oh my friend! do you open your heart now to the knocking Christ, and then, then, and not till then, ‘Ask!’ that you may be filled with the treasures of His love, ‘seek!’ that you may find the rich provision He has laid up for us all, ‘knock!’ that door after door in the many mansions of the Father’s House may be opened unto you; until at last an entrance is ministered abundantly into the everlasting kingdom, and you go in with the King to the eternal feast.

THE TWO PATHS

’Enter ye in at the strait gate:  for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:  14.  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.’—­MATT. vii. 13-14.

A frank statement of the hardships and difficulties involved in a course of conduct does not seem a very likely way to induce men to adopt it, but it often proves so.  There is something in human nature which responds to the bracing tonic of the exhortation:  ’By doing thus you will have to face many hardships and many difficulties which you may avoid by leaving it alone; but do it, because it is best in the long run, being right from the beginning.’  So the story of the martyrs’ fires has lighted many a man to the faith for which the martyr was burned.  Many a youth has been led to take the shilling and enlist by reading accounts of wounds and battles and sufferings.

Our Lord will have no soldiers in His army on false pretences.  They shall know exactly what they have to reckon on if they take service with Him.  And thus, in the solemn and familiar words of my text, He enjoins each of us to become His disciples; and that not only because—­as is sometimes supposed—­of the blessing that lies at the end for His servants, but because of the very things on the road to the end which, at first sight, seemed difficulties.  For you will observe that in my text the exhortation, ‘Enter ye in at the strait gate,’ is followed by two clauses, each of which begins with a ‘for’; the one being a description of the road that is to be shunned; the other, an account of the path that is to be followed.  In each description there are four contrasted particulars:  the gate, strait or wide; the road, narrow or broad; the travellers, many or few; and the ends, life or destruction.

Now, people generally read these words as if our Lord was saying, ’Though the one path is narrow and rugged and steep and unfrequented, yet walk on it, because it leads to life; and though the other presents the opposite of all these characteristics, yet avoid it, because pleasant and popular as it is, its end is destruction.’  But that is not what He says.  All four things are reasons for avoiding the one and following the other; which, being turned into plain English, is just this, that we ought to be Christian people precisely because there are difficulties and pains and sacrifices in being so, which we may ignobly shirk if we like.  It is not, Though the road be narrow it leads to life, therefore enter it; but Because it is narrow, and leads to life, therefore blessed are the feet that are set upon it.