I will not sow a
grain of wheat until I have cleared all the land that belongs to me. I
will do that first and then begin to reap,' he would be a great deal
wiser if he cleared and sowed a little bit first, and lived upon it, and
then cleared a little bit more. Mark the plain lesson that comes out of
this incident, that the habit, for it is a habit with some of us, of
putting other pressing duties forward, before we attend to the highest
claims of Christ, is full of danger, because there will be no end to
them if we once admit the principle. And this is true not only in regard
to Christianity, but in regard to everything that is worth doing in this
world. Whenever some great and noble task presents itself with its
solemn call for consecration, some dwarf of an apparent duty thrusts
itself in between and perks up in our faces with its demand, 'Attend to
me first, and then I will let you go on to that other.'

But morally, this plea, however sincerely urged, is more or less
unconscious self-deception. The person who says 'Suffer me first' is
usually hoodwinking conscience, and covering over, if not a
determination not to do, at least a reluctance to determine to do, the
postponed duty. And although we may think ourselves quite resolved in
spirit, and only needing the fitting vacant space to show that we are
ready to act, in the majority of cases the man who says 'Suffer me
first' means, though he often does not know it, 'I do not think I will
do it, after all, even then.' Now there are a great many good people
who, when urged to some of the plain duties of discipleship--such as
Christian work, Christian beneficence, the consecration of themselves to
the service of their Master--have always something else very important,
and of immediate, pressing urgency, that has to be done first. And then
and then, ay? and then,--something else, and then--something else. And
so some of you go on, and will go on, unless by God's grace you shake
off the evil habit, to the end of your days, fancying yourselves
disciples, and yet all the while delaying really to follow the Master
until the close. And 'all your yesterdays will be but lighting you, with
unfulfilled purposes, to dusty death.'

II. Now look at the apparently harsh and unreasonable refusal of this
reasonable request.

It is extremely unlike Jesus Christ in substance and in tone. It is
unlike Him to put any barrier in the way of a son's yielding to the
impulses of his heart an