t he had made himself what he _is_.
So is it with us all. God makes us His children, heirs of Heaven, and
we too often, by our foolish pride, make ourselves into devils.
Believe me, the gate of life eternal is far too narrow to admit us with
the great swelling garment of pride puffed out on all sides of us.

Next, if we walk along the narrow way _we must not overload ourselves_.
There are some burdens which we _must_ bear, but the dear Lord, who
laid them upon us, will give us strength to carry them. It is the
burden of the world's making which will hinder us. We see a man who
wants to walk in the right way, who hopes to pass through the narrow
gate, who has so loaded himself with worldly things that he goes
staggering along, till at length he slips off on to the broad road to
destruction. He is like one escaping from a shipwreck, who tries to
swim ashore with all his money bags, and is sunk to the bottom by their
weight. Sometimes people, coming home from abroad, bring with them a
quantity of smuggled goods, and their clothes are all padded with
laces, and other ill-gotten gear. What happens? They are stopped at a
narrow gate, and stripped of all their load before they are permitted
to return home. So, my brothers, if you would pass the gate which
leads _home_, to the rest which remaineth for the people of God, you
must not overload yourselves with this world's gear. You must not fill
up your thoughts with your business, and drag that burden with you to
the very edge of the Churchyard mould. You are just blocking up the
way to eternal life with your bales of goods, your manufactures, your
business books. Some of you are blocking God's highway with the
waggons of worldly commerce, others with the gay chariot of frivolous
pleasure. Here is a woman trying to walk in the narrow way. She has a
crowd of children hanging upon her skirts. She has tried to be a good
mother, but she has let the cares and plans for her children draw her
away from God, and we see her dragged from the narrow way by those whom
she ought to have helped along it. Believe me, it is not open,
notorious evil-doers who form the majority on the broad road to
destruction. It is not the murderer, the thief, the drunkard, the
adulterer, the unbeliever, who crowd that down-hill road. They are
there with the rest, but they are outnumbered by those whom the world
calls very respectable. Amid that crowd of all ages and ranks, there
are those who