There are hundreds of people who, if they could begin again, would join the ranks of the religious—­at least they think they would, and perhaps say it.  If we could just start with a clean sheet, we would be Christians, we would walk in the noble and faithful way.  But then, you see, we cannot undo the years that have been lived in the other way.  We have committed ourselves to the irreligious side.  We have made all who know us understand that we do not care about religious things.  We have talked about them carelessly, perhaps contemptuously, as if we put no value upon them at all.  We have made a reputation of that sort, and now it stands in the way.  We cannot go back of all our old professions; the inconsistency would be manifest.  No one expects it of us.  No one would believe if we did it.  There you have the self-made difficulties again.  Because you did wrong all those years, you must needs go on doing wrong.  Because you talked and acted in an unbelieving way, you must not now change into the higher and prayerful way.  Because you have robbed God and your own souls so long, there is nothing for you but to continue repeating the offence.  Yet these, when you name them, are so absurd, that one could almost laugh at them.  The conviction that you have hitherto been on the wrong side is the one thing that ought to force you now to the right side.  Why should you perpetuate blunders, follies, and misdoings?  Why should the evil past chain you?  Let the dead bury its dead—­forget the things which are behind.  You have paid the hundred talents to the wrong master.  Why should you go on paying because you have done it once?  Let God’s mercy cover and forgive that.  And now pay your vows and give your lives to Him henceforth.

II.

We are held back from the right thing by the fear of the loss which it will involve.

We say with poor, frightened Amaziah, But what about the hundred talents?  They will be clean gone if I obey the voice of God.  The hundred talents take many forms, but the principle is always the same.  We shall lose a little in the way of business, if we make up our minds to be scrupulously honest, and to speak the simple truth.  We shall forfeit a little of our present popularity, if we take the course which conscience dictates.  We shall have to forego and neglect certain things, and suffer loss, if we undertake Christian work.  We shall have to give up many an easy hour, many a light and frivolous hour, many an open and secret sin, sweeter to us than honey, if we confess the Lord Christ, and take up the burden of discipleship.  The hundred talents block the way, and rather than let them go, we let God go, and sacrifice all the sanctities, and all the precious and immortal things.