tides. And if we, changeful creatures,
are to be steadfast in any region, our surest way of being so is to knit
ourselves to Him 'who is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,'
and from whose immortality will flow some copy and reflection of itself
into our else changeful natures.

Still further, in regard to this commandment, I would pray you to notice
that very eloquent little word which stands at the beginning of it.
'_So_ stand fast in the Lord.' 'So.' How? That throws us back to what
the Apostle has been saying in the previous context. And what has he
been saying there? The keynote of the previous chapter is progress--'I
follow after; I press toward the mark, forgetting the things that are
behind, and reaching forth to the things that are before.' To these
exhortations to progress he appends this remarkable exhortation:
'So'--that is, by progress--'stand fast in the Lord,' which being turned
into other words is just this--if you stand still, you will not stand
fast. There can be no steadfastness without advancement. If a man is not
going forward, he is going backward. The only way to ensure stability is
'pressing toward the mark.' Why, a child's top only stands straight up
as long as it is revolving. If a man on a bicycle stops, he tumbles. And
so, in the depths of a Christian life, as in all science, and all walks
of human activity, the condition of steadfastness is advance. Therefore,
dear brethren, let no man deceive himself with the notion that he can
keep at the same point of religious experience and of Christian
character. You are either more of a Christian, or less of one, than you
were at a past time. '_So_, stand fast,' and remember that to stand
_still_ is _not_ to stand _fast_.

Now, whilst all these things that I have been trying to say have
reference to Christian people at all stages of their spiritual history,
they have a very especial reference to those in the earlier part of
Christian life.

And I want to say to those who have only just begun to run the Christian
life, very lovingly and very earnestly, that this is a text for them.
For, alas! there is nothing more frequent than that, after the first
dawnings of a Christian life in a heart, there should come a period of
overclouding; or that, as John Bunyan has taught us, when Christian has
gone through the wicket-gate, he should fall very soon into the Slough
of Despond. One looks round, and sees how many professing Christians
there are wh