Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus to his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Our appetites and desires carry with them a principle of growth or tendency to enlargement. They expand by indulgence and, if not restrained, they fill and exhaust the soul, and hence are to be strictly watched over and denied. Nature has set bounds to the desires of the brute, but not to human desire, which partakes of the illimitableness of the soul to which it belongs. In brutes, for example, the animal appetites impel to a certain round of simple gratifications, beyond which they never pass. But man, having imagination and invention, is able by these noble faculties to whet his sensual desires indefinitely. (W. E. Channing.) Parallel Verses KJV: Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. |
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