The necessity of '^ cotmting tiie cost " is enforced by a picture of the consequences of neglecting to do so. The man who has once made a profession of religion, but has afterwards gone back from it, is like salt which has ''lost its savour." Such salt is comparatively useless. '' It is neither fit for the land, nor fit for the dunghill : but men cast it out." Yet the state of that salt is a lively emblem of the state of a backslider. No wonder that our Lord said, ''He that hath ears to hear let him hear."
The truth which our Lord brings out in this place is very painful, but very useful and needM to be known. No man, be it remembered, is in so dangerous a state as he who has once known the truth and professed to love it, and has afterwards fallen away from his profession, and gone back to the world. You can tell such a man nothing that He does not know. 'You can show him no doctrine that he has not heard. He has not sinned in ignorance like many. He has gone away from Christ with his eyes open. He has sinned against a known, and not an unknown God. His case is well-nigh despe- rate. All things are possible with God. Yet it is written, " It is impossible for those who were once enlightened, — if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repent- ance." (Heb. vi. 4 — 6.)
Let us ponder these things weU. The subject is one which is not sufficiently considered. Let us never be afraid of beginning to serve Christ. But let us begin seriously, thoughtfully, and with a due consideration of the step we take. And having once begun, let us pray for grace that we may persevere, and never fall away.
LUKEy CHAP. XIV. VEB. 26—35. 171
Notes. Luke. XIY. 25—35.
26. — [Great multitudes... he turned and saidj do.] The conduct of our Lord on this occasion stands out in strong contrast to that of many ministers of the Gospel, in the present day. '
The temptation to admit people to full communion, and en- dorse and approve them as true christians, hefore they have given evidence of decided grace, is very strong. The inclination to set hefore young inquirers the joys and comforts of the Gospel, without any proportionate exhihition of the cross and the fight, requires constant watching against.
The close imitation of our Lord's conduct in this passage would probahly greatly lessen the number of our commu- nicants. But it may he doubted whether we should not gain in quality what we lost in quantity, and whether we should not be freed from many of those disgraceful backslidings, and gross inconsistencies, which so often now-a-days bring discredit on religion.
It may be laid down as a general rule that communicants cheaply admitted are worth little, and that to call people Christians upon lower terms than those which our Lord sets forth, in the long run does more harm than good.
26. — [Come to me, and hate not.] The expression " hate," in this verse, must evidently be taken comparatively. The following quotation from Pearce deserves reading.
"Besides the proof from Matt. x. 37, that the word* hate' here means ' love less,' it may be added, that in Matt. vi. 24, the word *hate' is used after the same manner. So also when we read in Eom. ix. 13, * Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated,' the meaning is, that I have loved Jacob more than Esau. That this is no arbitrary interpretation of the word * hate,* but one agi-eeable to the Hebrew idiom, appears from what is said in Gen. xxix. 30, 31, where Leah being * hated,' is explained by Eachel being loved more than Leah. See also Deut. xxi. 15, 16, 17."
28. — [To build a tower.] The following note from Doddridge deserves reading.
" The phrase, ' build a tower,' naturally suggests to us the idea of a more magnificent edifice, than our Lord's hearers might probably thinK of on this occasion. It is plain that towers were n-equently run up, probably of slight materials, to lodge those who had the care of keeping vineyards or flocks ; and they were built pretty high in proportion to their base, that they might commana the larger prospect."
There is reason in this comment, when we mark our Lord's words, " which of you."