Matthew 16:21-23 From that time forth began Jesus to show to his disciples, how that he must go to Jerusalem… If the Pilgrim Fathers had yielded to home sickness and not let that vessel return empty, though she lay so long in the offing, tempting their return, there might have been an America, but it would not have been this America. If Livingstone had listened to the voices of those who thought him mad, Africa to-day would have been still a terra incognita. If prudence had prevailed over zeal seventy years ago, there would have been no foreign missions afoot to-day. But all these men who went to do the pioneer work had mothers and sisters and brothers tugging at their heart-strings, and tempting them not to go. And it is ever so. It is not always as in the case of the Rev. Dr. Norman M'Leod, whom I once heard relate how his son had just gone into the ministry, and had accepted a very poor church in the highlands of Scotland, refusing several splendid offers which would have made him wealthy. "But," said Dr. M'Leod, "I thank God for the lad; I would rather see him where he is with his £150 a year, than in the palace with £10,000 a year.' It is very hard to say it; but, oh, it is necessary — be on your guard against the temptations of your friends, of your relatives, of your lovers, whose affection is precious to you. Remember that " Satan now is wiser than of yore, and tempts by making rich — not making poor." Remember, specially, our Redeemer's own words, "He that sayeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My sake, the same shall save it." (R. Thomas.) Parallel Verses KJV: From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. |
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