heads to guide us as a lamp through this dark world, and we mark with it the resting-place of our dead. In our battles with the powers of darkness our standard is the one God gave to Constantine, an illumined cross with the words, " In this sign, conquer." Before the crucifix we bow in adoration, and to possess even a particle of the original cross is to be rich indeed. The sign of the cross is the uniform of mercy's army, the countersign at which the world's sentinel cries: " Friend, pass on." Whatever good we do in life begins and ends with the sign of the cross, and dying we press it to our lips. Verily of the cross as of Christ Himself may be quoted the words: " I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end."
Brethren, this truth, that the only way to the crown is the cross, cannot be too strongly emphasized, for our instincts are contrary to the laws of Nature and grace. We recoil from the cross while we clutch the crown. But Nature acts otherwise. The tree does not spring up unless the seed dies. Far otherwise, too, is the service of God. Whoever have done great things for Him have succeeded because they held the goods of this life and life itself at their true value and sacrificed all for the life to come. " If any man will come after Me," says Christ, " let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me." The same is true of our efforts in behalf of humanity — our self-sacrifice will be the measure of their success. Why if, in purely secular spheres of human activity, men succeed because they literally put their heart, their
