“The life of Christ was one of self-denial. He denied himself for thirty years, all the glories and happiness of the heavenly world and exposed himself to all the pains and sorrows of a life on earth. He denied Himself the praises and adorations of saints and angels, and exposed Himself to the blasphemies and reproaches of men. He denied Himself the presence and enjoyment of God and exposed Himself to the society of publican and sinners. He denied Himself everything that nature desires; He exposed himself to everything she dreads and abhors; to poverty, contempt, pain and death. When he entered on his glorious godlike design, He renounced all regard to his own comfort and convenience, and took up the cross, a cross infinitely heavier and more painful than any of his disciples had been called to bear, and continued to carry it through a rough and thorny road, till his human nature, exhausted, sunk under the weight. In short, he considered himself, his time, his talents, his reputation, his happiness, his very existence as not his own, but another’s and he ever employed them accordingly. He lived not for himself, he died not for himself, but for others he lived and for others he died.”