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『耶穌背著自己的十字架出來。』（約十九章十七節）
有一首詩名叫『換來的十字架』。裡面講到一疲乏的姊妹，以為她的十字架，一定比別人的更重，所以渴望和別人換一個背背。
一天，她做了一個夢，夢中她到了一個地方，在那裡橫著很多十字架－各種形狀不同，大小不同的十字架。有一個小十字架形狀最美麗，上面鑲嵌著寶石和黃金。這個姊妹一看見就說，『啊，這一個背著一定舒適。』所以她就把它拿起來，不料她虛弱的身體，竟在這個十字架下面震顫了，寶石和黃金果然美麗，可是它們太重了，她背不動。
後來，她又看見一可愛的十字架，彫刻的木架上，盤著美麗的鮮花。她想：這一定容易背了。她就將它舉起來，不料鮮花下面，有很多尖銳的刺，刺痛了她的皮肉。
她一步一步向前走去，一個一個試著，發見每一個十字架，都不容易背。最後，她看見一個樸素的十字架，上面沒有寶石，也沒有彫刻，只書著幾句親愛的話。她拿起它來，覺得這是很多中間最容易背的一個。她向它仔細一看，在陽光下，她認得這原來是她自己的舊十字架。啊！這個舊十字架竟是很多十字架中間最好最輕的一個！
親愛的讀者，神知道我們需要背的那一個十字架。我們不知道別人的十字架多麼重。我們常羨慕有錢的人－他們的十字架是黃金的，上面鑲嵌著寶石－我們卻不知道這十字架是多麼重。還有一些人，她們的生活似乎很是可愛－她們背著盤著鮮花的十字架－我們卻不知道鮮花下面有很多尖銳的刺。如果我們能去試試別人的－我們以為比我們自己的更輕的－十字架看，我們就會發見：這些十字架中間，沒有一個像我們自己這樣叫我們滿意。－譯自信徒生活一瞥（Glimpsesthrough Life's Windows）
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"And he went out carrying his own cross." (John 19:17.)
THERE is a poem called "The Changed Cross." It represents a weary one who thought that her cross was surely heavier than those of others whom she saw about her, and she wished that she might choose another instead of her own. She slept, and in her dream she was led to a place where many crosses lay, crosses of different shapes and sizes. There was a little one most beauteous to behold, set in jewels and gold. "Ah, this I can wear with comfort," she said. So she took it up, but her weak form shook beneath it. The jewels and the gold were beautiful, but they were far too heavy for her.
Next she saw a lovely cross with fair flowers entwinel around its sculptured form. Surely that was the one for her. She lifted it, but beneath the flowers were piercing thorns which tore her flesh.
At last, as she went on, she came to a plain cross, without jewels, without carvings, with only a few words of love inscribed upon it. This she took up and it proved the best of all, the easiest to be borne. And as she looked upon it, bathed in the radiance that fell from Heaven, she recognized her own old cross. She had found it again, and it was the best of all and lightest for her.
God knows best what cross we need to bear. We do not know, how heavy other people's cross are. We envy someone who is rich; his is a golden cross set with jewels, but we do not know how heavy it is. Here is another whose life seems very lovely. She bears a cross twined with flowers. If we could try all athe other crosses that we think lighter than our own, we would at last find that not one of them suited us so well as our own.─Glimpses through Life's Windows.
If thou, impatient, dost let slip thy cross,
Thou wilt not find it in this world again,
Nor in another; here and here alone,
Is given thee to suffer for God's sake.
In other worlds we may more perfectly,
Love Him and serve Him, praise Him,
Grow nearer and nearer to Him with delight.
But then we shall not any more
Be called to suffer, which is our appointment here.
Canst thou not suffer, then, one hour or two?
If He should call thee from thy cross today,
Saying: "It is finished─that hard cross of thine
From which thou prayest for deliverance,"
Thinkest thou not some passion of regret
Would overcome thee? Thou would'st say,
"So soon? Let me go back and suffer yet awhile
More patiently, I have not yet praised God."
Whensoe'er it comes, that summons that we look for,
It will seem soon, too soon. Let us take heed in time,
That God may now be glorified in us.
─Ugo Bassi's Sermon in a Hospital.
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