On the one road there are 'few,' on the other, by comparison,'many.'
That was true in Christ's time, and although the world is better since,
and many feet have trodden the narrow way, and have found that it leads
to life, yet I am afraid it is so still.
Now, did you ever think, or do you believe, that the fact of a course of
conduct, or of an opinion, being the conduct or the opinion of a
majority, is _pro tanto_ against it? 'What _every_body says must be
true,' says the old proverb, and I do not dispute it. What _most_
people say is, I think, most often false. And that is true about
conduct, as well as about opinion. It is very unsafe to take the general
sense of a community for your direction. It is unsafe in regard to
matters of opinion, it is even more unsafe in regard to matters of
conduct. That there are many on a road is no sign that the road is a
right one; but it is rather an argument the other way; looking at the
gregariousness of human nature, and how much people like to save
themselves the trouble of thinking and decision, and to run in ruts;
just as a cab-driver will get upon the tram-lines when he can, because
his vehicle runs easier there. So the fact that, if you are going to be
Christ-like Christians, you will be in the minority, is a reason for
being such.
You young men in warehouses, and all of you in your different spheres
and circles, do not be afraid of being singular. And remember that Jesus
Christ, and one man with Him, though it is _Athanasius contra
mundum_, are always in the majority.
Now that is good, bracing teaching, apart altogether from Christianity.
But I wish to bring it to bear especially in that direction. And so I
would remind you that after all, the solitude in which a man may have to
walk, if he sets Christ before him, and tries to follow Him with His
cross upon his shoulders, is only an apparent solitude. For, look, whose
footsteps are these on my path, not without spots of blood, where the
tender feet have trod upon thorns and briars? There has been Somebody
here before me. Who? 'Let him take up his cross and follow _Me_.'
And if we follow Him, the solitude will be like that in which the two
sad disciples walked on the Resurrection day, when a third came and
joined Himself to them. So a second will come to each of us, if we are
alone, and our hearts will burn within us. Nor shall we need to wait
till the repose of the evening and the breaking of bread, before we know
that 'it is the Lord'; nor, known and recognised, will He vanish from
our sides.
Dear brethren, because 'few there be that go in thereat,' and walk
thereon, I beseech _you_ to go in through the door of faith, and to
walk in the way of Christ, who has left us an ensample that we should
follow in His steps. If of thee it can be said, as the great Puritan
poet said of one virgin pure, that thou
'--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.'