Cross; but Jesus was determined. It was I lis way of avoiding a blood revolution and of establishing a real, imperishable, everlasting society—a State of God—on the earth. That is the social aspect of the Cross. Now many people do not understand the essence of social construction. They think that the Cross of Jesus has nothing to do with it; that religion is religion, and social construction quite another matter. Rut if you meditate deeply you will find that Jesus did not make that mistake in the slightest way. Many people think that revolution is the way of social construction. There have been revolutions in Russia, Germany, Spain and Portugal. There was a big revolution in China. We find in Soviet Russia more than 18 years after the great Revolution of 1917, in which thousands perished, the people are still suffering. When I came over from Japan to Australia there were four Russians on board, who told me many things about the life of Moscow which made me very sad. When Jesus was asked to lead a revolution, He preferred the death on the Cross.

It must lie remembered that if we desire to have a certain society, it is absolutely necessary that it be organised. Rut how shall we organise society? There are three kinds of society. The first is that of physical nature. We have bodies, and we need food, so we are tempted to think that society is nothing but physical in its nature. This produces what is called the "family society," the members of which are connected by blood relations, like the family system in Japan. This is not an organised international state at all. Its members are so much connected that there is no need for sacrifice at all, except as mothers and fathers sacrifice their energies for their children.

Rut when we take a fresh point of view, we find that there is a second stage of society, called psychological society. It is an ethical state. It has clubs for fine arts, for research, and so forth. These transcend the lines of race and colour, and in some cases of religion. Rut those who have not capacities and abilities are shut out from such societies. Reyond these two, there is the third stage of society, that of full consciousness of human need, and of God. That is the kind of society Jesus was seeking to establish on earth —the Kingdom of God. It is more than a physical society, which deals only with blood relations. It is also more than an ethical society. Confucius was the most wonderful teacher of ethics in China, but if you study his teachings carefully you are disappointed, because his teaching of charity means simply to love those

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who are willing to have some kind of relation with you. The teachings of Confucius are not sufficient to establish a full, imperishable state on earth. A certain descendant of Confucius found this out, and he is now a Christian. Jesus tried to have a real, imperishable, everlasting society—a state of God established on the earth.

lie based it on service. The disciples of Jesus often had quarrels among themselves. When they came back to Capernaum, you will remember, Jesus asked them why they were disputing with one another. They were thinking of the premiership of the Cabinet, when Jesus would be King. Again, when they were travelling in Peraea, James and John and their mother went to Jesus and asked for the best seats in the Cabinet. And when Jesus was giving His farewell message, the disciples were quarrelling among themselves as to who would be greatest in the Cabinet. Jesus said to them: "If anybody wanted to be a chief in their society, let him be a servant." Many people still think as did the disciples of Jesus. When I lived in the slum district of Kobe, in my own block there was a Young Men's Association, and there were twenty-seven members. Out of the twenty-seven, twentythree fellows were heads of some kind under different names. There was one president, two vice-presidents, seven chairmen on the different lines of committees, and all wanted to be chiefs. That is a heathenish way to have a society. If we want to have a good society, we need the whole consciousness of all its members to be fully awakened to the need of stewardship; otherwise there is no chance to organise a good society. The Republic of Mexico, for example, have the best law in the whole world for political democracy, but they have never kept it. Why ? Though you may make good laws, if the consciousness of the members who have joined the Society be not awakened to keep the law, that Society is rotten. So when we are willing to serve for others' sake, for the sake of society, as Jesus did, then we shall have the Kingdom of God on earth. That truth is very simple, but that truth is very difficult to be practised, if we are really wanting to be heads of society. If that is our spirit, it is impossible to have real communistic living.

There are two kinds of Communism—the receiving kind and the giving kind. Receiving Communism means that we want to receive everything from others. We say, "We have a right to receive; we have a right to exploit, we have a right to rob—a right!" Rut if we insist on that, it is absolutely impossible to have the good State of the Kingdom of God on

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earth. We must be willing to give away, as the light gives away its rays. That is absolutely necessary. Therefore, as Jesus said, unless we are servants of society, there shall be no real, imperishable society. That is why Jesus chose to go to the Cross.

