Jesus was followed, but with a but

JESUS WAS FOLLOWED, BUT WITH A BUT
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Luke 9:61 61Stillanothersaid, "I will followyou,
LORD; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my
family."
The Broken Column SPURGEON
“And another also said, Lord, I will follow You; but…”
Luke 9:61
WHEN you have walkedthrough a cemetery you have frequently seenover a
grave a broken column intended to memorialize the death of someone who
was takenawayin the prime of manhood–before his life had reachedits
prime. I shall take that picture of the broken column to representmy text. It is
a broken text. You expectedme to go on and to conclude the sentence–Ihave
broken it off abruptly. That broken column shall also representthe broken
resolutions of many who were once in a hopeful state. As if prepared to
witness a goodprofession, they said, “Lord, I will follow You.” But when there
came a heavy blow from the withering hand of sin the column was broken
short with a “but.”
So let my text stand. I will not finish it. But so let not your determination
stand. The Lord grant by His effectualgrace that while you mourn with
sincere grief the grave of many a fair resolve which never attained the
maturity of true discipleship–cut off with the fatal “but” of indecision–you
may now be quickened to newness oflife. Thus you shall come to the fullness
of the stature of a man in Christ. Thus, as a building fitly framed togetherand
growing to completeness youshall be made meet for a habitation of God
through the Spirit.
“Lord, I will follow You; but…” How remarkably does Scripture prove to us
that the mental characteristicsofmankind are the same now as in the Savior’s

day! We occasionallyhear stories ofold skeletons being dug up which are
greaterin stature than men of these times. Some credit the story, some do
not–for there are many who maintain that the physical conformation of man
is at this day just what it always was. Certainly, however, there canbe no
dispute whateveramong observantmen as to the identity of the inner nature
of man.
The Gospelof Christ may well be an unchanging Gospelfor it is a remedy
which has to deal with an unfaltering disease. The very same objections which
were made to Christ in the days of His flesh are made to His Gospelnow. The
same effects are produced under the ministry of Christ’s servants in these
modern times as were produced by His own ministry. The promised hopes
which make glad the preacher’s heart are still blasted and withered by the
same blights and the same mildews which of old withered and blasted the
prospects of the ministry during our Lord’s own personalsojourn in the
world.
Oh, what hundreds, no, what myriads of persons have we whose consciences
are aroused, whose judgments are a little enlightened and yet they vacillate–
they live and die unchanged. Like Reuben, “unstable as water, they do not
excel.” Theywould follow Christ, but something lies in the way–theywould
join with Him in this generationbut some difficulty suggests itself–theywould
enter the kingdom of Heaven but there is a lion in the street. They lie in the
bed of the sluggardinsteadof rising up with vigor and striving to enter in at
the strait gate.
May the Holy Spirit in all the plenitude of His power be with us this morning
so that while I shall deal with the characterindicatedby the text, He may deal
with the conscience ofthose assembled. I can merely attempt what He can
effectually perform. I can but speak the words. It is for Him to draw the bow,
fit the arrow to the string and send it home betweenthe joints of the harness.
May some who have been in the state of those described by the text be brought
today to solemnconsiderationand to a serious decisionthrough the Holy
Spirit of God.
Three things we would labor to do. First of all, let us endeavor to expose your
excuses, “Lord, I will follow You; but…” Secondly, I will try to expose the
ignorance which lies at the bottom of the objectionwhich you offer. Then
thirdly, in the most solemn manner would I endeavor to bring before your
mind’s eye, O you who vacillate like Felix, your sin and your danger–that
your “buts” may now be put away–thatyour professionmay be made with
unfaltering tongue–thatyou may henceforth, in very deed, follow Christ
whereverHe goes.

1. First, then, TO EXPOSE YOUR OBJECTIONS.
I cannot tell, man by man, what may be the precise “but” that causes you to
draw back. But perhaps, by giving a list, I may be directed to describe full
many a case exactlyand with precision. Some there are who say and seem
very sincere in the utterance, “Lord, I would be a Christian, I would believe in
You and take up Your Cross and follow You, but my calling prevents it. Such
is my state of life that piety would be to me an impossibility. I must live and I
cannot live by godliness, therefore I am to be excusedfor the present from
following Christ.
“My position is such in trade that I am compelledby its practices to do many
things which would be utterly inconsistentwith the life of Christ in my soul. I
know that I have been calledto be where I am but it is a position which
renders my salvation hopeless. If I were anything but what I am, or anywhere
but where I am, I might follow Christ, but under existing circumstances, it is
far beyond my power.” Let me answerthat excuse of yours and show how
stupid it is. Man, would you make God the author of sin? And yet if you are
prepared to saythat God has put you in the calling where you are and that
that calling absolutely necessitatessin–do you not perceive that you make the
sin to be God’s and not yours?
Are you prepared to be so blasphemous as that? Will you bring the tricks of
your trade, your dishonesties and your sins and say, “GreatGod, You have
compelled me to do this”? Oh, methinks you cannot have so hardened your
brow until it has become like flint. Surely you have some conscienceof
rectitude left and if you have, your consciencewill respond to me when I say
you know you are speaking a lie! God has not put you where you are
compelled to sin–and if you have put yourself there–whatought you to do but
to leave that place at once? Surelythe necessityto sin, if it arises from your
own choice, does but render your sin the more exceeding sinful.
“But,” you reply, “I will confess,then, that I have put myself there by choice.”
Then I say again, if you have chosenso ill a trade that you cannot live by it
honestly–in the fearof God and in obedience to His precepts–youhave made
an ill and wickedchoice. At all hazards–forthe salvationof your soul rests on
it–give it up though it be the renouncing of every worldly prospect. Though
wealth be all but in your grasp–unless youwould graspdamnation and inherit
everlasting wrath–you must renounce it and renounce it now.
Scarcely, however, canI credit that such is the fact–forin all callings–except
they are in themselves positively unlawful–a man may serve God. Perhaps the
most difficult post for a Christian to occupy is the army and yet have we not

seen–anddo we not see at this day–men of high and exemplary piety, men of
undoubted and pre-eminent godliness who are still in the ranks and are
soldiers of Christ? With the example of ColonelGardner in years gone by–of
Hedley Vicars and Havelock in these modern times–Iwill not, I dare not, take
your excuse. Nordo I think your conscience wouldpermit it.
But if while the temptations are strong and your strength is small, you really
think that there you cannot serve God, then resign your commission, give it
up. It were better for you to enter into life poor and penniless and without
fame or honor, than having glory and pomp and wealth, to enter into Hell.
After all, to come nearerto the point, is it your occupationat all? Is it true? Is
it not your sin that has made your “but,” and not your calling? Be honestwith
yourself, Sir, I pray you. You say that your calling throws temptations in your
way–is it so? Do not other men avoid the temptations and because they hate
sin–being taught of God the Holy Spirit–are they not able, even in the midst of
temptation, to keepthemselves unspotted from the world?
It is, then, in your case notnecessity, but willfulness that makes you continue
impious and impenitent. Put the saddle on the right horse. Put it not where it
should not be, take it home to yourself. There is no objection in the calling,
unless, againI repeat it, it is an objectionable calling. The root and real cause
of your hardness of heart againstChrist is in yourself and yourself alone. You
are willingly in love with sin–it is not in your calling in Providence.
“Yes, but,” says another, “if it is not in our calling, yet in my case it is my
peculiar position in Providence. It is all very well for the minister–who has not
to mingle with daily life but can come up into his pulpit and pray and preach–
to make little excuse for men. But I tell you, Sir, if you knew how I was
situated, you would saythat I am quite excusable in postponing the thoughts
of God and of eternity. You do not know what it is to have an ungodly
husband, or to live in a family where you cannot carry out your convictions
without meeting with persecutionso ferocious and so incessantthat flesh and
blood cannot endure it.”
“Besides,”says another, “I am just now in such a peculiar crisis, it may be I
have got into it by my sin, but I feel I cannotget out of it without sin. If I were
once out of it and could start againand stand upon a new footing, then I might
follow Christ. But at the present time there are such things in the house where
I live, such circumstances in my business–there are suchpeculiar trials in my
family–that I think I am justified in saying, ‘Go your way this time, when I
have a more convenient seasonI will send for you.’ ”

Ah, but, my Friend, is this the truth? Let me put it to you in other words than
you have statedit. You sayif you follow Christ you will be persecuted. And
does not the Word of God tell you the same? And is it not expresslysaid, “He
that takes not up his cross andfollows not after Me cannot be My disciple”?
Did not the Apostle say, “He that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer
persecution?” What? Is nature to be changedfor you? Must the Apostles and
the martyrs endure and suffer greatthings and are the little trials that you
have to bear to be valid excuses foryou?
No. By that host who waded through slaughterto a throne–the slaughter of
themselves–no. Bythe men who wearthe crowns which they have won on
racks and stakes,I pray you, do not think that this shall be any excuse for you
at God’s greatday. Or if you think that it be an excuse that is valid for you
now, remember–if you rejectChrist you rejectthe crown. If you cannot bear
the reproachof Christ, neither shall you have Christ’s riches. If you will not
suffer with Him, neither shall you reign with Him. You say that your
circumstances compelyou to sin or else you would get into a world of trouble.
And what do you mean by this but that you prefer your own case to the
Master’s service?
You have made this your God. Your own emoluments, your own
aggrandizement, your own rest and luxury. You have setthese up in
preference to the command of the God that made you. O Sir, do but see the
thing in its true light! You have put yourself where the Israelites put the
golden calfand you have boweddown and you have said, “These be your
gods, O Israel!” To these you have offered your peace offerings. Oh, be not
deceived!“If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”
“He that would save his life shall lose it, but he that will lose his life for
Christ’s sake shallsave it.”
Away, then, with these excuses aboutyour circumstances!It is an idle one and
will not endure the light of the Day of Judgment. “Yes,” says another, “I
would follow Christ. I have often felt inclinations to do so. And I have had
some longings after better things–but the way of Christ is too rough for me. It
demands that I should give up pleasures which I really love. I know if I should
promise to give them up, I should go back to them very soon. I have tried, but
they are too much for me. I did not think at one time that I was so thoroughly
chained to them. But when I tried to break away I found the chains were not
as I thought they were–ofsilk–butof iron–of triple steel.
“I cannot, Sir, I tell you plainly, I cannot. If to be saved requires me to give up
my worldly amusements, I cannot do it.” Well, Sir, I reply, you have spoken
with the candorof an honestman. But will you please understand the bargain

