What does it mean to follow Christ
In self-effacement, all the way?
E'en He who pleased not Himself,
But lived for others, day by day-
From Bethlehem's manger lived for us,
E'en to His last breath on the cross.

He lived to serve, not to be served,
Spared not Himself, but spent His all,
And lavished kindness everywhere.
On those He came in love to call,
For "God so loved the world, He gave
His only Son," lost souls to save.

"Come, follow Me." Where does He lead?
Not where the world in thoughtlessness
Its pleasures seeks, forgetting God,
And Him who only came to bless;
The "Man of sorrows" here below
For sinners to the cross must go.

So to that cross we follow Him,
To find our sins all put away
By Him who gave Himself for us,
That we might live eternally;
'Twas to the cross He ever led,
Where He a willing Victim bled.

And there's no other way to life
Than through Thy death, O Son of God!
For Thou, the sinless, wast made sin,
And bore for me Jehovah's rod:
Thus in my stead, Lord, Thou wast tried,
And in my Substitute I died.

Life is not made of things so great
That we may hold them up to view,
But little things that none may see,
That we, forgetting self, may do.
If thou wouldst not the glory dim,
Cross out thyself and follow Him.

Helen McDowell