When the disciples went out upon their first ministry they had no dogma or creed to preach. Their first sending forth was by Jesus while he was yet with them, so they could not preach about a crucifixion upon Golgotha, nor the necessity of believing in such an event in order to be saved. Then what was their “preaching of the cross,” as Paul expressed it in I Corinthians, first chapter, eighteenth verse? What was Paul’s preaching of it? Was it an historical event he was talking about, or did he see that the crucifixion of Jesus was a symbol, just as he saw that the Jewish sacrifices of rams and bullocks were symbols?

The Cross.

The “preaching of the cross” with all the true disciples of Jesus was just the same as that of Jesus himself. And that preaching is found embodied in his words,

“If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” --- Matt. 16 :24.

The preaching of the cross is the teaching of the denial of the personality, the material universe, and the principle of evil, or, in ecclesiastical language, it is the denial of “the world, the flesh, and the devil.” That which is the means by which you deny is called the Cross. To “cross out” is to cancel, and as long as there seems to be anything to be cancelled we must have our cross with us, which Paul calls “the power of God.”

When you successfully deny yourself by right mental practice and a selfless life, you reach that place where you can lay down your body at will, and you can take it up again. “I have power to lay it down, and I have