a little more clearly? Remember, soul, when you say, “I cannotgive up the
world” you have said, “I cannot be saved. I cannot escape fromHell. I cannot
be a partaker of the glories of Heaven.” You have preferred the dance to the
entertainment of glory. You have preferred the reveling merriments at
midnight to the eternal splendors of the Throne of God.
You have in cold blood–now mark it–you have in cold blood determined to sell
your soul for a few hours of giddiness, a little seasonofmirth. Look it in the
face and God help you to understand what you have done. If Esausold his
birthright for a mess of pottage, what have you done? Lift up your eyes to
Heaven, behold the goldenharps and listen to the harmony of the glorious
song and then say, “But I prefer your music, O earth, to Heaven.” Look
yonder to the golden streets and the joy and the bliss which awaitthe true
believer–andthen coolly write it down and say–“Ihave chosenthe casino, I
have preferred the house of sin to Heaven.”
Look up and behold the draughts of joy that awaitbelievers and then go to the
tavern and sit down in the tap room and say, “I have preferred the
enjoyments of intoxication to the mirth of eternity.” Come, I say Sir, do look it
in the face–forthis is what you have done and if–after weighing the two things
in the scalestogetheryou find that the momentary enjoyments of the flesh are
to be preferred to the eternalweight of glory which God has reservedfor
them that love Him–then choose them. But if it be nothing in comparisonwith
eternity–if the flesh be but dross in comparisonwith the Spirit–if this world be
emptiness when comparedwith the world to come, then reverse your foolish
decision!May God the Holy Spirit make you wise.
“Oh,” says another, “but it is not exactly my pleasures. ForI have found no
pleasure in sin. It is some time since iniquity ministered pleasure to me. I have
drunk the top of the cup. The froth I have already daintily sipped but now I
have come to the dregs”–Iknow I am speaking to some men today, in this
very state–“Ihave jaded myself,” says such-anone “in the race of pleasure. I
have exhausted my powers of enjoyment and yet though the wine yields no
lusciousness to my taste, I drink–for I cannot help it. And though lust affords
me no longerany exquisite delight, still impelled as by some secretforce, I am
driven to it.
“From old habit it has become a secondnature with me and I cannot–I have
tried, I have tried awfully and solemnly, I cannot–Icannot break it off. I am
like a man whose boatis takenup by the rapids. I have pulled againstthe
stream with both my arms till the veins start like whip-cords on my brow.
And the blood runs from my nose in agonyof vigor and yet I cannotreverse
the stream. Nor canI set my boat’s head againstit. I can see the precipice. I

can hear the roaring of the dashing wateras it leaps the cascade. I am
speeding on swifterand swifter and swifter, till my very blood boils with the
tremendous vehemence of my crimes. I am speeding onwardto my merited
damnation.”
Ah, Man! Yours is a solemn “BUT,” indeed! If I thought you meant it all, I
would rather speak to you words of encouragementthan of warning. For
remember this–whenyou are ready to perish Godis ready to save. And when
your poweris gone, then the plaintive cry, “Lord, save, or I perish,” wrung
from a despairing heart shall reachthe ears of the MostHigh and He that
delights in mercy shall stretchout His arm to save. There is hope, there is
hope for you yet. What? is the boat’s bow already out of the water and does
she seemto leap like a live thing into the midst of the spray?
O Eternal God, You cansave him! You can come from above and take him
out of the deep waters and pluck him out of the billows that are strongerthan
he. Yet saynow, is this just as you have described it? I fear lest perhaps you
make “cannot” only a substitute for “will not.” Do you not love those ways of
the transgressor?Canyou honestly sayyou loathe them? I do not believe you
can. Remember the dreadful alternative when you sayI cannot renounce
these things and will not look to God to enable you to do it. You have said, “I
cannot escapefrom the flames of Hell. I cannot be rescuedfrom the wrath to
come. I am damned.”
You have, in fact, announced your own doom. That awful sentence you have
pronounced upon yourself. You have satin judgment on your own soul–put
on the black cap and read out your own sentence. You have put yourself upon
the death wagon. You have adjusted the rope about your own neck and you
are about to draw the bolt and be your own executioner. Oh, weighyour
words and measure your acts–andwake up to a consciousnessofwhat you are
about to do. Do not take the leap in the dark. Look down the chasmfirst and
gaze a moment at the jaggedrocks beneathwhich soonyou must lie a
mangled corpse. Now, before you drink the cup, know the poison that is in the
bottom of it.
Make sure of what you are doing and if you are determined that you will clasp
your sins with the spasmodic and terrific grasp of a dying, drowning man–
then graspyour sins and lose your soul. Then keepyour sins and be damned!
Hold fast to your iniquities and be dashedforever from the Presenceofthe
Eternal One. If it is horrible to hear–how much more horrible to do? If it is
dreadful to speak–how much more solemnto perform in cold blood that
which our lips have spoken? “But,” says another, “that is not my case. Ican
say I will follow Christ, but I am of such a volatile, changeable dispositionthat

I do not think I ever shall fulfill my purpose. When I heard you preach a few
Sabbaths ago, Sir, I went home to my chamber and I shut the door and I
prayed.
“But, you know, some acquaintance called. He took me awayand soonevery
goodthought was gone. Often have I satshivering in the pew while the Word
of God has been quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edgedsword–
piercing to the dividing asunder of my joints and marrow. It has been a
discernerof the thoughts and intents of my heart–but the world comes in
again. And even though I seem sometimes as if I were almosta saint–then
againthe next day I am almost a fiend. Sometimes I think I could do anything
for Christ and the next day I do everything for the world. I promise, but I do
not perform. I vow and break my vows.
“I am like the smoke from the chimney–soonblown away and my good
resolutions are like a morning cloud. They are there but for the morning and
soonthey are gone.” Well, certainly you have described a case whichis too
frequent. But will you allow me to put that also in a true and Scriptural light?
Soul, do you know you have played with Heaven? You have made a game of
eternity. You are like those men in the parable of whom it is said “they made
light of it.” You have thought that the things of this world are more
engrossing to you than the things of the world to come.
You are perhaps less excusable then any other–for you know right and do it
not. You see your sin and yet you cling to it. You perceive your ruin and yet
you go onwards towards it. You have had wooings oflove. You have had
warnings of mercy and yet you have shakenall these off. Oh remember that
text, “He that being often reproved hardens his neck shall suddenly be
destroyedand that without remedy.” “BecauseI have called,” says God, “and
you refused, I have stretchedout My hand and no man regarded. But you
have setat nothing all My counseland would none of My reproof: I also will
laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear comes.”
You may perhaps soonbe given up to a searedconscience.The Word may be
powerless upon you. You may become hardened and desperate. Ah, the devils
in Hell are not in a more hopeless conditionthan you may be.
I have thus gone through the most prominent excuses whichmen make for
scattering from themselves those goodthoughts which sometimes seek to get
possessionoftheir hearts. “I will follow you Lord, but…” I cannot, of course,
point out the distinct persons in this large assemblywho are in this condition.
That there are such is certain. I pray God the Holy Spirit to find them out and
make them judge themselves that they be not judged.

II. I shall now come to the secondpart of my discourse. Maythe Lord be our
helper. Soul, you who say, “I will follow Christ, but…” I now come to
EXPOSE YOUR IGNORANCE AND THE ILL STATE OF YOUR HEART.
Soul, you have as yet no true idea of what sin is. God the Holy Spirit has never
opened your eyes to see whatan evil and bitter thing it is to sin againstGodor
else there would be no “buts.” Picture a man who has losthis way, who has
sunk into a slough. The waters and the mire are come up to his very throat.
He is about to sink in it when some bright spirit comes, stepping over the
treacherous bog and holds out his hand to him. That man, if he knows where
he is, if he knows his uncomfortable and desperate state, will put out his hand
at once.
You will not find him hesitating with “but,” and “of,” and “perhaps.” He feels
that he is plunged into the ditch and wants out of it. And you apparently are
still in the wilderness ofyour natural state. You have not yet discoveredwhat
a fool might see–thougha wayfaring man–that sin is a tremendous evil–that
your sin is all destructive and will yet swallow you up and utterly destroy your
soul. I know that when God the Holy Spirit tells me to see the blackness ofsin
I do not need any very greatpressing to be willing to be washed. My only
question was, “Would Christ washme?” Ask any poor penitent sinner that
knows what the burden of sin is, whether he will have it takenoff his
shoulders and he will not say, “I would have it takenoff; but…” No, he will
need but the very mention of the removal of his load. “Lord,” says he, “do but
take it awayfrom me–do but take it away and I am well content.”
Again–Soul, it seems plain to me that you have never yet been taught by the
Holy Spirit what is your state of condemnation. You have never yet learned
that the wrath of God abides on you. So long as you are out of Christ you are
under a curse. If that word “condemnation” had once been rung in your ears,
you would have no ifs and buts. When a man’s house is on fire and he stands
at the fire escape and his hair begins to be crisp with the hot tongues of fire
that scorchhis cheeks,he has no “buts” about it–but down the escape he goes
at once. When Lot beganto see the fiery showercoming down from Heaven he
had no “buts” about making the bestof his way out of the city and escaping to
the mountains.
And you. O may God the Holy Spirit show to you, Sinner, where you are
today! Oh that He would make you know that your sentence is pronounced,
that God’s messengersare out after you to take you to prison. Then you will
leave off your “buts.” You will say, “Lord, what would You have me to do?”
And be it what it may, your soul will make no hesitation about it. Surely,
methinks you cannot have felt the danger you are in of daily destruction. If

you have not felt that, I do not think the Spirit of God has ever come into your
soul after a real and saving fashion. You have no proof that you are one of
Christ’s unless you have felt the danger of your natural state.
Do you see there?–there is a scaffoldraised. A man is brought out to
execution–there is the block and here stands the headsman with his sharp
gleaming axe, gleaming in the morning sun. The man has just laid his neck
upon the block in the little hollow place shapedout for it. There he lies and the
headsman has just lifted up the axe to cleave his head from his body As that
man lies there, if a messengershould come from the king and say, “Here is a
pardon, will you acceptit?” Do you believe he would say, “I will acceptit,
but…”? No, springing up from what he thought would be his last resting
place, he would say, “I thank his majesty for his abundant grace and
cheerfully do I rejoice in accepting it.”
You cannot have knownwhere you are, or else “but” would be impossible to
you. Such is your state, remember, whether you know it or not–you put your
neck upon the block of insensibility, but the axe of Justice is ready to smite
you down to Hell. The Lord help you to see your state and put the “buts”
awayfrom you.
It seems to me, too, that you are ignorant altogetherof what the wrath of God
must be in the world to come. Oh, could I take you to that place where hope
has ever been a stranger–ifyou could put your ear a moment to the gratings
of those gloomy dungeons of which despair is the horrid warder–if I could
make you listen to the sighs, the useless regrets andthe vain prayers of those
who are castaway–youwould come back affrighted and alarmed. And I am
sure your “buts” would have been driven out of you. You would say, “Great
God, if You will but save me from Your wrath, do what You will with me. I
will make no conditions. I will offer You no objections.
“If I must cut off my right arm, or pluck out my right eye, be it so. If from this
place of woe You will but save me. Oh, from this fire that never can be
quenched. From this worm of endless fires which cannever die, greatGod
deliver me! If rough be the means and unpleasant to the flesh, yet grant me
but this one request–save me, O God–save me from going down into the pit!”
If a soul were just sinking to Hell and God could send some bright angelto
pluck it from the flames just as it enteredthere, can you imagine its being so
mad as to say, “I would be plucked as a brand from the burning, but…”? No,
no. Glad to embrace the messengerofmercy, it would rejoice to fly from Hell
to Heaven.

