soul seems a small and unimportant thing, and the world seems very bright and great. May we remember them in the hour of persecution, when we are tried by the fear of man, and half inclined to forsake Christ. In hours like these, let us call to mind this mighty question of our Lord, and repeat it to ourselves, " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ?"
We learn, in. the last place, from these verses, the great danger of heing ashamed of Christ. What saith our Lord ? " Whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when He cometh iu the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
When can it be said of any one, that he is ashamed of Christ ? We are guilty of it, when we are ashamed of letting people see that we believe and love the doctrines of Christ, that we desire to live according to the com- mandment of Christ, and that we wish to be reckoned among the people of Christ. Christ's doctrine, laws, and people were never popular, and never will be. The man who boldly confesses that he loves them, is sure to bring on himself ridicule and persecution. Whosoever shrinks from this confession from fear of this ridicule and per- secution, is ashamed of Christ, and comes under the sentence of the passage before us.
Perhaps there are few of our Lord's sayings which are more condemning than this. "The fear of man''' does indeed " bring a snare." (Prov. xxix. 25.) There are thousands of men who would face a lion, or storm a breach, if duty called them, and fear nothing — and yet would be ashamed of being thought " religious" — and