Or do I endeavour to follow, however feebly, the example of Christ?" The society in which we cannot answer these questions satisfactorily, is society from which we had better withdraw. — So long as we go into company as Christ went to the Pharisee's house, we shall take no harm.
Let us mark, secondly, in this passage, how our Lord teas watched by His enemies. We read that when He went to eat bread on the Sabbath day, in the house of a Pharisee, "they watched Him."
The circumstance here recorded, is only a type of what our Lord was constantly subjected to, all through His earthly ministry. The eyes of His enemies were con- tinually observing Him. They watched for His halting, and waited eagerly for some word or deed on which they could lay hold, and build an accusation. Yet they found none. Our blessed Lord was ever holy, harmless, unde- filed, and separate from evil. Perfect indeed must that life have been, in which the bitterest enemy could find no flaw, or blemish, or spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing!
He that desires to serve Christ must make up his mind to be " watched " and observed, no less than his Master. He must never forget that the eyes of the world are upon him, and that the wicked are looking narrowly at all his ways. Specially ought he to remember this when he goes into the society of the unconverted. If he makes a slip there, in word or deed, and acts inconsist- ently, he may rest assured it will not be forgotten.
Let us endeavour to live daily as in the sight of a holy God. So living, it will matter little how much we are " watched " by an ill-natured and malicious world. Let