Again–Sinner it seems clearto me, inasmuch as you say, “but,” that you can
have no idea of the glory of the Personof Christ. I see you sitting down in
your misery–in the bare uncomfortable cottage ofyour natural estate–
yourself nakedand filthy, with your hair matted over your eyes. Beholda
bright chariot stops at your door, the sound of music is heard and the King
Himself, stepping down from the chariotof His glory comes in. And He says,
“Sinner, poor, hopeless, weak,miserable sinner, look unto Me and be you
saved. The chariotof My mercy awaits you. Come you with Me., My chariot is
paved with love for such as you are. Come with Me and I will bear you to My
splendors away from your degradationand your woe.”
You sit there and you will not look at Him, for if you did look, you must love
Him. You could not behold His face, you could not see the mercy that is
written there, the pity that trembles in His eye, the powerthat is in His arm.
But you would say at once, “Jesus, You have overcome my heart, Your
gracious beauty is more than a match for me–
“Dissolvedby Your goodness I fall to the ground,
And weepto the praise of the mercy I’ve found.”
Shall I say more? Yet this once againI will admonish you. O you
procrastinating, objecting Sinner! You have never known what Heaven is, or
else you would never have a “but.” If you and I could peep but for an instant
within the pearly gates. If we could listen to that seraphic song–couldbehold
the joy which flows and overflows the bosoms of the blessed–couldyou but
spell Heaven–notin letters but in feelings. Could you wearits crowna
moment, or be girt about with its pure white garments, you would say, “If I
must go through Hell to reachHeaven, I would cheerfully do it. What are you,
riches? You are bubbles. What are you, pomps? You are driveling
emptinesses.
“What are you, pleasures? Youare mocking, painted witcheries. What are
you, pains? You are joys. What are you, sorrows? Youare but bliss. What are
you, tribulations? You are lighter than feathers when I compare you with this
exceeding and eternal weightof glory! If we could have but a glimpse of
Heaven–but a shadow of an idea of what is the eternalrest of God’s people–
we should be prepared to endure all things, to give up all things, to bear all
things, if we might but be partakers of the promised reward. Your "buts”
betray your ignorance. Your ignorance of self, ignorance of sin, ignorance of
condemnation, ignorance of the punishment, ignorance ofthe Savior’s Person
and ignorance of the Heaven to which He promises His people.

III. Now, I have my last work to do and that would I do briefly. Oh, may
Strength superior to mine come now and tug and strive and wrestle with your
hearts! May the Spirit of God apply the words which I shall now use! “Lord, I
will follow You; but…” Sinner, sinner, let me SHOW YOU YOUR SIN. When
you said, “But,” you did contradictyourself. The meaning of that rightly read
is this, “Lord, I will not follow you.” That “but” of yours puts the negative on
all the professionthat went before it. I wish, my Hearers, that this morning
you would either be led by grace to say, “I will believe,” orelse were
permitted honestly to see the depravity and desperate hardness of your own
hearts so as to say, “I will not believe in Christ.”
It is because so many of you are neither this nor that but halting betweentwo
opinions, that you are the hardestcharacters to deal with. Sinners who reject
Christ altogetherwillfully are like flints. When the hammer of the Word
comes againstthem the flint gives forth the precious spark and flies to atoms.
But you are like a mass of wax molded one day into one shape and molded the
next day into another. I know a gentleman of considerable positionin the
world, who, after having been with me some little time, said, “Now that you
are going awayI shall be just what I was before.” Forhe had wept under the
Word. He comparedhimself, he said, to a gutta-percha doll. He had gotout of
his old shape for a little while–but he would go back to what he was before.
And how many of you there are of this kind. You will not say, “I will not have
Christ,” you will not say, “I will not think of these things.” You dare not say,
“I disbelieve the Bible,” or, “I think there is no God and no hereafter.” But
you say, “No doubt it is true, I’ll think of it by-and-by.” You never will,
Sinner, you never will. You will go on from day to day harping that till your
last day shall come–andyou will be found then where you are now–unless
sovereigngrace preventit. I could have more hope for you if you would say at
once, “I love not God, I love not Christ, I fear Him not, I desire not His
salvation,” for then methinks you would get an idea of what you are and God
the Spirit might bless it to you.
Let me show you againyour sin in another respect. How great has been your
pride! When Christ bids you believe on Him, take up His Cross and follow
Him, He tells you to do the best thing you cando and then you set up your
judgment in contradictionto Him. You say, “But.” What? Is Christ to mend
His Gospelbecause ofyour whims? What? Is the plan of salvationto be cut
and shaped to suit you? Does notChrist know what is best for you better than
you do yourself? Will you snatch from His hand the balance and the rod,
rejudge His judgment and dictate to God, the Judge of all the earth?

And yet this is exactly what you attempt to do. You setup your throne in
rivalry to the Throne of Grace and insist upon it that there is more wisdom in
being a sinner than in being a believer–that there is more happiness to be
found apart from God than there is with Him. You make Goda hard Master,
if not indeed call Him a liar to His face. Oh, you know not what is the
quintessence of iniquity which lies within those words so easilyspoken, but
which will be so hard to get rid of on a dying bed–“I will follow You; but…”
I close whenI have just, in a moment or so only, describedyour danger. Soul,
you are quieting yourself and saying, “Ah, it will be well with me at the last.
For I intend to be better by-and-bye.” Soul, Soul, think how many have died
while they have been speaking like that. There were put into the grave, during
the pastweek, hundreds of persons, no doubt, who were utterly careless.But
there were also scores who were not carelessand who had often been
impressed and yet they said “But, but, but,” and promised better things. But
death came in and their better things came not.
And then, remember how many have been damned while they have been
saying “But.” They said they would repent, meanwhile they died. They said
they would believe, meanwhile in Hell they lifted up their eyes being in
torments. They meant what they said, but inasmuch as they did it not they
came where their resolutions would be changedinto remorse and their fancied
hopes turned into real despair. On such a subjectas this I could wish Baxter
were the preacherand that I were the hearer. As I look around you, though
there are full many who canread their title clearto mansions in the skies, yet
along these pews what a considerable proportion there is of my Hearers who
are only deceiving their own selves!
Well, Sinners, I will make the road to Hell as hard for you as I can. If you will
be lost, I will put up many a chain and many a bar and shut many a gate
across yourway. If you will listen to my voice, Godhelping me, you shall find
it a hard way–thatway of transgressors. You shall find it a hard thing to run
counter to the proclamationof the Gospelof Christ. But why will you die, O
house of Israel, why will you die? Where is your reasonfled? Have beasts
become men and men become beasts? “The oxknows his ownerand the ass
his master’s crib,” but you know not.
What? Are you like the silly sheep that goes willingly to his slaughter? Are the
swallows andcranes more wise than you? Forthey know the senses andthey
judge the times–but you know not that your summer is almost over–thatyour
leaves are falling in the autumn of your life and that your dreary winter of
despair and of hopelessnessis drawing near. Souls, are these things fancies? If
so, sleepwhile I preach of them. Are they dreams? Do I bring out these

doctrines but as bugbears to alarm you as if you were some children in a
nursery?
No. As God is true, are not these the most solemn realities that everrested on
the lip of man or moved the heart of hearer? Then why is it, why is it, why is it
that you make light of these things still? Why is it that you will go your way
today as you did before? Why will you say, “Well, the preacherhas warned
me faithfully and I will think of it, but…”? “I was invited and I will consider,
but… I did hear the warning, but…”? Ah, Souls, while you shall be saying,
“But,” there shall be another “But” go forth and that shall be, “But cut him
down, why cumbers he the ground?”
Wake, Vengeance, wake!The sinner sleeps. Pluck out your sword, O Justice!
Let it not rest in its scabbard, come forth! No, no! Oh come not forth
devouring sword!Oh, come not forth! O Justice, be still! O Vengeance,put
awayyour sword and Mercy, reign still!
“Todayif you will hear His voice harden not your hearts as in the
provocation,” but if you harden your hearts, remember He will swearin His
wrath that you shall not enter into His rest. Oh, Spirit of God, turn the sinner,
for without You he will not turn. Our voice shall miss its end and he will not
come to Christ. Hear my cry, O God, for Jesus'sake!
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
DecisionAnd Indecision
Luke 9:61
W. Clarkson
Lord, I will follow thee; but, etc. Two trains may leave the same platform and
travel for a while along the same lines, and they may look as if they would
reachthe same terminus; 'but one of them diverges slightly to the right and
the other to the left, and then the further they go the greateris the distance
that separates them. Two children born under the same roof, brought up
under the same religious conditions, are baptized into the same faith, receive
the same doctrines, are affectedby the same influences; - they should reach
the same home. But they do not. One makes a resolution to serve God

outright, unconditional, without reserve;he says simply, deliberately, "I will
follow thee;" but the other makes a resolutionunder reserve, with conditions
attached- he says, "Lord, I will follow thee; but," etc. The one of these two
goes on, goes up, in the direction of piety, zeal, devotedness, sacredjoy, holy
usefulness;the other goes downin that of hesitation, oscillationbetween
wisdom and folly, and finally of impenitence and spiritual failure. We will
look at -
I. THE MAN OF INDECISION ALONG THE LINE COMMON TO
HIMSELF AND THE MAN OF RELIGIOUS EARNESTNESS.
1. They both receive instruction in the common faith; they learn and admit
the greatfundamental truths of the gospel - the life, death, resurrection,
teaching of Jesus Christ.
2. They are both impressed by the surpassing excellence ofChrist; for there is
in him now, as there was when he lived among men, that which constrains
admiration, reverence, attraction.
3. They both feelthe desirableness ofavailing themselves of the blessings of
the gospelofgrace - of the pardon, peace, joy, worth, hope, immortality,
which it offers to the faithful. And when Christ's voice is heard, as it is in
many ways, eachof these men is prepared to say, "Neverman spake, Lord, as
thou speakestto me; no one else will give me what thou art offering; evermore
give me this living bread, this living water. Lord, I will follow thee."
II. THE MAN OF INDECISION AT THE POINT OF DIVERGENCE. He
says not, simply and absolutely, "I will; "he says, "I will follow thee; but," etc.
One word more, but how much less in factand in truth? What is in that
qualifying word?
1. But 1 am young, and there is plenty of time. I am a long way off the "three
score and ten years;" and all along the road of life there are paths leading into
the kingdom; let me go on unburdened by such serious claims as these of
thine. "I will," etc., but not yet.
2. But 1 have a bodily as well as a spiritual nature, and I must satisfyits
claims. These hungerings and thirstings of the sense are very strong and
imperious; let me drink of this cup, let me lay by those treasures first.
3. I am waiting for some decisive intimation from Heaven that my time has
come. I do not wish to actprecipitately or presumptuously; I am looking for
the prompting of the Divine Spirit, the direction of the Divine hand; when the
Mastersays distinctly, "Follow thou me," I will arise at once.

