l we need to wait
till the repose of the evening and the breaking of bread, before we know
that 'it is the Lord'; nor, known and recognised, will He vanish from
our sides.

Dear brethren, because 'few there be that go in thereat,' and walk
thereon, I beseech _you_ to go in through the door of faith, and to
walk in the way of Christ, who has left us an ensample that we should
follow in His steps. If of thee it can be said, as the great Puritan
poet said of one virgin pure, that thou

'--Wisely hast shunned the broad way and the green,
And with those few art eminently seen
That labour up the hill of heavenly truth,'--

his assurance to her will be applicable to thee, and

'--Thou, when the Bridegroom, with His feastful friends,
Passes to bliss at the mid-hour of night,
Hast gained thy entrance.'

IV. That leads me to the last point--viz. the contrasted ends of these
two paths.

Christ assumes the right to speak decisively and authoritatively with
regard to the ultimate issues of human conduct, in a way which, as I
believe, marks His divinity, and which no man can venture upon without
presumption. Of the one path He declares without hesitation that it
leads to life; of the other He affirms uncompromisingly that it 'leads
to destruction.' Now, I dare not dwell upon these solemn thoughts with
any enfeebling expansion by my own words, but I beseech you to lay them
to heart--only take the simple remark, as a commentary and an exposition
of the solemn meaning of these issues, that life does not mean mere
continuous existence, but, as it generally does upon His lips, means
that which alone He recognises as being the true life of such a creature
as man--viz. existence in union with Himself, the Source of life; and
that, conversely, destruction does not mean merely the cessation of
being, or what we call the destruction of consciousness and the
annihilation of a soul, but that it means the continued consciousness of
a soul rent away from Him in whom alone is life, and which therefore has
made shipwreck of everything, and has destroyed itself.

There are the issues, then, before us, and I dare not blur the clear
distinction which Jesus Christ draws. I listen to Him, and accept His
word, and I press upon you, dear brethren, that the main thing about a
road is, after all, where it leads us; and I ask you to remember that
your life-path--as I try to remember that mine--is tending to one or
other o