broad current of eternal death. Such a man is seldom strongly tempted. The less marked solicitations of the tempter are enough. The suggestion of a great sin might rouse his conscience, and scare him from the toils. We may take this, then, as a most safe rule, that a feeling of security is a warning to be suspicious, and that our safety is to feel the stretch and the energy of a continual strife.

.

But there is also another thing to remember. Our blessed Lord did not give this warning to discourage, but to rouse us. He well knew that men always despise things easy to be done; that they think what may be done easily may be done at any time; and that what may be done by a little effort is often never done at all. And men are ever ready to believe that it is no hard task to enter into life; and this, as knowing neither the holiness of God's kingdom, nor the sin that is in themselves. He therefore told them the naked truth, startling, awful, and unpalatable as it must ever be; and by this He tried the reality and strength of their intentions. Let no man, therefore, go away cast down. A consciousness of difficulty is to the true of heart a spur to efforts, and therefore a pledge of success at last. Only resolve to win eternal life, and He will accept your resolution as a pure offering. Measure your daily

life upon your resolution; shun all things that can betray your stedfastness; cleave to all that may strengthen or confirm your vow. Only be true to yourselves; and all help and all succour shall be given you. Twelve legions of angels shall wrestle for you, rather than that one faithful spirit perish from the way of life. To this end you were born, and for this cause came you into the world, that you should inherit the kingdom of God. Lose this, and all is lost. "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul; or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ?"

SERMON VII.

A SEVERE LIFE NECESSARY FOR CHRIST'S
FOLLOWERS.

ST. LUKE ix. 23.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take his cross daily, and follow me."

up

WE read in the Gospels both of St. Matthew and of St. Mark, that this startling precept was given at the time when Peter had been sternly rebuked for his misguided affection for his Lord. It was at the same time, when in the foresight of His coming agony, the Lord Jesus began to teach them what things the Son of man should suffer; and Peter, in the forwardness and blindness of his heart, "took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee. But He turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." And further, to shew the breadth of this great law of suffering, and how that

the law which reached even unto Him bound also every living soul that followed Him, He said unto them all, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." And thus, by words between a proverb and a prophecy, He foreshewed them both His own lot and theirs: He taught them the mysterious order of His unseen kingdom; how that He and His must all alike suffer, all deny self, all bear the cross. Again and again, through His whole ministry, He threw out this strange lure to win them more closely to Himself. It was so He strengthened His followers against the rending asunder of households and of kindred; it was so He tempered the over-ready eagerness of some that would follow Him before they had reckoned up the cost; it was so He sought to bind the rich young man for ever to His service, by one more, and that the last and strongest link. And the same deep truth we trace throughout the whole texture of His words and deeds: His own visible self-denial, and the cross which He daily bore, alike bespoke the lot of all that would be His. And what His life ever testified, He here expressly declared. And His words are both a bidding and a warning; they bid us that we come after Him; they warn us that we must deny ourselves; and they teach us that self-denial is the absolute condition of His service: or, in

other words, that without self-denial no man can be a faithful Christian.

And how universally this great condition has been fulfilled in all His true servants, is shewn by the whole history of the Church. The apostles, martyrs, confessors, bear witness with one voice to the same mystery of suffering. They testify that the badges of Christ's people are sufferings for Christ's sake; and even they to whom it was given to believe in Christ, but not to suffer for Him, the fellowship of all saints, conspire in the same awful testimony. They have each one borne the cross-each in his own unnoticed way; even though the nighest to them, it may be, knew it not: in some hidden grief, in some despised affliction, in some thing they burned to utter, but never dared to speak. Though the form of their afflic tion was invisible, yet they visibly bore the cross; and in bearing it, they shewed whose steps they followed. The character which was upon them was a legible countersign of their claim to be His servants. They had about them an integrity and completeness of the moral life, a fulness and distinctness of character; standing out from the world around, and yet dwelling in it; separate, and yet mingled in it; in contact with it, but unsullied by its touch; external to it, but guiding and checking its course; moving it, but not borne along