4. I am in embarrassedcircumstances, andam waiting until they clearaway.
The claims of the business or the home are so urgent, so near, so practical,
that they consume my time, and I have none to spare for thee; there are bonds
I have formed which I do not know how to break, but which must be broken if
thy friendship is to be made and kept.
5. But I am old and unable. I have heard thy voice in my ear in earlier days;
but I am old and spiritually blind; old and deaf; old and insensitive. I do not
expectthee to come this way again; I would follow thee if I felt once more the
touch of thy hand upon me.
III. THE GREATNESSAND SADNESS OF HIS MISTAKE. A grievous thing
it is for a man to buoy himself up with such false imaginations, to build his
house of hope on such shifting sands, to rest the weight of his destiny on such a
sapless, strengthless reed.
1. Does deathnever lay his cold and hard hand on youth? and does not Christ
command our strength and our beauty as wellas our feebleness and our
unsightliness?
2. Does Christask us to give up one rightful pleasure? and had we not better
sacrifice allwrongful ones? And has he not promised all we need if we do but
take the one true step into his kingdom (Matthew 6:33)?
3. No man is waiting for God; but God is waiting for many halting and
hesitating human souls. Behold, he stands at the door and knocks!
4. We are not more embarrassedthan thousands have been, or more than we
shall continue to be. If it is hard to find time, then for a purpose so supreme as
this time must be made; if evil friendships are in the way, they must be made
to stand out of the way. The voice that speaks from heaven is commanding;
the case ofour eternal destiny is critical in the very last degree.
5. It is true that long disuse is dangerouslydisabling, and spiritual capacity
wanes with neglect;but men are not too deaf to hear the sovereignvoice of
Christ, not too blind to find their way to his cross, his table, his kingdom. - C.

Biblical Illustrator
Looking back
Luke 9:61, 62
Dangerof religious indecision
TheologicalSketch-book.
1. This man wishedto follow Christ, but there was something of more urgent
necessitythat must first be attended to. What folly, to put off attention to
concerns ofsoul. Life is uncertain. Every delay is a step towards final
impenitence.
2. The person who made this resolution, evidently made it in his ownstrength.
Vain promise. Without grace we cannotfollow Christ.
3. The resolution, when formed, seems to depend on the consentof his friends;
for, though he speaks only of taking his leave, he probably wished to know
whether they approved of the step he was about to take. Had he been
influenced by proper motives, instead of leaving them behind, he would rather
have endeavouredto bring them with him, to follow Jesus in the way.
4. Insteadof following Christ cheerfully and with all his heart, he appeared
somewhatdejectedat the thought, and must go and take leave of his friends,
as if he were about to die, and should see them no more. Such are the
melancholy apprehensions which some persons entertain of true religion; they
imagine it would be injurious to their worldly interest, and unfit them for the
common duties and enjoyments of life, and that therefore they must take a
final leave of the concerns ofthe present world.
5. By going home to his friends, he would expose himself to greattemptation,
and be in danger of breaking the resolution already formed.(1) This subject
may serve as a warning to those who trifle with the calls of the gospel. Here
was a looking back, a lingering after the world, and Christ pronounces such to
be unfit for the kingdom of God (ver. 62).(2)Nothing but a decided
attachment to Christ, and a determination to sacrifice allfor His sake, can
constitute us His disciples.(3)Let us beware of the ensnaring influence of

worldly connections, andof every inordinate affection; for these, rather than
grosserevils, are the ordinary impediments to our salvation(Matthew 16:26).
(TheologicalSketch-book.)
"Lord, I will follow Thee: but"
J. T. Davidson, D. D.
— "Lord, I will follow Thee:but."
I. First, here comes a man who says, "Lord, I will follow Thee; but I WANT A
LITTLE MORE ENJOYMENTOUT OF LIFE BEFORE IBECOME A
CHRISTIAN." His notion is that religion is decidedly a melancholy affair, and
that from the moment that he becomes a followerof Christ, he must bid adieu
to all merriment and pleasure. SecretaryWalsingham, an eminent statesman
in the time of Queen Elizabeth, in the latter period of his life, retired to a quiet
spot in the country. Some of his former gay associatescame to him, and made
the remark that he was now growing melancholy. "Notmelancholy," replied
he, "but serious." The mistake of those frivolous courtiers is precisely the
mistake made by thousands, that of confounding seriousnesswith melancholy.
The deepestjoy is serious, and being serious is stable. Away with the notion
that the pleasures of the world are denied to a believer!
II. The next objectorcomes forwardand says, "Lord, I would follow Thee;
but THE NATURE OF MY BUSINESS PREVENTSME." WhenAdam
Clarke was a young man, his employer once bid him stretchshort measure to
make it enough; but his reply was, "Sir, I can't do it; my consciencewon't
allow me." He lost his situation, but God found him another. It never pays in
the long run to have God againstyou. It all depends on how your money
comes to you, Whether it is better to have it or to want it. Be sure of this, that
characterand a goodconscienceare the best capital.
III. Number three starts up, and, in loud and self-asserting tones, proclaims
that he has a mind to be religious, but DOES NOT FIND THAT
CHRISTIANS ARE ANY BETTER TITAN OTHER PEOPLE. This is a
polite way of hinting that they are possibly a little worse. I met with a case in
point only the other day. I was visiting in the same house with a man who had
been under deep religious impressions, and was " almost persuaded," but he
had been repelled by the conduct of certain persons who bore the Christian
name. "Theywere the most unprincipled fellows I ever knew, and their
religion disgracedeverything they touched." Stop, my friend; say, their
hypocrisy disgracedeverything they touched." To speak the truth, it was not

their religion, but their want of religion, that made them the rogues and
scamps they were.
IV. "I would be a Christian," says another, "but YOU KNOW ALL THESE
THINGS ARE MATTERS OF MERE SPECULATION. WE CANNOT
ARRIVE AT CERTAINTYON THE SUBJECT OF RELIGION." The
objectionis plausible, but it is shallow and insufficient.
1. The evidence in favour of Christianity is far stronger than that demanded
in respectto other matters which you daily accept, and in which great
interests are involved.
2. That evidence furnishes the fullest demonstration of which the nature of the
subject admits.
V. I am only to name another objection, and it is perhaps the most insidious
and fatal" of all. "Lord, I will follow Thee;but — THERE IS NO HURRY;
THERE IS TIME ENOUGH." Remember, a resolution like that, though it
quiets conscience, is worth nothing.
(J. T. Davidson, D. D.)
The broken column
C. H. Spurgeon.
When you have walkedthrough a cemetery, you have frequently seenover a
grave a broken column intended to memorialize the death of some one who
was takenawayin the prime of manhood, before as yet his life had come to its
climax. I shall take that picture of the broken column to represent my text. It
is a broken text. You expectedme to go on and to conclude the sentence:I
have broken it off abruptly. That broken column shall also representthe
broken resolutions of full many who were once in a hopeful state. As if
prepared to witness a goodprofession, they said, "Lord, I will follow Thee,"
when there came a heavy blow from the withering hand of sin; and the
column was brokenshort with a "but." So let my text stand. I will not finish
it. But so let not your determination stand. The Lord grant by His effectual
grace that while you mourn with sincere griefthe grave of many a fair resolve
which never attained the maturity of true discipleship — cut off with the fatal
"but of indecision; you may now be quickened to newness oflife. Thus you
shall come to the fulness of the stature of a man in Christ. Thus, as a building
fitly framed togetherand growing to completeness, youshall be made meet for
a habitation of God through the Spirit. Lord, I will follow Thee: but — ."
How remarkably does Scripture prove to us that the mental characteristicsof

mankind are the same now as in the Saviour's day! We occasionallyhear
stories of old skeletons being dug up which are greaterin stature than men of
these times. Some credit the story, some do not, for there be many who
maintain that the physical conformationof man is at this day just what it
always was. Certainly, however, there can be no dispute whatever among
observant men as to the identity of the inner nature of man. The gospelof
Christ may well be an unchanging gospel, for it is a remedy which has to deal
with an unaltering disease. The very same objections which were made to
Christ in the days of His flesh are made to His gospelnow. The same effects
are produced under the ministry of Christ's servants in these modern times as
were produced by His own ministry. Still are the promised hopes which make
glad the preacher's heart, blasted and withered by the same blights and the
same mildews which of old withered and blasted the prospects ofthe ministry
during our Lord's own personalsojourn in the world.
I. First, then TO EXPOSE YOUR OBJECTIONS. I cannottell man by man,
what may be the precise let that causes youto draw back, but perhaps, by
giving a list, I may be directed to describe full many a case exactly, and with
precision. Some there be who say, and seemvery sincere in the utterance,
"Lord, I would be a Christian, I would believe in Thee, and take up the cross
and follow Thee, but my calling prevents it. Such is my state of life that piety
would be to me an impossibility. I must live, and I cannot live by godliness,
therefore I am to be excusedfor the present from following Christ." "Yes,
but," saith another, "if it be not in our calling, yet in my case it is my peculiar
position in providence. It is all very well for the minister, who has not to
mingle with daily life, but cancome up into his pulpit and pray and preach, to
make little excuse for men; but I tell you, sir, if you knew how I was situated,
you would say that I am quite excusable in postponing the thoughts of God
and of eternity. You do not know what it is to have an ungodly husband, or to
live in a family where you cannotcarry out your convictions without meeting
with persecutionso ferocious and so incessant, thatflesh and blood cannot
endure it." "Besides,"says another, "I am just now in such a peculiar crisis; it
may be I have got into it by my sin, but I feel I cannot getout of it without sin.
If I were once out of it, and could start again, and stand upon a new footing,
then I might follow Christ." "Yes," says another, "I would follow Christ; I
have often felt inclinations to do so; and I have had some longings after better
things: but the way of Christ is too rough for me. It demands that I should
give up pleasures which I really love." "But," saith another, "that is not my
case. Ican say I will follow Christ, but I am of such a volatile, changeable
disposition, that I do not think I ever shall fulfil my purpose."

