’—­Wisely hast shunned the broad way and the green,
     And with those few art eminently seen
     That labour up the hill of heavenly truth,’—­

his assurance to her will be applicable to thee, and

    ’—­Thou, when the Bridegroom, with His feastful friends,
     Passes to bliss at the mid-hour of night,
     Hast gained thy entrance.’

IV.  That leads me to the last point—­viz. the contrasted ends of these two paths.

Christ assumes the right to speak decisively and authoritatively with regard to the ultimate issues of human conduct, in a way which, as I believe, marks His divinity, and which no man can venture upon without presumption.  Of the one path He declares without hesitation that it leads to life; of the other He affirms uncompromisingly that it ’leads to destruction.’  Now, I dare not dwell upon these solemn thoughts with any enfeebling expansion by my own words, but I beseech you to lay them to heart—­only take the simple remark, as a commentary and an exposition of the solemn meaning of these issues, that life does not mean mere continuous existence, but, as it generally does upon His lips, means that which alone He recognises as being the true life of such a creature as man—­viz. existence in union with Himself, the Source of life; and that, conversely, destruction does not mean merely the cessation of being, or what we call the destruction of consciousness and the annihilation of a soul, but that it means the continued consciousness of a soul rent away from Him in whom alone is life, and which therefore has made shipwreck of everything, and has destroyed itself.

There are the issues, then, before us, and I dare not blur the clear distinction which Jesus Christ draws.  I listen to Him, and accept His word, and I press upon you, dear brethren, that the main thing about a road is, after all, where it leads us; and I ask you to remember that your life-path—­as I try to remember that mine—­is tending to one or other of these two issues.  The one path may be, and is, rough and steep though its delights are nobler, more poignant, and more permanent than any that can be found elsewhere.  Steadily climbing like some mountain railway, it reaches at last the short tunnel on the summit level, and then dashes out into the blinding blaze of a new sunshine.  The other goes merrily enough, at first, downhill, but at last it comes to the edge of the abyss, and there it stops, but the traveller does not.  He goes over; and nobody can see the darkness into which he falls.

Dear friends, Christ says, ‘I am the Way.’  Do you go to Him and cry, ’See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me into the way everlasting.’

THE TWO HOUSES