m the simple meaning these words will yet disclose.

"If any man _would_"--would is the past tense of will. The word will is
one of the strongest in our language. A man's will is the imperial part
of him. It is the autocrat upon the throne; the judge upon the bench of
final appeal. Jesus is getting down to the root of matters here. He is
appealing to the highest authority. No mere passing sentiment is this.
Not attending a meeting and being swept along with the crowd by the
hour's influence. But _a fixed purpose_, calmly, resolutely settled
upon, rooted away down deep in the very vitals of the will to follow
Jesus absolutely, no matter what it may cost or where it may cut.

I wonder how many of us would form such a purpose, to follow Jesus
_blindly_, utterly regardless of what it might be found to mean as the
days come and go? "Oh, well," I hear some one say, "why talk like that.
Nobody is required to suffer to-day as He did." Do you think not? I am
not so sure about that. There is a young man in Southern India, bright
fellow, full of power, of high class family, who heard of Jesus, and
felt the personal appeal to himself of that marvelous story. He thought
a good while of what it meant, and what it might involve, and at length
resolutely formed his decision to accept and follow Jesus. As he had
anticipated, his dear ones remonstrated with him, coaxed, pleaded,
threatened, and finally, his own father violently put him out of his
life-long home, and he has remained since _an outcast_ from home and
loved ones. These words of Jesus surely are full of significance to
him.

"But that was in India, far off, heathen India," you say. Well, here is
something of a similar sort at home. I knew a young woman in a certain
New England town visiting away from home. She attended some meetings
where she was visiting, and decided to be a christian. She was betrothed
to a young man, not a christian, in her home town. At once she wrote him
explaining her new step thinking, doubtless how glad he would be. For
most men seem very willing to have their _wives_ christian. But he wrote
back that if she were determined to be a christian that must put an end
to their engagement. He was not a christian and did not want his wife to
be one. Every one here must know how serious a question that brought up
for decision. For she was a true woman, and love's tendrils twine with
wondrous tenacity about a woman's heart. And I presume, too, that
everyone o