Crush its viper head with the heel of our boot!',

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"Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, 
and take up his cross and follow Me" Mark 8:34

To deny and renounce self lies at the very foundation 
of vital godliness. 

It is easy in some measure to leave the world; easy 
to leave the professing church; but to go forth out of 
self, there is the difficulty, for this "self" embraces 
such a variety of forms. 

What varied shapes and forms does this monster 
SELF assume! How hard to trace his windings! How 
difficult to track this wily foe to his hidden den; drag 
him out of the cave; and immolate him at the foot of 
the cross, as Samuel hewed down Agag in Gilgal. 

Proud self, 
righteous self, 
covetous self, 
ambitious self, 
sensual self, 
deceitful self, 
religious self, 
flesh-pleasing self.

How difficult to detect, unmask, strip out of its 
changeable suits of apparel, this ugly, misshaped 
creature, and then stamp upon it, as if one would 
crush its viper head with the heel of our boot!

Who will do such violence to beloved self, when every 
nerve quivers and shrinks; and the coward heart cries 
to the uplifted foot, "Spare, spare!" 

But unless there is this self crucifixion, there is 
no walking hand in hand with Christ, no heavenly 
communion with Him; for there can no more be a 
partnership between Christ and self, than there 
can be a partnership between Christ and sin.

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