September 15

Can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? — Mark 10:38

Whate’er my God ordains is right;
Though I the cup must drink
That bitter seems to my faint heart,
I will not fear nor shrink.
—S. RODIGAST.

The worst part of martyrdom is not the last agonizing moment; it is the wearing, daily steadfastness. Men who can make up their minds to hold out against the torture of an hour have sunk under the weariness and the harass of small prolonged vexations. And there are many Christians who have the weight of some deep, incommunicable grief pressing, cold as ice, upon their hearts. To bear that cheerfully and manfully is to be a martyr. There is many a Christian bereaved and stricken in the best hopes of life. For such a one to say quietly, “Father, not as I will, but as Thou wilt,” is to be a martyr. There is many a Christian who feels the irksomeness of the duties of life, and feels his spirit revolting from them. To get up every morning with the firm resolve to find pleasure in those duties, and do them well, and finish the work which God has given us to do, that is to drink Christ’s cup. The humblest occupation has in it materials of discipline for the highest heaven.
—F. W. ROBERTSON.