February 26

They all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. - Luke 14:18-20.

OBSERVE, these characters do not flatly and positively refuse; they were ashamed to do this. Sin is always a shameful business, and men do not love to plead for it openly, till they have dressed it up in some false notion or name. “Oh,” they will say, “covetousness is a very bad thing, but we are to lay up for the children.” “Oh,” they will say, “pride is an abominable thing, but we are to show a proper spirit.” And so of the rest.

Observe, also, that all these excuses were derived from things that were lawful,-yes, lawful in themselves; and it is by these things lawful in themselves that thousands perish. The last step of a virtue and the first step of a vice, are contiguous. The space which separates between a duty and a sin is often no more than a hair’s-breadth. At this barrier the enemy takes his station, that when he finds us coming to the verge of permission, he may as easily as he can, draw us over, and induce us to transgress. So the first says, “I have bought a piece of land, and I must needs go and view it.” Would it not have been wiser to have seen it before he bought it? But men are always fools when they plead for irreligion. The second says, “I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them.” Why did he not prove them before he bought them? Suppose, after he had bought them, he should find them blind, and lame, and diseased: what would he have done then? The third is bolder still:-“I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.” Why could he not have come? Could he not have brought his wife along with him? Was there not room enough for them both? Would she not have been as welcome as himself? Or was the lady indisposed to go? This is not likely; women are always more inclined to religion than the men. But, if this had been the case, he should have gone alone.

Oh, how often are we injured and ruined by improper regard to our fellow-creatures, our friends, our relations! There are persons who suppose that error may destroy; but they forget that truth may destroy also, and that we read that the gospel itself may become “the savour of death unto death.” They know that the devil can damn them, but they forget that a child can do the same, or a mother, or a father, and that our Saviour has said, “He that loveth father, or mother, or son, or daughter, more than me, is not worthy of me.” Because Felix saw that it pleased the Jews, he left Paul bound. Because Herod saw that his murdering James pleased the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter also. The young man in the gospel was humble and inquiring, and gained the Saviour’s affections; but he went away sorrowful, “for he was very rich.”

The seed sown among the thorns sprang up in time; but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choked it, and it became unfruitful.