Are there any amongst us that have turned back from him ?
[Alas ; there are apostates now, as well as in former times. But what has any one gained by departing from Christ? Is he happier than he was when he sat at the Saviour's feet and heard his words? There is but one testimony on this head from all the children of men : " In observing lying vanities, they
have forsaken their own mercies1" Think then from
whence ye are fallen, and say, " I will return unto my first husband, for then it was better with me than nowm" ]
To those who are walking steadily with him,
[We would address those words of the Apostle, " Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." If even the Apostles were ready to start aside, who has not need to watch and pray lest he also enter into temptation ? Awful is that admonition of our Lord, " Remember Lot's wife." If you would endure unto the end, you must be teachable as little children ; and be determined, through God's assistance, to " die with Christ, rather than forsake him."]
1 Jonah ii. 8. ra Hos. ii. 7.
John vi. 67 — 69. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away ? Then Simon Peter ansivered him, Lord, to whom, shall we go ? thou hast the ivords of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
NOTHING is more common than for persons to take offence at the word of God itself. Sometimes its strictness offends them ; sometimes its harshness and severity ; sometimes its mysteriousness and sub- limity. Nicodemus could not receive what was spoken to him about the new birth : the Samaritan woman could not comprehend the idea of living water : and the hearers of our Lord were altogether indignant, when he discoursed to them about giving them his flesh to eat. Indeed, this saying appeared to them so hard, so strange, and so absurd, that a great num- ber of them departed from him, and walked no more