He based His society also on love. We have a certain kind of morality that we must love sick people, but we should also love ugly people. We discriminate between the yellow and the white races; we do not like negroes. In a Christian mind there is no such distinction between races, because in the consciousness of God there is not that distinction. More than that, God asks us even to love sinners, criminals, exconvicts, even our enemies, and to be willing to suffer for their sakes. Apart from that, it is not possible to have a good society. But how can we love such people ? We must have a full consciousness of God.

All cultures depend on the workings of consciousness; as we remain sub-conscious we have a dreamy culture. When your consciousness is awakened 40 per cent, you have 40 per cent, good society. Well, you know we have three stages in a day—(l) when we are asleep at night, then our consciousness is sub-conscious —we may have some dreams, but subconsciousness is prevalent then. (2) When we awake in the morning and when we wash our faces, we are then 30 to 40 per cent, awake. (3) When we go to our job, sometimes, well, we are 70 per cent., or if we are good people, 80 per cent, awake. But with Jesus, He was 100 per cent, awake. His consciousness was with God; He had God-consciousness, a certain cosmic consciousness. But with us, though we think we are awake, —awake enough to take some profit from others, —that sort of consciousness is about 60 per cent, awake. Until our consciousness be awakened to 100 per cent., thinking in the terms of Jesus, we are not really men at all; but when we get a little fatigued we slip clown again and we lose our consciousness. So our civilisation goes the same way. When we forget to love others we lose our consciousness —it is only about 30 per cent, awakened—our environment, our material world are most present to our consciousness then.

When Karl Marx said “Prosperity depends on material things,” perhaps he has forgotten to think about the awakening of consciousness. When we are slightly interested about class-consciousness we are really 50 per cent, awake. Unless we are conscious about the need of social solidarity, forget-

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ting class-consciousness, thinking about all people of every colour, there shall be no peace; there shall be no uplift of the whole people of the nation; there shall be no peace internationally. So our civilisation goes up and down, but it is because Jesus had full consciousness history leads up to him. Take an example : My sister adopted a girl, and as my sister was suffering from rheumatism, 1 had to take care of that girl. She went into a primary school, and while she was in the third grade, in the summer time, she had to write a diary. But she was rather a lazy girl; she did not like doing it. So on 6th August I asked her to write a diary, and she went into her own room and began to write. After 40 minutes she went out for a walk, so I called out and asked her if she had finished. She said: "I have written two weeks ahead.'" 1 asked her to bring me the diary, and she had written weeks ahead. She had copied the diary of the Ist August almost to the end: "Six o'clock in the morning I got up, I ate and prayed, and ate and slept." Well, you know, we repeat that kind of thing. When we have that kind of diary it is not a true diary at all, nor may it be called a true history. Our present day history is a false history, similar to my niece's diary. Only when our consciousness is gradually awakened to a full consciousness, to a cosmic-consciousness, to a Godconsciousness, is history a true history. When we are awakened to God-consciousness, as that of Jesus, then we have a true history. So history reaches up to Jesus, making His consciousness the standard. We look back to Jesus, and so we write our calendar with the birth of Jesus as the beginning of the present era. Not because Jesus was a king or a hero do we do that, but because He had God-consciousness. When we reach to God-consciousness, then we have the true human being; and when we are awakened to thinking thus, there will be a real society.

All religions of culture and social welfare are really concerned to make our consciousness to be fully awakened. So Communists, when they think only in the materialistic way. are making a serious mistake—without consciousness they are simply not a good community. When you have cosmic-con-sciousness you feel the need of social re-construction, the need to suffer for your neighbour's sake; you feel the need to serve as a steward, to serve as a slave for the community's sake That principle of the Cross becomes the inciple of the social construction for ever.

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There is no single way to reconstruct society I have been engaged in the Labour Movement, being an Organiser of the Labour party in Japan. The more I got into labour politics the more I was impressed by the principles of social construction; the more I felt the need of social construction, based on the consciousness of Jesus with the principle of the Cross. Then 1 was sure that we would have a really basic ground for social construction. Our consciousness is not awakened. You may try Materialistic Communism, Mussolinism. and Hitlerism, but you will fail. Those principles are temporary, tentative methods—not permanent at all. You need to have the consciousness of Jesus applied to society to have a true community, emerging and blooming out from the lowly people into a splendid prosperous community.

