take up his cross daily, and follow me." Nay, he required that this should be done in defiance of the whole world. He declared, that if any man hated not his father and mother, yea, and his own life also, in comparison of him, he could not be his Disciple. Now, all this is essential to true faith. Whatever was requisite in those days, is requisite still. A man must be wholly given up to Christ ; having no will but his ; and no object, but to advance his glory. If we have true faith, we shall " henceforth live no more to ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again."]
Nothing less than this will constitute a living faith : and our Lord's assertion in relation to it clearly marks, II. The importance of it to our eternal welfare —
To " die in our sins" is a most fearful doom —
[The man, so dying, goes into the presence of his God with all his sins upon him ; with those of early childhood, and those of inconsiderate youth, and those of maturer manhood, yea, and those committed even to the very hour of his depar- ture hence. Alas ! what a catalogue is here! a mass nume- rous and heavy as the sands upon the sea-shore ! And for every distinct offence must the soul receive an appropriate recompence at the hands of God. O ! who can conceive the anguish of the soul at the instant of its appearance at the tribunal of its Judge ! With what horror must it shrink back, to hide itself, if it were possible, under rocks and mountains ! And now, when challenged by his God, how mute is he, who once would vindicate himself with such assured confidence ! Not for one action of his whole life can he now offer any excuse, nor urge any reason why he should not be consigned to the bottomless abyss in hell. Thither, therefore, is he cast, with all his sins upon him ; nor carries he with him so much as a ray of hope to cheer those regions of darkness and despair. Now he knows, what once he was so averse to believe, what "a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the Living God." Such is the doom that awaits the whole unbelieving world : " They drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation ; and they are tormented with fire and brimstone, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb : and the smoke of their torment ascendeth uo for ever and ever : and they have no rest day nor night11."]
And this must be the doom of all who believe not in Christ —
11 Matt, xxv. 41, 46. Rev. xiv. 10, IK