When he tells us, speaking of things spiritual, that “many are called, but few are chosen;” that “whoso hath, to him shall be given; but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath,”—­although the highest truth contained in these words be yet, in part, matter of faith, for we have not yet seen the end of God’s dealings with us:  yet what we do see, the evident truth of the words, that is, in respect to God’s dealings with us in the course of his earthly providence, may reasonably assure us of their truth no less in respect to those dealings of God which as yet are future.  I began, therefore, with reminding you of the truth of the words of the text with regard to worldly advantages; that even here, on this small scale, the general law holds good; that more things are provided for us than we will consent to use; that, in short, “many are called, but few are chosen.”

But it were ill done to limit our view to this:  we are called to much more than worldly advantages; and what if here, too, we add one more example to confirm our Lord’s words, that “many are called, but few chosen?” Now here, as I said, it is very true that God’s choice is as yet not a matter of sight or of certainty to us; we cannot yet say of ourselves, or of any other set of living men, that “few are chosen.”  But though the full truth is not yet revealed, still, as there is a type of it in our worldly experience, so there is also a higher type, an earnest, of it in our spiritual experience:  there is a sense, and that a very true and a very important one, in which we can say already, say now, actually, in the life that now is; say, even in the early stage of it, that some are, and some are not, “chosen.”

We have all been called, in a Christian sense, inasmuch as we have been all introduced into Christ’s church by Baptism; and a very large proportion of us have been called again, many of us not very long since, at our Confirmation.  We have been thus called to enter into Christ’s kingdom:  we have been called to lead a life of holiness and happiness from this time forth even for ever.  Nothing can be stronger than the language in which the Scripture speaks of the nature of our high calling:  “All things,” says St. Paul to the Corinthians, “all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Peter, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours; and ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”  Now, if this be the prize to which we are called, who are they who are also chosen to it?  In the first and most complete sense, no doubt, those who have entered into their rest; who are in no more danger, however slight; with whom the struggle is altogether past, and the victory securely won.  These are entered within the veil, whither we can as yet penetrate only in hope.  But hope, in its highest degree, differs little from assurance; and even, as we descend lower and lower, still, where hope is clearly predominant,