So Jesus declined to take a kingship in Judea, and Hewent towards the Cross. He knew that when he spoke out the truth He would be isolated. Jesus prepared the road. He went towards the temple, and He cleansed the temple. The High Priests did not like it. The merchants in Jerusalem did not like it; and those people who mocked at Jesus on the tree were those exploiters who could not squeeze the people who went to worship in the temple. Those people could not ma ke a . en Jesus was around, and so they went gradually against Him and He was crucified. The same thing is found' to-day. Selfish people are everywhere, selfish people against altruistic people. And selfishness is a hindrance to social welfare. Class-selfishness and national selfishness are hindrances to the peace of the whole world.

11.

But the Cross of Jesus has a deeper meaning than this social aspect. There is (he ethical aspect. Some people think that "l" Christ is too ugly, too cruel to think about. So they think it better to take away the Cross from the centre of the Church. The world looks very bright when the birds sing and the flowers bloom; and what is the need for the Cross of Christ? I said very definitely and rethat unless we bear the Cross we cannot be His !,, thinl ' the Cross from an ethical viewpoint, it has I a negative aspect and a positive one. Anybod; ant to have something established must deny himself. That self-denial is the negative aspect of the Cross. St. Paul referred to it in his letter to the R on e crucify our own ego—

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our selfishness —we can never meet God. Killing our ego on the Cross ! That is the negative side. But there is a positive side. Jesus taught it in the parable of the grain of wheat. He said that a grain of wheat must be dropped into the ground; and when it dies there shall be a big crop. So it is clear that a death on the Cross is an investment for new growth. That is a meaning of the Cross of Jesus for us. More freedom, more growth, more progress needs to be acquired by humanity. But without sacrifice we shall never have it. We have only a short period to live on the earth, and if we want to have perpetual growth, mothers and fathers must sacrifice their lives for those who are coming later. Unless mothers suffer for the sake of their babies, there can be no homes, no civilisation, no growth in society. Whenever we need an evolution or growth in civilisation, we need sacrifice; for without sacrifice there can be no culture. It is a most wonderful thing if we can cut away our selfishness and abide in the love of God. We are thinking of ourselves too much: of what we shall eat; of how we shall dress; and of how we shall drive our motor-cars. That is the reason why we suffer. Oh! if we could only realise the blessedness of sacrifice for others' sake! It is the glory! But whenever you deny yourself, deny your egoism, and suffer for the cause of humanity, there is growth and human evolution. Without that kind of sacrifice, there shall be no permanent progress. But where there is that death, there shall be the victory of perpetual development. So the Cross of Jesus means real investment for the growth that is following. Without the bearing of that cross in human lives, there shall be no permanent growth for humanity.

111.

If we take the Cross of Jesus simply as some kind of social or ethical teaching, we are forgetting the deepest part of its teaching. So the reason why we adore the Cross of Christ lies deeper than its social or ethical significance. It lies in the deep self-consciousness of Jesus. That brings us to the religious aspect of the Cross. That is the greatest aspect of it. Now, what does it mean'

I have mentioned that our consciousness is not fully awakened to that of Jesus. Our consciousness is onlv seventy to eighty per cent, awake; so we love our country, but forget other countries. Japan thinks in terms of the Japanese country, and forgets her Christian friends in China. We

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ridicule our Chinese brethren. The Germans ridicule the French, and the French all the time hate the Germans. Because of that, we cannot understand the true meaning of the Cross. St. John, in his first letter, chapter four, verse eight, made that clear: "Whosoever loveth not, knoweth not God." Some people cannot understand the real meaning of the blood of Jesus, when He said: "My blood shall be shed for the remission of the sins of many." They take it as something merely doctrinal. There is a doctrinal meaning in the Cross of Jesus. But there is a sense in which doctrines have not life. And what we need to-day is not doctrines and creeds, but life. Life to restore the values we have lost! The life, which is the power of God—that is what we need. Doctrines and creeds are nothing but some floating scum of the surface of the ocean. On the bottom of the ocean we have the wonderful network of the love of God. When we have discussions, and sometimes arguments, in the Church about creeds, we are making serious mistakes. We must look in the bottom of this ocean, where the network of creation—the love of God—is wonderfullv hidden.

