There is, further, the woe of the loss of sympathies, and the gain of all the discomforts and miseries of a self-absorbed life.  And there is, further, the woe of the loss of one of the best ways of confirming one’s own faith in the truth—­viz. that of seeking to impart it to others.  If you want to learn a thing, teach it.  If you want to grasp the principles of any science, try to explain it to somebody who does not understand it.  If you want to know where, in these days of jangling and controversy, the true, vital centre of the Gospel is, and what is the essential part of the revelation of God, go and tell sinful men about Jesus Christ who died for them; and you will find out that it is the Cross, and Him who died thereon, as dying for the world, that is the power which can move men’s hearts.  And so you will cleave with a closer grasp, in days of difficulty and unsettlement, to that which is able to bring light into darkness and to harmonise the discord of a troubled and sinful soul.  And, further, there is the woe of having none that can look to you and say, ’I owe myself to thee.’  Oh, brethren! there is no greater joy accessible to a man than that of feeling that through his poor words Christ has entered into a brother’s heart.  And you are throwing away all this because you shut your mouths and neglect the plain commandment of your Lord.

Ay! but that is not all.  There is a future to be taken into account, and I think that Christian people do far too little realise the solemn truth that it is not all the same then whether a man has kept his Master’s commandments or neglected them.  I believe that whilst a very imperfect faith saves a man, there is such a thing as being ‘saved, yet so as through fire,’ and that there is such a thing as having ’an abundant entrance ministered unto us into the everlasting kingdom.’  He whose life has been very slightly influenced by Christian principle, and who has neglected plain, imperative duties, will not stand on the same level of blessedness as the man who has more completely yielded himself in life to the constraining power of Christ’s love, and has sought to keep all His commandments.

Heaven is not a dead level.  Every man there will receive as much blessedness as he is capable of, but capacities will vary, and the principal factor in determining the capacity, which capacity determines the blessedness, will be the thoroughness of obedience to all the ordinances of Christ in the course of the life upon earth.  So, though we know, and therefore dare say, little about that future, I do beseech you to take this to heart, that he who there can stand before God, and say, ’Behold!  I and the children whom God hath given me’ will wear a crown brighter than the starless ones of those who saved themselves, and have brought none with them.

’Some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship, they all came safe to land.’  But the place where they stand depends on their Christian life, and of that Christian life one main element is obedience to the commandment which makes them the apostles and missionaries of their Lord.