'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.
Let us, then, look at these four characteristics, and note how they all
enforce the merciful summons which our Lord is addressing to each of us,
as truly as He did to the hearers gathered around Him on the mountain:
'Enter ye in at the strait gate.'