II. Soul, thou who sayest, "I will follow Christ, but — ," I now come to
EXPOSE THINE IGNORANCE AND THE ILL STATE OF THY HEART.
Soul! thou hast as yet no true idea of what sin is. God the Holy Spirit has
never opened thine eyes to see what an evil and bitter thing it is to sin against
God, or else there would be no " buts." Picture a man who has lost his way,
who has sunk into a slough; the waters and the mire are come up to his very
throat. He is about to sink in it, when some bright spirit comes, stepping over
the treacherous bog, and puts forth to him his hand. That man, if he knows
where he is, if he knows his uncomfortable and desperate state, will put out
his hand at once. Again: soul, it seems plain to me that thou hast never yet
been taught by the Holy Spirit what is thy state of condemnation. Thou hast
never yet learnt that the wrath of God abideth on thee. What shall I say
more? Yet this once againI will admonish thee. O thou procrastinating,
objecting sinner, thou bast never knownwhat heaven is, or else thou wouldst
never have a "but."
III. LET ME SHOW THEE THY SIN. When thou saidst, "But," thou didst
contradict thyself. The meaning of that rightly read is this, "Lord, I will not
follow Thee." That "but" of thine puts the negative on all the professionthat
went before it. I wish, my hearers, that this morning you would either be led
by grace to say, "I will believe," or else were permitted honestly to see the
depravity and desperate hardness of your own hearts so as to say, "I will not
believe in Christ." It is because so many of you are neither this nor that, but
halting betweentwo opinions, that you are the hardest characters to deal with.
I know a gentleman of considerable positionin the world, who, after having
been with me some little time, said, "Now that man is going away, and I shall
be just what I was before";for he had wept under the Word. He compared
himself, he said, to a gutta-percha doll; he had got out of his old shape for a
little while, but he would go back to what he was before. And how many there
are of you of this kind. You will not say, "I will not have Christ"; you will not
say, "I will not think of these things." You dare not say, "I disbelieve the
Bible," or, "I think there is no God, and no hereafter";but you say, "No
doubt it is true, I'll think of it by and by." You never will, sinner, you never
will, you will go on from day to day, harping that till your last day shall come,
and you will be found then where you are now, unless sovereigngrace
prevent.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Conditional discipleship

W. G. Lewis.
This third character, like the first, volunteers his declarationof attachment to
the Saviour, appending to it a condition — "Lord, I will follow Thee, BUT let
me first go bid them farewell, which are at my house." But — ominous word,
treacherous poison, undermining the best resolves, and spoiling the fairest
speeches. It is said of that he used to say, "Lord, convert me, but not yet."
"Lord, I will follow Thee, But I am not yet goodenough." If this be the
utterance of realhumility, know thou that it is not unworthiness, but
unwillingness that alone disqualifies us from following Jesus. It is
unconditional determination that He demands. D'Aubigne, the greatchurch
historian, says that when he was a student at college, he was much beset by
doubts and difficulties in relation to questions connectedwith Divine truth;
and it was his wont to repair to an old Christian, in very humble life, whose
rich experience had often served to help the young student. But at length,
upon preferring some grave difficulty, D'Aubigne receivedan unexpected
rebuff, for his agedfriend replied, "Young man, I shall not answeranymore
of these questions of yours. If I settle them one day, new perplexities arise the
next day. The greatquestion for you is — 'Do you mean to belong altogether
to Christ?'" That is the shortestway of setting at rest these misgivings. Give
yourselves to the Saviour, and He will smooth your path, and show the way.
(W. G. Lewis.)
The dangerof backwardlooks
J. Chalmers, M. A.
This man was in the spirit of true discipleship, resolvedto follow Jesus, and
actually beginning it. But he felt a desire first to return to his relatives and
give his last commissionto them, and bid them farewell:"Lord, I will follow
Thee;but suffer me first go bid them farewellthat are at home at my house."
This request had something of a backwardlook in it; it indicated somewhatof
a desire to trim betweenChrist and His kindred; at leastthere was a positive
danger in it to the discipleship he had just avowed;for, once awayfrom the
Master's side and among his own unbelieving kindred, he would be besetby
them as to the step he was taking; he would be expostulatedwith and warned
againstit, and threateningly dissuadedfrom it; tears, entreaties, influences of
all sorts would be brought to bear on him to turn him from his intent and
keephim at home as he was wont to be. And then, perchance, his mind would
waver, and his resolution become shaken, and his faith fail, or be much
unfitted for the high calling of the gospel. This dangerthe Lord Jesus keenly

perceived, and clearlypoints out: and, while not forbidding him from doing as
he desired, yet warns him to beware:"No man," etc., as if He said, "No man
who follows Me can at the same time turn towards the world; if he do so he
will fail in his following, perhaps in the way of it, certainly in the work of it.
Such trimming is treasonto Me, and shows those pursuing it unfit for My
kingdom and work."
(J. Chalmers, M. A.)
Fataldelay
J. T. Davidson, D. D.
Some time since, in a little watering-place in the westof Scotland, I was
pointed to a spot where, a few years ago, a sad and strange incident had
occurred. Severalworkmenwere engagedin calking the bottom of a vessel
that had been drawn up on the sandy beach. On a sudden the cry was raised
that the ship was listing over, and all the men startedto their feet, and
hastenedto escape — all but one poor fellow, who was late in stirring, and the
huge hulk fell upon him, imprisoning his lowerextremities and loins, but
leaving head and chestuninjured. At first it was thought there was little
danger, for the ship rested gently on him, and the sand was soft. So they tried
to shore up the vessel, and willing hands brought ropes, and blocks, and
wedges, andearneststrength. But they soondiscoveredthat the thing was
impossible, from the nature of the bottom. The man was jammed there, and
they could not extricate him. There was just one awful hour before the
advancing tide would coverhim. Oh! with what agonizing entreaty did he
appeal to them to rescue him. It was too late. He saw the tide of death
approaching, but he had not the powerto rise and escape;and none could
deliver him. Another hour; and as the vesselcalmly rose and glided on the
waters, the pale corpse floating in to shore seemedto preachthe solemn
lesson, that even a few moments' delay may be fatal. And so has it happened
with many a soul, that, trifling with his seasonofgrace, has resolvedto get up
and follow Christ at some future day; but that day came, and he could not
stir; all capacityfor resolve had passedaway;his heart was dead and
motionless as a stone. If you have but half a desire then to follow Christ, let no
"buts" block the way, those flimsy objections which drown so many in
perdition, and make you the butt of Satan's ridicule; but instantly arise, and
say with Peter(though in a Divine strength that will not fail you), "Lord, why
cannot I follow Thee now? I will lay down my life for Thy sake."
(J. T. Davidson, D. D.)

Dangerof procrastination
A recent discoveryat Pompeii has brought to light the factof a priest fleeing
from the temple when the warning came of the city's approaching doom. But
the treasures ofthe temple — why should he leave them? He is supposedto
have returned to obtain them. Again he sets out, but had not proceededfar
before the destruction came and he was lost. Had it not been for the treasures,
his life had been spared.
Dangerin delay
W. Buck.
Caesarhada letter given him by Artimedorus the morning he went to the
senate, whereinnotice was given him of all the conspiracyof his murderers; so
that with ease he might have prevented his death: but neglecting the reading
of it, he was slain. What can be done to-day, therefore, delay not till to-
morrow.
(W. Buck.)
The virtue of perseverance
Bishop Ehrler.
I. MOTIVES.
1. The unchangeableness ofGod.
2. The unchangeableness ofDivine charity.
3. The nature of virtue.
II. MEANS.
1. Prayer.
2. Energy.
3. Frequent receptionof the Holy Communion.
4. The remembrance of heaven.
(Bishop Ehrler.)
The evil of looking back
T. Manton, D. D.

This man offered himself, but his heart was not sufficiently loosenedfrom the
world.
1. His request. He offers himself to be a disciple of Christ, but with an
exception— that he might take his farewellat home, and dispose of his estate
there, and so secure his worldly interests. You will say, what harm in this
request? Elijah grantedit to Elisha (1 Kings 19:21). I answer —(1) The
evangelicalministry exceedeththe prophetical, both as to excellencyand
necessity, and must be gone about speedily without any delay. The harvest
was great, and such an extraordinary work was not to be delayednor
interrupted.(2) If two men do the same thing, it followeth not that they do it
with the same mind. Things may be the same as to the substance or matter of
the action, yet circumstances may be different. Christ knew this man's heart,
and could interpret the meaning of his desire to go home first.(3) Those that
followedChrist on these extraordinary calls were to leave all things they had,
without any further care about them (Matthew 19:21; Matthew 4:19, 20;
Matthew 9:9). Therefore it was preposterous for this man to desire to go home
to order and dispose of his estate and family, before he complied with his
call.(4)In resolution, estimation, and vow, the same is required of all
Christians, when Christ's work callethfor it — "So likewise, whosoeverhe be
of you that forsakethnot all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke
14:33).
2. Christ's answer, whichconsists of a similitude, and its interpretation joined
together.(1)The metaphor or similitude. Takenfrom ploughmen, who cannot
make straight furrows if they look back. So, to look back, after we have
undertaken Christ's yoke and service, rendereth us unfit for the kingdom of
God. Putting our hands to the plough is to undertake Christ's work, or to
resolve to be His disciples. Looking back denotes a hankering of mind after
the world, and also a return to the worldly life.For, first we look back, and
then we go back.
1. Upon what occasions we may be said to look back. A double pair I shall
mention. The first sort of those:(1) That pretend to follow Christ, and yet their
hearts hanker after the world, the cares, pleasures, and vain pomp thereof.(2)
When men are discouragedin His service by troubles and difficulties, and so,
after a forward profession, all comethto nothing — "If any man draw back,
My soulshall have no pleasure in him" (Hebrews 10:38). The former is
looking back, and this is drawing back. The one arises outof the other; all
their former zealand courage is lost, they are affrighted and driven out of
their profession, and relapse into the errors they have escaped. There is a
looking back with respectto mortification, and a looking back with respectto

