Surely we may learn from it —
1. That whatever attainments any man has made, it becomes him not to be too confident about the issue of his spiritual warfare —
[If we are upright before God, we need not give way to distressing fears : they are dishonourable to God, and unpro- fitable to ourselves. But at the same time we should guard against a presumptuous confidence : for no man knows what a day may bring forth. David, previous to his fall, if told what sins he would commit, might have replied with Hazael, " Is thy servant a dog, that he should do such things?" And Peter, so far from thinking it possible that he should ever deny his Lord, was confident that nothing could ever shake his con- stancy. So, if Demas, when, in his better state, had been told in what it might end, he would have thought it absolutely impossible that he could ever so " make shipwreck of his faith." Shall we then, after seeing the failure of such men presume to say, " My mountain standeth strong, I shall not be moved?" Let us never forget, that if God withdraw his hand from us for one moment, we shall fall and perish : and let our prayer to him therefore be continually, " Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe." To every man among you, though he were as emi- nent as St. Paul himself, I would say, " Be not high-minded, but fear *^." "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall>."]
2. That we must watch with all carefulness against the first beginnings of spiritual decay —
[Had Demas attended to the first encroachments of a worldly spirit, and resisted them as he ought, he had never been left to final apostasy. But the first breach being neglected, an inundation ensued ; and the leak being disregarded, his vessel sank. Let me then put you all upon your guard against a decay in your spiritual affections, and an attempt to serve God with a divided heart. From the moment that you em- brace the truth, and " put your hand to the Gospel plough, you must not so much as look back"^;" you must "forget all that is behind, and press forward to that which is before '." O, " remember Lot's wife™." Her sin might be thought small: but it was not so in the estimation of her God : and she is made a monument to all future generations. Be "jealous over yourselves with a godly jealousy ;" and to the latest hour of your lives adopt the habit of St. Paul, who "kept under his body, and brought it into subjection, lest, after having preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away "."]
h Rom. xi. 20. ' 1 Cor. x. 12. k Luke ix, 61, 62.
' Phil. iii. 13. •" Luke xvii. 32. " 1 Cor. ix. 27.