Ten years ago I visited a certain Professor of Theology in the Berlin University, Germany. He said to me: “Mr. Kagawa, we have too much reasoning in Germany about Theology, but there has come a certain period when we must depart from rationalism. Now we are come to seek Christ through our human sufferings.” The more we suffer, the more shall we find out the truth of the Cross of Jesus, and realise the meaning of His blood. Unless we are willing to suffer for others’ sake, it is absolutely impossible to realise that. Those who want to have a good time can never realise the meaning of the blood of Jesus. There are people who ridicule this conception of redemption. They say: “How can a man redeem the sins of others ?” The trouble is they are too individualistic. Because they are so self-centred they cannot think in terms of social solidarity.

Now, when Jesus said that His blood would be shed for the remission of sins, what did He mean ? The blood in bur own blood vessels circulates in the veins. It goes to the farthest part of the body from the heart, and back again to the heart in thirteen seconds. Blood has a responsibility to go through all the body; a big responsibility to cover the field of the whole body. It has a conception of social solidarity for the whole being. So it is with the love of God. As the blood goes to the farthest point of our body, so the love of God goes to the farthest point of human nature and of human

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society. Jesus made that clear when lie told that wonderful parable of the shepherd who was willing to leave the ninetynine sheep in the enclosure, and go out and seek the lost one. The love of God is thus like the blood of our bodii

As it is with the Love of God, so is it with the man of God-consciousness with the Lamb of God. When our consciousness is fully awakened to feel the need of our neighbour, we cannot sit quietly, but are eager to offer up ourselves to redeem others. For instance, they had a big earthiterday in India.* Mill eople have read the story of that earthquake, but many of them simply drank their cups of tea and went on enjoying themselves. They are not awakened. Some people will go to tl d see the pictures of that earthquake, and not feel the agony of it. But when we can feel the agony of such a calamity, we can understand something of the agony of those who suffered it. Jesus felt the agony of the love of His Father in heaven for sinners. Jesus therefore felt He had to help those sinners, and was willing to stay with the despised tax-gatherers to go to prostitutes. For as the blood goes to the it of the body, so the love of God in Jesus went to the farthest point of human nature. Though the people mocked at Him lie did not care wanted to redeem. He felt the agony of the love of God for sinners, and felt that lie had to suffer and ask pardon for the sins of men. Si. Hewent to the Cross. There He suffered and asked the Heavenly Father. That is what the bli Further, while the blood goes through the whole body, it is a underneath the surface. It new rs on the surface of the skin. We have eyes, ears, nose and mouth—all of which appear and are seen. But blood dues not come out to the skin and make its appearance there. When it does, . "He is wounded!" So it is with the hj God. It is hidden. Looking at nature, for example, we I find the love of God instinctively. It is hidden as the blood is hidden underneath the skin. But when we look upon the if [esus we clearly see the love of God. In : wounds the love of God for sinners is made to appear.

But think again of the missions which the blood fulfils in the body. When we have some sore spot, the blood goes and heals that spot. It flows to the weakest part of the body, to

*This refers to the disastrous earthquake which occurred on Ist June. 1935, centred at Quetta, in Baluchistan, in which

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cure wounds and to heal disease. All the time it is working to mend the deterioration of the tissues of the body and to create new tissue. And as the blood of our own physical body is able to heal our weaknesses, so the love of God through Christ can cure our sinful natures. Feeling the suffering of God for human depravity and human deterioration, He went to the Cross to die for the cause of the restoration of bodies that might be lost. And I lis blood thus shed heals our sin.

There was a criminal in Japan who robbed a woman, killed her, and set lire to her body to hide his crime. He was arrested, and put into prison. There was also a man preaching in the streets of Yokohama. lie was arrested and put into the cell next to the murderer. He read the Bible every morning. Two weeks later, the man gave a New Testament to the murderer, but because the New Testament was very difficult to him, he did not read it. Seven years passed. In a dream he was told he ought to read the New Testament, and he began to do so. There he found Jesus, whose blood, it said redeemed from all sin. lie believed. He said to the warden of the prison house: "Now I believe in Christ; make me a servant of the hospital in the prison house." His request was granted, and he served the sick people. The inmates of the prison were very surprised, and came to the warden and said, "What a change has come over him !" They found that he had become a Christian through reading the New Testament. In the beginning he was sentenced to death because he had killed a person, but because he was only about nineteen years of age, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Later, because he behaved so well, his term of imprisonment was reduced, and he served twenty-live years. When he came out the Japanese public was amazed. He became a famous evangelist. Many became Christians through his preaching, and received baptism from him. One of these was Baron Morimura, who later became internationally famous.