vivification.(a) With respectto mortification, which is the first part of
conversion. So we must not look back, or mind anything behind us, which
may turn us back, and stop us in our course.(b)With respectto vivification, or
progress in the duties of the holy and heavenly life. So the apostle telleth us —
"But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before" (Philippians 3:13), etc.
Farther progress in holiness is the one thing that we should mind, and that
above all other things.
2. How ill it becomeththose that have put their hands to the spiritual
plough.(1) In respectof the covenantinto which they enter, or the manner of
entrance into it, which is by a fixed unbounded resignationof themselves unto
God. Till this be done, we are but half Christians.(2)With respectto the duties
of Christianity, or that part of the kingdom of God which concernethyour
obedience to Him, you are never fit for these while the heart cleavethto
earthly things, and you are still hankering after the world. A threefold defect
there will be in our duties.
(a)They will be unpleasant.
(b)They will he inconstant.
(c)Imperfect in such a degree as to want sincerity.(3) In respectof the hurt
that cometh from their looking back, both to themselves and to religion.(4)
With respectto the disproportion that is betweenthe things that tempt us to
look back, and those things that are set before us.
(a)The things that tempt us to look back are the pleasures ofsin and the
profits of the world. Both are but a temporary enjoyment (Hebrews 11:25).
(b)The things that are before you are God and heaven; reconciliationwith
God, and the everlasting fruition of Him in glory.
(T. Manton, D. D.)
The dangerof looking back
J. Orion.
I. Many seemdisposedto follow Christ, and yet are kept back by their
domestic and worldly affairs.
II. The concerns ofreligion are so very important, that they admit no excuse
nor delay.
1. Religionis the most important concern, infinitely more so than any
domestic and worldly concern.

2. Worldly business is no excuse for neglecting religion, because bothmay go
on together, if a man will "guide his affairs with discretion."
3. To this I add — that business and domestic affairs will flourish the better, if
religion be minded as the principal thing.
III. Those who have engagedin the service of Christ, must be resolute and
persevere to the end. Application:
1. How lamentable is the con. duct of mankind in general;so widely different
from the maxims of our Lord and Master.
2. What greatneed have we to watchover ourselves, lestdomestic affairs
hinder us in religion.
3. Let us be solicitous to persevere to the end.
(J. Orion.)
Christ demands decisionin religion
W. Curling, M. A.
I. THERE, IS A GREAT WORK, WHICH IT BEHOOVES US ALL TO
LABOUR IN.
1. All are interestedin reaping the advantages ofit.
2. All must alike feel the sadconsequencesofneglecting it.
3. It is a work that requires immediate attention.
II. WHEN WE TAKE UP RELIGION WE MUST GO ON WITH IT, and
never allow ourselves to be diverted from our object by any worldly
considerations. We must be determined to serve Christ faithfully, to serve
Him above all, and to serve Him for ever. No reservation;no division of
affectionor interest betweenChrist and other things.
III. IF, AFTER BEGINNING GOD'S WORK, WE LOOK AWAY FROM IT,
AND TURN OUR THOUGHTS AND HEARTS AGAIN UPON THE
WORLD, WE UNFIT OURSELVES FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
(W. Curling, M. A.)
Fatalsignificance ofa hind look
Anon.

The professedChristian, to demonstrate his sincerity, to do his work
effectually, and to prove his adaptedness for a higher sphere, must keephis
face Zionward. Because, if he looks back, he shows —
1. That he is not deeply interested and fully occupiedby the employment in
which he is professedlyengaged.
2. That the ties of his earthly relationships are strongerthan those which bind
him to heavenly things.
3. That he has surrendered himself to temptation. Conclusion: As the first
look to Christ and the first step towards the Cross are encouraging and
hopeful, so the first look awayfrom the Saviour and the first step aside from
the path of duty are discouraging, dangerous, appalling. Apostasyis thus
reachedby an accelerating motion.
(Anon.)
Spiritual ploughing
W. B. Wright.
Life is here figured as a field which God has setus to plough.
I. Upon it THREE CLASSES OF MEN appear.
1. There are those who move without regardto their orders or their duty.
Their purpose is to live as easilyand pleasantlyas possible. Theymean to
enjoy the present; to enjoy virtuously, if that may be, but to enjoy. What
questions may be askedthem by and by, they refuse to consider. Of such the
text says nothing.
2. There are others trying to plough with their eyes behind them. They have
seizedthe plough in order to be drawn by it to heaven. But they have found
life no summer sea overwhich they canbe carried smoothly gliding. They
have found it an unbroken prairie that must be ploughed as it is passed. They
are continually tripped and thrown by unexpected obstacles.Theydo not find
the joy they crave. When demands upon their energies increase, theyare
disturbed. When tribulation or persecutionarisethbecause ofthe Word, "by
and by they are offended." Thus they learn by sadexperience that religion
which is not wings is always chains.
3. But there are men who begin and continue the Christian life as the
instructed ploughman runs his furrow.

II. Let us mark THREE POINTS IN THE MASTER'S ILLUSTRATION
which give reply to certainquestions often askedofChristians by the world,
by their own hearts, by the Holy Spirit.
1. Why does God's kingdom come so slowly? Why is the Church not stronger?
One could scarcelyglance upon the ploughman at his work, remembering
Christ's words the while, and ask these questions twice. The marvel would
rather seem to be that the kingdom does increase. Surveythe field of
Christian ploughmen. Some are absorbedin watching and in criticising other
people's furrows. Some are gazing back upon their own, recalling past
experiences, attimes anxiously, which is bad; at times proudly, which is
worse. How few are eagerlyalert to the work they themselves are set to do I
How few are even sure that they have furrows to plough!
2. The Lord's words bring an answerto another question of serious practical
import. It is saidthe Church is losing, if she has not already lost, her hold
upon young men. Yet in our Lord's lifetime it was the young and the strong
whom He attractedto Him and gatheredround Him. Why is it not so now? Is
not an answerfound in this, that we no longer preach Him with the old heroic
ring? All are not mourners. All are not heavy-laden. There are many who
carry life as a hunter bears his gun through an unflushed preserve. Has Christ
no words for them? Ay, verily! But how rarely are those words repeated? In
the New Testamentthe Christian is painted, not as one flying from a doomed
city, but as a stalwartfarmer ploughing the old growths of the old world, until
visions of a new earth no less than of a new heaven fill his horizon.
3. One other question presses upon many who read the text. "Let me first go
bid them farewellwhich are at home, at my house." Was the Master's reply
intended to rebuke the disciple for loving his family — to teachhim not to
care for wife and child? Altogether the reverse, I think. The man assumed
that to follow Christ was to forsake his family. It was the fatal blunder made
by most Christians some centuries later, when they conceivedthat to run
awayfrom their duties, and try to save their souls by hiding in caverns or
monasteries, without a thought of the world their Mastercame to deliver, was
the proper way to obey Him. To grant the man's requestwould have
confirmed him in his error. It was needful to teachhim that he could
effectually care for wife and child only by following with unswerving gaze and
unfaltering foot the Lord who gave them to him. No man ever obeyed Christ
in singleness ofheart without discovering that fact. This disciple, if he obeyed,
learned it in due time, and learned it effectually, though when or how he
learned it we are not told.
(W. B. Wright.)

No looking back
W. G, Lewis.
The Saviour's reply to this man embodies a greatprinciple which regulates
the Christian life. As though He said, The meanestoccupationin life demands
of men fixedness of attention and devotedness ofpurpose. The ploughman, the
oarsman, the helmsman, the engineman, must each have the fixed eye, and so
must the Christian man, Without perseverance there is no successin worldly
undertakings, and without this not the most resplendent grace canbring a
man to heaven. Some turn back at the very commencementof the pilgrimage.
The figure of the plough points out the fact to us that labour for Christ is the
law of the kingdom.
(W. G, Lewis.)
Dangerof trifling with religious impressions
W. G, Lewis.
While the Holy Spirit pleads with us, when consciencewakesand talks with
us, let none of us trifle with the impressions that are made. There is no process
so perilous as that by which men come into familiarity with Gospeltruth, and
go away partially enlightened and imperfectly convinced. How many there are
who, like the three men we have been considering, come near to Christ, but
are only almostsaved. The northern steelis hardened by alternate exposure to
heat and cold, and thus often are men's hearts indurated. They come into the
warm atmosphere of the public means of grace, and go out into the world to
become less and less approachable by Divine truth. There are not a few who
have outlived all power of susceptibility to God's Word. They could not shed a
tear over sin if they would.
(W. G, Lewis.)
Putting the hand to the plough
N. W. Taylor, D. D.
To put the hand to the plough, is to enter ostensiblyupon some undertaking,
to embark in some pursuit with an apparent purpose of securing its object;
and to look back, implies that divided state of mind, and that irresoluteness of
purpose which are a virtual abandonment of the end proposed, and are,
therefore, fatal to success. We are thus taught that a wavering and

undetermined state of mind in religion is as fatal as it is in any other pursuit,
that it can never form that characterwhich qualifies for the kingdom of God.
I. Among those who, in the language ofthe text, put the hand to the plough
and look back may be mentioned the following classes.
1. Those who would become religious were it not that they wish first to secure
some worldly good.
2. The same thing is true of those who are prevented from coming to a decided
purpose in religion by certainembarrassments and difficulties.
3. The same thing is true of those who, in times of deep affliction, sudden
danger, or alarming sickness, have formed resolutions to become religious,
and who abandon them on a change of circumstances.
4. The same charge lies againstthose who have been the subjects of special
religious awakening, andwho afterward return to stupidity in sin.
II. Its utter insufficiency to form the Christian character.
1. An undecided purpose in religion is sure, sooneror later, to abandon its
object.
2. An undecided, fluctuating purpose in religion greatlyimpairs the energies
of the mind, and thus defeats its object.
3. That an undecided purpose in religion cannot form the Christian character,
is evident from the factthat it still leaves the soul as completely under the
dominion of sin as if it had no existence.
4. An undecided purpose in religion grieves the Holy Ghost and fearfully
exposes to judicial abandonment of God.
(N. W. Taylor, D. D.)
Crookedploughing
Dr. Talmage.
It seems a very easyprocess to a man who has never tried, as he stands
looking over the fence and sees the plough glide smoothly through the field.
One would think all you have to do, would be to take hold of the handles and
put the point of the coulter in the sod, and then tell the horses to start; but to
send the plough through at equal depth of earth, and, without being stopped
by stone or stump, make a clear, straight furrow from one end to the other,
requires a gooddeal of care. Many a one has lost his patience in the process,
and when he first began to plough, has been knockedflat by the plough

