The cross brings Christ to us. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. This is the cross. Christ lives in me as patience. He lives in me as all the human virtues which are considered by others as ethics. We need Christ, but without the experience of the cross, we cannot experience Christ. Hymn #631 says, "If no death, no life." This means, "If no cross, no Christ." Furthermore, "If no Christ, no Spirit, and if no Spirit, no fellowship." This is why the cross is needed. In Matthew 16:24 the Lord said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." The Lord used the words his cross. There is a particular portion of the cross for each one of us to cross each one of us out.

The young sisters among us need to experience the cross. For a sister to contact a brother in a loose and careless way is behavior without the cross. The top virtue of a female is her feeling or sense of being a female. The way a sister dresses should be appropriate to her position in the Lord as a female. This is why it is not scriptural for the sisters to wear pants. This annuls the difference between male and female and leads to many sinful things. Deuteronomy 22:5 says, "A woman shall not put on a man's belongings, nor shall a man wear a woman's garment; for everyone who does these things is an abomination to Jehovah your God." I appreciate the environment of freedom in which the children of America are raised, but this freedom can lead to looseness. A female should have the proper sense of her position in the Lord as a female.

A number of the young Chinese sisters among us are in the self in another way. Generally speaking, the Chinese educate their daughters to be somewhat quiet and hidden, and this has molded many of the young sisters. As a result, they are not so frank or open in their speaking. Whenever they speak, they speak in a way that is begging for pity from others. They always want the sympathy of others. A person who is begging for sympathy will eventually be offended. A person who does not expect anyone to regard him, to respect him, or to give him sympathy cannot be easily offended. An object like a chair cannot be offended no matter how I treat it because it is senseless. We are so easily offended by others because we are so sensitive to ourselves.

When the saints stand up to speak, they may desire to see how the leading brothers will respond. If the brothers say "Amen," they will be very happy. If the brothers do not respond much, they may be offended. This shows that there may be a kind of begging and expectation within us for others to regard us.

Much of our criticism of others is because we are too sensitive to ourselves and too conscious of ourselves. If we did not have such a strong self, we would not be offended by others. Many times we criticize others because we have been offended. We are offended because we are so sensitive to ourselves. We expect everyone to treat us right according to our opinion. If someone does not treat us right according to our opinion, we are offended. Then, sooner or later, criticism will come out of our mouth.

I would like to mention another point in helping us to be useful in the hand of the Lord. If we expect the Lord to use us more, we have to learn to speak for the Lord in the meeting with a proper tone, a proper sound. Some do not speak in such a proper way because they are so sensitive to themselves. Such ones cannot be used by the Lord in their speaking. They speak in the meetings in a self-pitying way. They love themselves, uplift themselves, and preserve themselves. In their speaking, they display that they are full of self-pity.

The cross is mainly for dealing with ourselves. The Lord said that if we desire to follow Him, we must deny ourselves and take up our cross. Actually, to bear the cross is to deny the self, to put the self to death, to apply the cross of Christ to the self all the time. If we have a strong self and are offended by everything and by everyone, we cannot have real fellowship. In order for us to have the horizontal fellowship, we need to deny ourselves. To deny ourselves means to be senseless about ourselves. Then we can never be offended. We need the experience of the cross to deepen our experience of the divine fellowship.