“If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself."
LUKE ix. 23.
SELF is the idol, formed of sin and dust,
All worship,-burning incense to their pride;
Each deeming homage paid to self most just;
Save their self-will knowing no law beside.
Poor, worthless idol, set up first through guile
Of the old serpent; when our parents took
That fruit whose taste was death, but thought the while,
When they the God of love and light forsook,
That gods they made themselves instead of slaves,
Gods, that have made God's world a world of graves!
Oh, glorious triumph of Incarnate Love!
The Son of God, self-sacrificed for those
Who, when He came self-emptied, from above,
From love of sinful self became His foes!
Oh, how it humbles self, on Him to gaze
In his unselfish path of patient grace
Servant of others all His pilgrim days,
Who can one shade of selfish seeking trace?
“If Thou be Christ, save self," they mocking cried:
Others to save, He gave Himself,-and died.
Self cannot conquer self. In vain men try
The hermit's cell, and cowl, and fasts, and cord:
The body may be lashed, and starved, and die;
Self-humbled self more proudly self will laud.
When on the cross we fix our wondering eyes,
Or sit adoring at the Savior's feet,
The meek and lowly One such grace supplies,
As makes His self-denying yoke so sweet,
That dead with Him to self, love only lives,
And Him to follow daily victory gives.