Now, what is the explanation of this? That murderer saw that the life and death of Jesus manifested the suffering of God for sin. He believed and was changed. And if anybody believes that, though he has guilt and sins, God is suffering more than he is, he shall be changed. He shall be saved. That is the true meaning of the Cross. That is its deepest explanation. So, whenever lam sad, thinking of my heritage of sin and of the laws of heredity, which seem to bind me to certain limits, I think about the loving kindness of God, Who

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is willing to cut off all the bondage of sin and crime, and deliver us from all the mistakes and faults of the human race in the past, to save us from punishment, and to make us sons of God. That is what the Love of God does through the Cross of His Son Jesus.

IV.

All that I have said is simple. But unless our consciousness be awakened, unless it be blessed with a knowledge of the New Testament and with the Holy Spirit, we cannot grasp it. When the writers of the four Gospels wrote of Jesus, "And Tie received the Holy Spirit," the}' meant that though He was the son of a carpenter, and Himself a carpenter, His consciousness was with God. He had a full consciousness of God. As a man, He lived the consciousness of God. So the true redeeming love of God, which can save and heal and re-create, was truly conceived in the mind of Jesus. He carried that through by the Cross, by the power of the Holy Spirit. And unless our consciousness be blessed with the Holy Spirit we do not know the power of the Holy Spirit, for it is only as we receive the Holy Spirit that we receive God's power and are awakened to full God-consciousness.

In the New Testament it is written, "The Holy Spirit shakes the consciousness." That means that when we have the Holy Spirit within us we cannot sit still. We must do something to redeem others. So to receive the Holy Spirit and to die on the Cross are not two separate matters at all. The Holy Spirit within and the death of the Cross without cannoj be divorced. When you receive the Holy Spirit, that is, when you can feel with your consciousness the God-con-sciousness, the redeeming consciousness, then you cannot sit still, but have to act, as the disicples of Jesus, to help in the redemption of the human race. That was the true meaning of the death of Jesus as the Pascal Lamb.

It is very difficult to think about this wonderful conception of Jesus as redeemer without this work of the Holy Spirit in us. John, the apostle said in his letter, "Whosoever loveth not, knoweth not God." When a dynamo is set up, we cannot feel any power of electricity so long as the dynamo remains still. But when it moves, it gathers electric power; the more it moves, the more power it gathers. You touch the dynamo, and you have the power. So when the dynamo of love in our hearts is kept quiet, we cannot have the power of God. But the more we set that dynamo of love working,

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the more does this great power of God come into and through our consciousness. The more that dynamo moves within us, the more do we fill out God's consciousness in our consciousness. Whoever loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. So long as we are pleasure-seekers, so long as we are content to say, "Let us have a good time, let us drink and be merry," we shall sit in darkness. Rut when our consciousness is awakaned by the love of God through the Holy Spirit, we shall walk in the light of the Cross of Jesus, in the light of the redeeming love of God.

V.

Because Jesus shed His blood on the Cross for the sake of others we who believe, are saved, and the love of God through Christ can cure our sinful natures. That is the reason why I became a Christian. I was born in a family where wealth and dignity was preserved. I had the feeling that I had inherited some sort of evil nature, and was destined to commit some kind of immorality. So I cried out to God. Thank God, my prayer was answered. I have had a most wonderful experience of the graciousness of God. If anybody realises that he is sinful, let him just depend on the blood of Christ, and he will become a new creature. That was my experience, because Jesus paid the penalty. He offered Himself as the perfect Lamb of God, and I believe in Him.

Many of us have been awakened to the love of Christ as shown by His death on the Cross, but we forget to live up to the standard of Jesus' love, and we slip down. We need a revival of faith in God, a revival in our belief in the redeeming love of Christ. Do let us take the Cross of Christ very seriously. Let us not be nominal Christians. Let us stand on our feet, so that the Cross of Jesus may be glorified.

O, Heavenly Father, make us fitted for Thy service, bearing the Cross of Jesus, and following in the steps of the Redeemer. Make us humble. Make us the servants of our neighbours and of society. O Lord, we are full of sin, but we believe the blood of Jesus can make us clean. Amen.

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