foot up and
the other down, but always in the same place. That is the kind of
advance that the lightly formed resolution--formed in ignorance of what
it involved, and in foolish confidence in the resolver's strength--is
too apt to lead to. Is it not so in all life? No caravan ever starts
from a port on the coast to go up-country, but there is a percentage of
deserters in the first week. There are always, in every good work,
adherents, easily moved, pushing themselves into the front, full of
resolves in the beginning, and then, when the tug comes, they drop out
of the ranks and leave the quiet ones, that did not say, 'I am going to
do it,' but thought to themselves, 'I should uncommonly like to _try_
whether I can.' to bear the burden and heat of the march. A sad, wise,
self-distrustful valour is the temper that wins.

Let us see to it, dear brethren, not that our fervour be less--I do not
know how the fervour of some of you could be less and keep alive at
all--but that our principle be more; not that our resolutions be less
noble, but that they be more deeply engrained. You can light a fire of
the chips and paper in an instant, and the flimsier the material the
more quickly it will crackle; it takes a longer time to get coals in a
blaze, and they will last longer. Be your resolves slow to begin and
never-ending,' especially when you say, as we are all bound to say,
'Lord! I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest.'

II. Note our Lord's treatment of this too lightly uttered vow.

It is wonderfully gentle and lenient. He speaks no rebuke. He does not
reject the proffered devotion. He does not even say that there was
anything defective in it, but simply answers by a quiet statement of
what the vow was pledging the rash utterer to do. Christ's words are a
douche of cold water to condense the steam which was so noisily
escaping, to turn the vaporous enthusiasm into something more solid,
with the particles nearer each other. His object was not to repel, but
to turn an ignorant, somewhat bragging vow into a calm, humble
determination, with a silent 'God helping me' for its foundation. To
repel is sometimes the way to attract. Jesus Christ would not have any
one coming after Him on a misunderstanding of where he is going, or
what he will have to do. It shall be all fair and above board, and the
difficulties and sacrifices and necessary restrictions and
inconveniences shall all be stated. He does not need to hide from His