Two young soldiers were talking about the service of Christ. One of them said, “I can’t tell you all that the Lord Jesus is to me, or what He has done for me. I do wish you would enlist in His army.”
The young man answered, “I am thinking about it, but it means giving up several things—in fact, I am counting the cost.”
An officer, passing at that moment, overheard the last remark, and laying his hand on the speaker, he said, “My friend, you talk of counting the cost of following Christ, but have you ever counted the cost of not following Him?”
“The words of the wise are as nails fastened,” so that this question rang in the mind of the young man, and he got no rest till he found it by trusting in the Saviour of sinners, whose faithful soldier and servant he has now been for twenty-seven years.
“Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” Mark 8:34, 3534And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. (Mark 8:34‑35).