The Christian religion is not popular and never will be. Often it is not even wanted, for it demands self-control; it demands detachment of spirit from the attractions of the world; it demands the suppression of our own selfishness.

Most people prefer instead to be slaves to the world, the flesh and the devil.

We are reminded of the Israelites of old after they had escaped from the slavery of Egypt. They murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and said, “If only we had died…in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread…” (NRSV, Exodus 16:3). Yet that austere and forbidding wilderness was the only way to the Promised Land which flowed with milk and honey: just as it was by way of Gethsemane that Our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven. And it is only by the renunciation of self in hard, spiritual endeavour that we shall get there too.

Note

See Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer and the summary of what Godparents did for us (Question 3): http://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-worship/worship/book-of-common-prayer/a-catechism.aspx

Reference

1. Bode, J.E. (1868) O Jesus, I have promised. Available from: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/o/o309.html (Accessed 10 May 2014) (Internet).