+I. Christians are runners in the race of God.+--1. They must make
haste without delay to keep the commandments of God. It is a great
fault for youth and others to defer amendment till old age, or till
the last and deadly sickness. That is the time to end our running,
and not to begin. 2. We are to increase and profit in all good
duties. We in this age do otherwise. Either we stand at a stay or go
back. There are two causes for this: (1) Blindness of mind. (2) Our
unbelief in the article of life everlasting. 3. We must neither look
to the right nor the left hand, or to things behind, but press
forward to the prize of eternal life. 4. We must not be moved with
the speeches of men which are given of us, for or against. They are
lookers on and must have their speeches. Our care must be not to heed
them but look to our course.
+II. Christians must not only be runners, but run well.+--This is
done by believing and obeying, having faith and a good conscience.
These are the two feet by which we run. We have one good foot--our
religion--which is sound and good; but we halt on the other foot. Our
care to keep conscience is not suitable to our religion. Three things
cause a lameness in this foot: the lust of the eye--covetousness, the
lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
+III. Christians must run the race from the beginning to the
end.+--1. We must cherish a love and fervent desire of eternal life,
and by this means be drawn through all miseries and overpass them to
the end. 2. We must maintain a constant and daily purpose of not
sinning.--_Perkins._
_Bad Companions._--"Bad company," wrote Augustine, "is like a nail
driven into a post, which, after the first or second blow, may be
drawn out with very little difficulty; but being once driven up to
the head, the pincers cannot take hold to draw it out, which can only
be done by the destruction of the wood." Of course, it is useless to
define bad company. Men and women, boys and girls, feel instinctively
when they have fallen in with dangerous associates; if they choose to
remain amongst them they are lost. So in the high tides, barks of
light draught will float over Goodwin quicksands; in summer at low
tide the venturous boys and young people will play cricket thereon:
but neither can remain long in the neighbourhood. The time comes when
the sands are covered with but a thin surface of water, and beneath
is the shifting, loose, wet earth, more dangerous and treacherous
than springtide ice; and then it is that to touch is to be drawn in,
and to be drawn in is death. So is it with bad company.--_The Gentle
Life._
_Cowardly Retreat._--General Grant relates that just as he was hoping
to hear a report of a brilliant movement and victory of General
Sigel, he received an announcement from General Halleck to this
effect: "Sigel is in full retreat on Strasburg; he will do nothing
but run; never did anything else." The enemy had intercepted him,
handled him roughly, and he fled.
Vers. 8-10. _The Disintegrating Force of Error._--1. Whatever
persuasion cometh not of God and is not grounded on the Word of
truth, is not to be valued, but looked upon as a delusion (ver. 8).
2. The Church of Christ, and every particular member thereof, ought
carefully to resist the first beginnings of sin, for the least of
errors and the smallest number of seduced persons are here compared
to leaven, a little quantity of which secretly insinuates itself and
insensibly conveys its sourness to the whole lump (ver. 9). 3. The
minister is not to despair of the recovery of those who oppose
themselves, but ought in charity to hope the best of all men, so long
as they are curable; and to show how dangerous their error was by
denouncing God's judgment against their prime seducers (ver. 10).
4. So just is God, He will suffer no impenitent transgressor, however
subtle, to escape His search, or to pass free from the dint of His
avenging stroke, whoever he be for parts, power, or
estimation.--_Fergusson._