The cross

and scattering everything, and through the distribution to the poor laying up beforehand for themselves eternal wealth, they took up the cross and followed Christ—some perfected by martyrdom, as I have already told you, others contending in the ascetic life, and falling short of those in nothing in the conduct of this true philosophy.

and you will run to the unapproachable light, and, taking up the cross on your shoulders, you will follow him without turning back, that you may be glorified together with him and be shown to be an heir of the life that no longer changes nor deceives.

Then indeed, when Josaphat had received the authority of the kingdom, as soon as he reached the city where the things of the kingdom had been prepared for him, he set the sign of the Master's passion, the venerable cross of Christ, upon every tower of the city;

" For when he fought with the last enemy, death, through the trophy of the cross he triumphed.

Not understanding that this was an old figure of the body of Christ, who says through Jeremiah, "Against me they have devised a device, saying, Come, let us cast wood upon his bread" — namely the cross upon his body.

" Take away therefore the cross itself.

And yet how much is the Attic Pallas distinguished from the post of a cross, or the Pharian Ceres, which stand without effigy, a rude stake and a shapeless block of wood?

What image is there that the clay does not first shape upon a cross and a stake?

All those tiers of images on the standards are the necklaces of crosses;

And such is he who fulfils the law and does the will of the Father, but is plainly inscribed upon a certain lofty wood, set forth as an example of divine virtue to those able to discern.

The cross's quality is a sign made of wood: