3. The narrow way leads to life. — Life ! The mind alive in truth, the heart alive with full affection, the conscience alive in the vision of duty, and the enjoyment of peace, the soul alive in joyous communion with God. Life ! The activity of our finer faculties, the consciousness of their expansion, the enjoyment of achievement, of progress, of laying up imperishable treasure, the sense of wealth and power in truth and in God, the enjoyment of service with God for the coming of the Kingdom, the hope of the crown of life, of life regal, imperial, in and with God for ever. That is worth an effort to attain. That is worth the striving needful to walk the narrow way.
T[ Jesus here quotes an idea whereof the ancient moralists had made great use and which had passed into a commonplace, almost a proverb. It is as ancient as the poet Hesiod ; and it appears in Kebes' quaint allegory The Tablet, a sort of Greek Pilgrim's Progress, purporting to be an account of a pictorial tablet which hung in the temple of Kronos and emblematically depicted the course of human life. Kebes saw it and had it explained to him by an old man who kept the temple.
" What is the way that leads to the true Instruction ? " said I. " You see above," said he, " yonder place where no one dwells, but it seems to be desert ? " "I do." " And a little door, and a way before the door, which is not much thronged, but very few go there ; so impassable does the way seem, so rough and rocky ? " "Yes, indeed," said I. "And there seems to be a lofty mound and a very steep ascent with deep precipices on this side and on that ? " "I see it." " This, then, is the way," said he, " that leads to the true Instruction."
The allegory of the Two Ways had passed into a sort of pro- verb, and Jesus here applies it to the great business of salvation
1 E. 0. Trench.
204 CHOOSING A ROAD
throwing His hearers back on the broad principles of life. It was recognized that, if a man would attain to Virtue or Wisdom, he must face a steep and toilsome way, and climb it with resolute heart. "All noble things," said the proverb, "are difficult"; and salvation, being the noblest of all, is the most difficult. It can be attained only by resolute endeavour, and every man must face the ordeal for himself. It is folly to stand gazing at the height and wondering whether few or many will win it. " There is the narrow gate ! " cries Jesus ; " yonder is the rugged path ! Enter and climb." x
TJ While the writers of the New Testament vary in their mode of presenting the ultimate goal of man, they are at one in regard- ing it as an exalted form of life. What they all seek to commend is a condition of being involving a gradual assimilation to, and communion with, God. The distinctive gift of the gospel is the gift of life. " I am the life," says Christ. And the Apostle's confession is in harmony with his Master's claim — "For me to live is Christ." Salvation is nothing else than the restoration, pre- servation, and exaltation of life. ... I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. " More life and fuller " is the passion of every soul that has caught the vision and heard the call of Jesus. The supreme good consists not in suppressed vitality, but in power and freedom. Life in Christ is a full, rich existence. . . . The spiritual man pursues his way through conflict and achievement towards a higher and yet a higher goal, ever manifesting, yet ever seeking, the infinite that dwells in him. All knowledge and quest and endeavour, nay, existence itself, would be a mockery if man had no " forever." Scripture corroborates the yearnings of the heart and represents life as a growing good which is to attain to ever higher reaches and fuller realization in the world to come. It is the unex- tinguishable faith of man that the future must crown the present. No human effort goes to waste, no gift is delusive ; but every gift and every effort has its proper place as a stage in the endless process.
" There shall never be one lost good ! What was, shall live as before." 2
1 D. Smith, The Days of His Flesh, 302.
2 A. B. D. Alexander, Christianity and Ethics, 128.
The Leper.
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Literature.
Burrell (D. J.), Christ and Men, 168.
Calthrop (G.), The Future Life, 256.
Davies (D.), Talks with Men, Women and Children, i. 21.
Gilbert (M. N.), in Sermons on the Gospels : Advent to Trinity, 119.
Howatt (J. R.), Jesus the Poet, 57.
Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year : Christmas and Epiphany,
463. Macduff (J. R.), Memories of Gennesaret, 51. Mackennal (A), Christ's Healing Touch, 1. McNeill (J.), Regent Square Pulpit, iii. 313. Magee (W. C.), Growth in Grace. 271. Matheson (G.), Thoughts for Life's Journey, 16. Parkhurst (C. H.), A Little Lower than the Angels, 39. Power (P. B.), The " i" Wills " of Christ, 67. Raymond (G. L.), The Spiritual Life, 33. Thompson (R. E.), Nature, the Mirror of Grace, 69. Trench (R. C.), Westminster and Other Sermons, 15. Wilberforce (B.), The Power that Worketh in Us, 54. Williams (C. D.), A Valid Christianity for To-Day, 20. Wilmot-Buxton (H. J.), By Word and Deed, 21. Christian World Pulpit, liii. 48 (H. S. Holland) ; lxxx. 56 (H. E.