十月二十三日
你们也要去吗？（约6：67）
有很多人离弃了基督，不再与他同行；但使你变心的理由是什麽呢？在过去有什麽原因吗？耶稣不曾彰显他是足够的吗？今晨他对你说：“我岂向你作旷野呢？”（参耶2：31）当你一心信靠耶稣的时候，你曾受过迷惑吗？你到现在还没有发现你的主是一位最慈惠、最宽大的朋友吗？幷且当你一心相信他的时候，你的心灵不是就得到所期望的平安了吗？你能梦想到比他更好的一位朋友吗？那末，你切莫厌故喜新，追求虚妄。
至于现在，谁能迫使你离弃基督呢？当世人百般围攻我们的时候，或是在教会中受大试炼的时候，我们觉得能枕首在救主的怀中是一件有福的事。这是今天我们这些在他里面得了救的人所有的快乐；若这快乐满足了我们的心，我们还应当想到变节的事吗？谁肯以精金易渣滓呢？我们如果得不到更好的亮光是绝不当丢弃光的；照样若没有一位更爱我们的出现，我们也不当离弃我们的主；这既是一件绝不可能的事，我们就当永远抓住他，使他的名永远在我们的膀臂上作爲印记。至于将来，你能想到有什麽事会使你叛变，或是使你背弃旧元首而投效在新元帅的麾下吗？我们想不会。若我们能享长寿——证明他是不改变的。
若我们贫穷，有什麽能比那使我们丰富的基督呢？当我们患病之时，耶稣爲我们铺床；除此，我们还有什麽期望呢？当我们死的时候，经上不是说：“无论是死，是生，是天使，是掌权的，是有能的，是现在的事，是将来的事，是高处的，是低处的，是别的受造之物，都不能叫我们与神的爱隔绝；这爱是在我们的主基督耶稣里的。”愿我们与彼得一同说：“主啊，你有永生之道，我们还归从谁呢？”
October
23
“Will
ye also go away?”–John 6:67
Many have forsaken Christ, and have walked
no more with him; but what reason have you to make a change? Has there been any
reason for it in the past? Has not Jesus proved himself all-sufficient? He
appeals to you this morning–“Have I been a wilderness unto you?”
When your soul has simply trusted Jesus, have you ever been confounded? Have
you not up till now found your Lord to be a compassionate and generous friend
to you, and has not simple faith in him given you all the peace your spirit
could desire? Can you so much as dream of a better friend than he has been to
you? Then change not the old and tried for new and false. As for the present,
can that compel you to leave Christ? When we are hard beset with this world, or
with the severer trials within the Church, we find it a most blessed thing to
pillow our head upon the bosom of our Saviour. This is the joy we have today
that we are saved in him; and if this joy be satisfying, wherefore should we
think of changing? Who barters gold for dross? We will not forswear the sun
till we find a better light, nor leave our Lord until a brighter lover shall
appear; and, since this can never be, we will hold him with a grasp immortal,
and bind his name as a seal upon our arm. As for the future, can you suggest
anything which can arise that shall render it necessary for you to mutiny, or
desert the old flag to serve under another captain? We think not. If life be
long–he changes not. If we are poor, what better than to have Christ who can
make us rich? When we are sick, what more do we want than Jesus to make our bed
in our sickness? When we die, is it not written that “neither death, nor
life, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” We say with Peter,
“Lord, to whom shall we go?”