handles. Here is a boy that attempts to plough, but insteadof keeping his eye
on the beam of the plough or on the horses that are dragging the plough, he is
looking this wayand that, sometimes looking back to the end of the field from
which he started. The husbandman comes down in the field and says:"My
boy, you will never make a ploughman in that way. You must keepyour eye
on your work, or I shall discharge you, and put some one else in your place.
See here, what a crookedfurrow you have been making." Now it is this
illustration that Christ presents in order to show up the folly of that man who,
once having startedtoward heaven, is avertedthis way and that, often looking
back to the place from which he started.
(Dr. Talmage.)
Concentration
M. R. Vincent, D. D.
If you can dismiss from your minds the figure of the modern farmer, with his
polished ploughshare leaving the deep, clean furrow in its wake, andput in its
place the figure out of which Jesus made this little picture — the Eastern
ploughman doubled over the pointed stick which serves as a plough — you
will see atonce how vividly the absurdity of a man's ploughing and looking
behind him at the same time would have impressedChrist's hearers. Even a
modern ploughman, with the best modern plough, will make sad work if he do
not keephis eyes straight before him. Anyway, that is true of ploughing which
is true of any other kind of work. One whose interestis half in front and half
behind him will be only a half-way man in anything to which he may sethis
hand. All goodwork requires concentration. No goodwork is done into which
a man does not throw himself wholly. A man cannot plough, and be looking
behind him half the time. Such a man is not fit for a ploughman. You say, Of
course not. That is a law of all goodwork, that a man cannot do it well with
half his attention; but why not, then, a law of work and life in the kingdom of
God? We have a greatdeal yet to learn about the words of Christ; and one of
the most important things is, that these apparently commonplace truths and
familiar laws which He so often cites are merely sides, or ends if you please, of
truths and laws which hold in the whole spiritual world. It is not, that, in this
little picture of an incompetent farm-hand Christ gives us something like a
law of the kingdom of God. He states the law itself. Good work requires the
entire committal of the worker. It is the law of Christian service and of
ploughing alike. It is this fact which lifts utterances like our text out of the
regionof commonplace. Theyseemcommonplace where they touch us, but

their line runs out to truths which are not commonplace. The law of the
plough followedup appears as the law of the kingdom of God.
(M. R. Vincent, D. D.)
Reasonswhy men look back from the plough
Dr. Talmage.
1. I remark, that many surrender their religious impressions because, like this
man in the text, they do not want to give up their friends and connections. The
probability is that the majority of your friends are not true Christians.
2. Again, I remark, that sometimes people surrender their religious
impressions because they want to take one more look at sin. They resolved
that they would give up sinful indulgences, but they have been hankering for
them ever since, thirsty for them, and finally they conclude to go into them. So
there is a man who, under the influence of the Spirit, resolvedhe would
become a Christian, and as a preliminary step he ceasesprofanity. That was
the temptation and the sin of his life. After awhile be says:"I don't know as
it's worth while for me to be curbing my temper at all times — to be so
particular about my speech. Some of the most distinguished men in the world
have been profane. Benjamin Wade swears, StephenA. Douglassusedto
swear, GeneralJacksonswore atthe battle of New Orleans, and if men like
that swear, I can; and I am not responsible anyhow for what I do when I get
provoked." And so the man who, resolving on heaven, quits his profanity,
goes back to it. In other words, as the Bible describes it, "the dog returns to its
vomit again, and the sow that is washedto her wallowing in the mire." Oh, my
friends, there are ten thousand witcheries which, after a man has started for
heaven, compel him to look back.
3. I remark, again, there are many who surrender their religious impressions
because they want ease from spiritual anxiety. They have been talking about
their immortal soul, they have been wondering about the day of judgment,
they have been troubling themselves abort a greatmany questions in regard
to religion, and they do not find peace immediately, and they Say, "Here, I'll
give it all up. I will not be bothered any more"; and so they getrest; but it is
the restof the drowning man who, after half an hour battling with the waves,
says, "There's no use; I can't swim ashore;I'll drown"; and he goes down.
Oh, we do not hide the fact that to become a Christian demands the gathering
up of all the energies ofthe soul.
(Dr. Talmage.)

No retreat
When Garibaldi sailedfrom Genoa in 1860, to deliver Sicily from its
oppressors, he took with him a thousand volunteers. They landed at Marsala
almost in the face of the Neapolitanfleet. When the commander of Marsala,
returning to the port, saw two steamers, he gave immediate orders to destroy
them. Garibaldi, having landed his men, lookedwith indifference, almostwith
pleasure, upon their destruction. "Our retreatis cut off," he said exultingly to
his soldiers;"we have no hope but in going forward; it is to death or victory."
Which it proved to be we know full well, the brave hero soonreturning as
complete conqueror.
No retreat possible to the Christian soldier
Among the prisoners takencaptive at Waterloo there was a Highland piper.
Napoleon, struck with his mountain dress and sinewy limbs, askedhim to play
on his instrument, which is said to sound so delightfully in the mountains and
glens in Scotland. "Play a pibroch," saidNapoleon;and the Highlander
played. "Play a march"; it was done. "Play a retreat." "Na, na," saidthe
Highlander, "I never learned to play a retreat."
Neverlook back
In the East, when men or women leave their house, they never look back, as
"it would be very unfortunate." Should a husband have left anything which
his wife knows he will require, she will not call on him to turn or look back;
but will either take the article herselfor send it by another. Should a man
have to look back on some greatemergency, he will not then proceedon the
business he was about to transact. When a person goes along the road
(especiallyin the evening) he will take care not to look back, "because the evil
spirits will assuredly seize him." When they go on a journey, they will not look
behind, though the palan-keen, orbandy, should be close upon them; they
step a little on one side, and then look at you. Should a person have to leave
the house of a friend after sunset, he will be advised in going home not to look
back:"as much as possible keepyour eyes closed;fear not." Has a person
made an offering to the evil spirits? he must take particular care when he
leaves the place not to look back. A female known to me is believed to have got
her crookedneck by looking back. Such observations as the following may be
heard in private conversation: — "Have you heard that the Camaran is very

ill?" "No;what is the matter with him?" "MatterI why, he has lookedback,
and the evil spirit has caught him."
Sermon to young men
H. Wonnacott.
A noble resolution frustrated by a "but"! A life full of promise and of hope
broken off by a "but"! A crown lost, a kingdom forfeited, an eternity marred
by a "but"! A "but" was this man's ruin, and it may be also yours. I take it in
this way, that eachone present who is not following Christ may write in his or
her own objection.
1. It is possible that with some of you the worldly life seems preferable on the
score ofpleasure.
2. Or you perhaps say: "At present I am so absorbedin business that I have
no time to follow Christ."
3. Or perhaps that which has kept you back is fear of the reproachor the
scornof others.
4. Or you have formed an intention to follow Christ, but not now. "Let me
first go," dec. Any excuse that will save you from immediate decision!What,
think you, is peopling the regions of the lost? Is it crime? No. It is simple
neglectof the gospel. Satanasks no more than that you should neglectit. He
seeks notthat you shall blaspheme it, or that you shall disbelieve it, or that
you shall neglectand despise it. He only asks that you will neglectit. If you
will only say, "Lord, I will follow Thee, but " that is all he wants.
(H. Wonnacott.)
Irresolution
E. Schnadhorst.
— I will follow Thee, but —
1. Notyet.
2. I will let no one know it (Mark 8:38).
3. I will see how others go (Psalm42:4).
4. There are so many ways (John 14:6).
5. I have not sufficient conviction(Acts 24:25).
6. I must make myself better (Matthew 9:13).

7. I do not know how (Acts 16:31).
8. It will affectmy worldly position (Matthew 16:26).
9. I shall lose my situation (Matthew 6:24).
10. The doctrine of electionstands in my way (Hebrews 7:25).
11. I am not certain that Thou wilt forgive and receive me (Jeremiah 31:34).
12. I cannot do certain things which a professionofreligion requires of me
(Mark 10:21, 22).
13. I will wait God's time (2 Corinthians 6:2).
14. I have not the heart to do it (Psalm 34:18).Application:
1. The propensity of an awakenedsinner is to put off conviction day after day.
2. The excuses and promises of the sinner are to ease his conscience.
3. Excuses are enoughto prevent submission.
4. Are you ready to castyourselves into the arms of Jesus Christ?
(E. Schnadhorst.)
The powerof a "but"
J. R. Bailey.
I. MANY ARE CONTINUALLY SAYING, "LORD, I WILL FOLLOW
THEE," WHO YET DO NOT FOLLOW CHRIST. They have a reverence for
sacredthings; their head-belief is scriptural and unhesitating; they know both
that their lives are wrong and their hearts sinful, and the remedy for the evil;
but there is always something in the way of their present decision.
II. Inquire into SOME OF THE CAUSES WHICH OPERATE TO KEEP
BACK SUCH AS I HAVE BEEN DESCRIBINGFROM DECISION FOR
CHRIST.
1. With some, as with the man of the text, natural ties. "Let me first go and
bid them farewellwhich are at home at my house." "A very natural wish!"
you say. And so in some circumstances itwould be. When Elijah summoned
Elisha to follow him, the son of Shaphat said: "Let me, I pray thee, kiss my
father and my mother, and then I will follow thee." And the prophet, stern
man though he was, assented(1 Kings 19:19, 20). Why then does Christ actso
differently on a similar occasion? We may conjecture that Elisha's parents
would be rather gratified than otherwise that their sonshould become the
servant of the greatprophet. The parents of this man who came to Christ, on

the other hand, would not, it may be, feel that it was any advance or
promotion for their son to give up his occupationand follow the fortunes of
the poor carpenter's son. Christ may then have apprehended that if the man
returned home he would never come back, deterredfrom doing so by the
persuasions ofhis relatives. Elisha was calledfrom the plough to follow the
prophets; this man was calledfrom his occupationto put his hand to the
plough. "Oh, but it was the gospel-plough," you say. Yes, but gospel-
ploughing was not popular in those days. But whateverit was that rendered
this man's temporary return home a probably permanent one, whateverit
was that made it perilous to his spiritual interests to go and bid farewellto his
parents, I gather from Christ's rebuke that it was something which the man
knew. and knowing, did not consideras he ought. We may be sure that for
him to do as he proposedwould have been actually to prefer his relatives to
Christ, the lesserduty to the larger, his affection to Christ's claim. Do natural
ties ever keepus from following Christ? I am afraid that, in some cases, they
do. Unbelieving wife or husband; worldly parent, scoffing brother or sister.
2. Plea of being too young yet.
3. Worldly preoccupations. Must" geton" in business, provide for family and
old age. As if it was not possible to be both diligent in business and fervent in
spirit. No man has a right to barter his soul for worldly gain.
III. "CHOOSE YOU THIS DAY WHOM YOU WILL SERVE." Let there be
no hindering "but." Christ suffered no " but" to come betweenHim and the
fulfilment of His loving purposes for our redemption. Shall we hesitate to
follow Him when He bids us?
(J. R. Bailey.)
Perseverance
Cardinal Manning.
A man's work is what his will is. If he throws his will into his work, it will be
done. If his heart and will are not in his work, it will be but half done. "He
that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved."
I. WHAT IS PERSEVERANCE? Itis holding out steadily to the end. The
question is of two kinds:
1. Active perseverance. The availing ourselves of the lights of truth when we
see them.

