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him before the Father in Heaven. They, who will be denied by him, will be shut out of Heaven, they will not, cannot be his servants: they will be delivered over into utter darkness, they will have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. This will be a second, and a worse death, a state of suffering for ever.

And now to God, &c.

ST. MATTHEW X. 37.

He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.

THESE are the words of Jesus Christ, to the men whom he sent forth to preach and to teach. And the meaning of them is, that we are to love God and our Saviour above all things. It happened, I suppose, sometimes when the Christian religion was first preached, that all in a family had not faith enough to believe it and to be saved. The father might be wicked and not believe and repent: the son might wish both to believe and repent, and yet might be tempted either through love or fear of this father, still to remain a heathen.

This our Saviour says is wrong: for he who loveth his father so much as not to be Christian because his father did not wish it, is not worthy of Jesus Christ, is not worthy to be his disciple. You see that the nearest relations may be of different opinions, and that they who dislike religion, may wish to prevent those who like it, from believing it and preaching it. In this case, you must not let bad example or the bad advice of the nearest relations tempt you to do wrong. No! shew that you are Christians, whatever other people may say, and be neither afraid nor ashamed to confess your Saviour upon earth, knowing that he will confess you before God and his holy angels.

Our Saviour goes on to say: He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. By cross, he means any difficulty or trouble, or danger, or loss. You are to bear all these things rather than deny Jesus Christ. You are

to submit to every inconvenience, and suffering, rather than to do a thing which a Christian ought not to do. When - we resolve to give up ourselves to the Saviour who died for us, when we resolve to do whatever he commands, and to keep from every thing which he forbids; when we resolve to keep from those sins, which others practice, and to follow those things which others dislike, when we resolve neither to swear with the swearer, to drink with the drunken, nor to he filthy in our conversation with those who love filthy conversation; we must expect to meet with a laugh and a joke, with jibing and jesting from profane and wicked people, we must expect to meet sometimes with insult and sometimes with violence, with rudeness, ill language, and ill behaviour. These disagreeable things, unpleasant to flesh and blood, we must resolve to bear: this is the cross which we must be satisfied to take, if we wish to follow Christ and to be worthy of him. I know that they who laugh at a

Church, at a sermon, at religion itself, turn pious and religious people into ridicule. We must not mind them, however, we must take up the cross and follow our Redeemer. He tells us, that in that case, he shall think us worthy of him. The wicked and profane are not worthy of him: they are not therefore worthy of us: they will not be worthy of Heaven: they will only be worthy of the devil, and to him they will belong both now and for ever.

Our Saviour, Jesus Christ goes on: He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it. You see, from these words, that a Christian is not to let go his faith in Christ even to save his life, that, if in order to save it, he gives up his Saviour, he may find his life in this world, but he may lose it in the next: he will suffer the second death, which is a state of suffering for ever. While he that loveth his life in this world for the sake of Jesus Christ,

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