ome which we have in Jesus Christ. We must stoop very
low to enter there. And some of us do not like that. We do not like to
fall on our knees and say, I am a sinful man, O Lord. We do not like to
bow ourselves in penitence. And the passage is narrow as well as low. It
is broad enough for you, but not for what some of you would fain carry
in on your back. The pack which you bear, of earthly vanities and loves,
and sinful habits, will be brushed off your shoulders in that narrow
entrance, like the hay off a cart in a country lane bordered by high
hedges. And some of us do not like that. So, because the way is narrow,
and we have to stoop, our pride kicks at the idea of having to confess
ourselves sinners, and of having to owe all our hope and salvation to
God's undeserved mercy, therefore we stay outside. And because the way
is narrow, and we have to put off some of our treasures, our
earthward-looking desires shrink from laying these aside, and therefore
we stop outside. There was room in the boat for the last man who stood
on the deck, but he could not make up his mind to leave a bag of gold.
There was no room for that. Therefore he would not leap, and went down
with the ship.

The door is open. The Master calls. The feast is spread. Dangers
threaten. The flood comes. The avenger of blood makes haste. 'Why
standest thou without?' Enter in, before the door is shut. And if you
ask, How shall I pass within?--the answer is plain: 'They could not
enter in because of unbelief. We which have believed do enter into
rest.'

I. THESSALONIANS

FAITH, LOVE, HOPE, AND THEIR FRUITS

'Your work of faith, and labour of love, and
patience of hope.'--1 THESS. i. 3.

This Epistle, as I suppose we all know, is Paul's first letter. He had
been hunted out of Thessalonica by the mob, made the best of his way to
Athens, stayed there for a very short time, then betook himself to
Corinth, and at some point of his somewhat protracted residence there,
this letter was written. So that we have in it his first attempt, so far
as we know, to preach the Gospel by the pen. It is interesting to notice
how, whatever changes and developments there may have been in him
thereafter, all the substantial elements of his latest faith beam out in
this earliest letter, and how even in regard to trifles we see the germs
of much that came afterwards. This same triad, you remember, 'faith,
hope, charity,' recurs in the First E