2. Passive perseverance. Whenthere is perseverance onour part there is also
perseverance onGod's part. Perseverance onGod's part a sovereigngift
which we cannotmerit.
3. This gift of perseveranceconsistsofthree things:
(a)The specialguidance of God to guard us from running into temptation;
(b)God will guard those whom He guides;
(c)the continual renewalof God's grace.
II. How IS PERSEVERANCE LOST? One mortal sin will destroy it. There
are sins which are not considereddeadly which are in reality more deadly
because they contain more subtle poison, e.g., pride, jealousy, anger, sloth.
III. HOW IS PERSEVERANCETO BE SUSTAINED? By fidelity to the voice
of conscience;by maintaining a delicacyof conscience.
1. Dwellmuch upon God's love to you.
2. Meditate upon those who have fallen.
3. Learn that there must be a strong, fervent will throwing itself into
perseverance.
(Cardinal Manning.)
The plough and the kingdom
M. R. Vincent, D. D., J. P. Thompson.
The picture of a slouching plough. man is the form into which our Lord
throws the lessonof the closing sectionof this chapter.
1. The first man, an enthusiastic volunteer, had conceivedof no difficulty in
the case.Nevertheless,our Lord will not let a man enter His service without a
full knowledge ofits conditions. The man shall never have it to saythat he was
entrapped into sacrifices and labours upon which he did not count.
2. The next man is a ready man, like the first, but a more cautious man. No
one would be more ready than Christ to acknowledgesucha claim as he
urged. But this case was peculiar. When a community, in the old colonialdays,
was suddenly attackedby the Indians, every man must drop everything else,
and go out to repel the savages. He must leave his team unyoked in the field,
his plough in the furrow, his sick wife in the house, his dead child or father
unburied, and seize his gun, and take his place in the ranks. You are to
remember further that this was the man's only chance to attach himself to
Jesus. The Lord was going forth from Galilee to return no more. According to

the Jewishlaw, the pollution from the presence ofa dead body lastedseven
days. By that time the man's first enthusiasm would have become chilled, and
Jesus would be out of reach. The man evidently thought that it was only a
question of a little delay in following Christ; Jesus knew that it was a question
of following Him now or never.
3. Then comes a third. He offers himself also;but he, too, is not ready to go at
once. He wants to go home and take leave of his family and friends. And in
this case, as in the last, Christ assumes that there is a moral crisis. He must
decide promptly; and if he decides to follow Christ, he must promptly forsake
all, once for all, and follow Him. Christ says to Him, in effect,Ifyou go after
me, the course is straightforward. If part of your heart is left behind with
friends and home and old associations,it is of no use for you to go. You are
not fit for the kingdom of God, any more than a man is fit to plough a field
who is constantly turning from his plough and his team to look backward.
1. The lessonof the text is that of committal — the truth, that to follow Christ
is to commit one's self wholly and irrevocably to Christ. This law of entire
committal is familiar enoughto us in its worldly applications. When you
choose a calling in life, it is said of you, "He is going to devote his life to
business, or to law, or to medicine."
2. As a consequence,whenyou enter your plough in this spirit of entire
committal, you agree to take whatever comes in the line of your ploughing,
and to plough through it, or round it, and in no case to turn back because of
it. The kingdom of God is full of surprises, and you will come upon a good
many unexpected things, and hard as they are unexpected. There are curved
as well as straight lines in God's plans, ends reachedby indirection as well as
directly. A farmer likes to cut straight furrows, but God is more concerned
about our making a fruitful field than a handsome one. Any way, straight or
crooked, youcommit yourself to what comes. Godselectsthe field for us with
its conditions; rocks in one man's field, stumps in another's. Last week there
came into my study a pastorof many years'standing — a faithful, able, useful
servant of God. He told me of sicknessandprostration, of burdens lifted in
struggling churches, of divisions and dissensions among his people, of final
success;and he brought down his hand with emphasis as he said, "I have
learned this one thing through it all, that God's work is bound to go on any
way; and that the only thing for us to do is to stand in our place and do our
work whatevercomes." My brethren, you all know something about this in
your own lives. You have all felt the jar when the plough struck a stone. Not
one of you has been able to make straight furrows always. But there is no such

thing as failure of faithful work in God's kingdom. And the simple reasonof
that is because it is in God's kingdom, and not man's.
3. The text presents us with a question of the present, a present responsibility.
It is not a question whether you will be fit for heavenby and by, but whether,
by absolute and entire committal to Christ, you are fit for the service of the
kingdom here and now.
(M. R. Vincent, D. D.)Christ required implicit consecration, withno mental
reservation, no hankering after the old manner of life.
(J. P. Thompson.)
Prompt decision
Biblical Treasury.
Father Taylor, the sailor preacher, was brought up in a place near the city of
Richmond (United States)by a lady to whom he had been given in charge.
One day, when he was about sevenyears old, he was picking up chips for his
foster-mother, when a sea captain passedby and askedhim if he did not wish
to be a sailor. He jumped at the offer, never finished picking up his chips nor
returned into the house to bid his friends good-bye, but gave himself to the
strangerwithout fear or thought. As a sailorhe underwent many hardships,
being at one time a prisoner of war in England; and he finally became, and
was for over forty years, pastor of the Seamen's Bethel, Boston, and an
eminent and useful preacher.
(Biblical Treasury.)
Duty permits no deliberation
ArchdeaconFarrar.
Nero once tried to disgrace some of the greatRoman nobles to as low a level
as his own by making them appear as actors in the arena or on the stage. To
the Romannoble such an appearance was regardedas the extremestshame
and disgrace. Yet to disobey the order was death. The noble Florus was
bidden thus to appear in the arena; and doubtful whether to obey or not,
consultedthe virtuous and religious Agrippinus. "Go, by all means," replied
Agrippinus. "Well, but," replied Florus, "you yourself faced death rather
than obey." "Yes," answeredAgrippinus; "becauseI did not deliberate about
it." The categorical, imperative "you must," the negative prohibition of duty,
must be implicitly, unquestioningly, and deliberately obeyed. To deliberate

about it is to be a secrettraitor, and the line which separates the secrettraitor
from the open rebel is thin as the spider's web.
(ArchdeaconFarrar.)
Making a way to return
Sir John Forbes.
About the time of the reformation a certain bishop who had embracedthe
new doctrines, and to whom it was therefore of no use, presented a relic (a
dead man's toe) to the Church at St. Nicholas, Switzerland. He made the
present conditionally with the powerof resuming it if he should return to his
old ways.
(Sir John Forbes.)
Looking back
H. R. Burton.
The sonof Carey, the Indian missionary, went to Burmah-as a missionary, but
there he became an ambassadorforthe Burmese king. He then lived in great
worldly pomp and state, but his father mourned that he had so demeaned
himself as to stoopfrom being God's ambassadorto be the ambassadorofan
Easternking. All worldly things are only like the shadows of a dream; there is
nothing substantial about them. But the honour and blessings whichcome
from God are satisfying and abiding.
(H. R. Burton.).
COMMENTARIES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
DecisionAnd Indecision
Luke 9:61
W. Clarkson
Lord, I will follow thee; but, etc. Two trains may leave the same platform and
travel for a while along the same lines, and they may look as if they would
reachthe same terminus; 'but one of them diverges slightly to the right and
the other to the left, and then the further they go the greateris the distance

that separates them. Two children born under the same roof, brought up
under the same religious conditions, are baptized into the same faith, receive
the same doctrines, are affectedby the same influences; - they should reach
the same home. But they do not. One makes a resolution to serve God
outright, unconditional, without reserve; he says simply, deliberately, "I will
follow thee;" but the other makes a resolutionunder reserve, with conditions
attached- he says, "Lord, I will follow thee; but," etc. The one of these two
goes on, goes up, in the direction of piety, zeal, devotedness, sacredjoy, holy
usefulness;the other goes downin that of hesitation, oscillationbetween
wisdom and folly, and finally of impenitence and spiritual failure. We will
look at -
I. THE MAN OF INDECISION ALONG THE LINE COMMON TO
HIMSELF AND THE MAN OF RELIGIOUS EARNESTNESS.
1. They both receive instruction in the common faith; they learn and admit
the greatfundamental truths of the gospel - the life, death, resurrection,
teaching of Jesus Christ.
2. They are both impressed by the surpassing excellence ofChrist; for there is
in him now, as there was when he lived among men, that which constrains
admiration, reverence, attraction.
3. They both feelthe desirableness ofavailing themselves of the blessings of
the gospelofgrace - of the pardon, peace, joy, worth, hope, immortality,
which it offers to the faithful. And when Christ's voice is heard, as it is in
many ways, eachof these men is prepared to say, "Neverman spake, Lord, as
thou speakestto me; no one else will give me what thou art offering; evermore
give me this living bread, this living water. Lord, I will follow thee."
II. THE MAN OF INDECISION AT THE POINT OF DIVERGENCE. He
says not, simply and absolutely, "I will; "he says, "I will follow thee; but," etc.
One word more, but how much less in factand in truth? What is in that
qualifying word?
1. But 1 am young, and there is plenty of time. I am a long way off the "three
score and ten years;" and all along the road of life there are paths leading into
the kingdom; let me go on unburdened by such serious claims as these of
thine. "I will," etc., but not yet.
2. But 1 have a bodily as well as a spiritual nature, and I must satisfyits
claims. These hungerings and thirstings of the sense are very strong and
imperious; let me drink of this cup, let me lay by those treasures first.

Jesus was followed, but with a but

Jesus was followed, but with a but

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