the path of duty, when all around them had departed from it, and when a cruel death must be the immediate consequence of their fidelity to Christ? Yet the declining to sacrifice our lives in the cause of Christ would mark us out as persons ashamed of Christ, and subject us to his everlasting displeasure. Indeed it is to such characters that our Lord more immediately referred in the words before usc ; and therefore we cannot hesitate to class them among those to whom the warning in our text is given.]
Respecting all these, our Lord plainly informs us of,
II. The treatment which they must expect at his hands —
There is a day coming, when " the Son of Man," who is now treated with such contempt, will appear in all the brightness of " his Father's glory," sur- rounded with myriads of " his holy angels," and will summon the universe to his tribunal. "Then will he be ashamed of those who now are ashamed of him " —
His faithful servants he will then confess: he will declare, before all, his approbation of them, and his delight in them: he will welcome them as his brethren, and as joint-heirs of his eternal inheritance. But not one look of love will he vouch- safe to those who, through cowardice, or love of sin, have denied him. He will turn away his face from them, as one that is ashamed of them. If they begin to claim an acquaintance with him, and to plead the services they have rendered him, he will frown upon them, and, with a look of indignation and abhorrence, disclaim all knowledge of themd. He will drive them from his presence, as unworthy of his favour, or of the company of his faithful people. And, O! who can conceive the anguish which these contemptuous sinners must endure ; when the Saviour of the world shall thus retaliate upon them the treatment which he has received at their hands ?]
This, I say, is the recompence which they must expect from him —
[He has plainly forewarned them respecting this; and therefore it shall come to pass. But, that they may see how just this doom will be, let them only consider the folly and tvickedness of their conduct.
What folly is it to turn their back on Christ, through fear of a contemptuous look, or a reproachful name ! What madness to " fear them who can only kill the body, rather than Him
c Compare ver. 35. d Matt. vii. 22, 23.