f these two issues. The one path may be, and is, rough and steep
though its delights are nobler, more poignant, and more permanent than
any that can be found elsewhere. Steadily climbing like some mountain
railway, it reaches at last the short tunnel on the summit level, and
then dashes out into the blinding blaze of a new sunshine. The other
goes merrily enough, at first, downhill, but at last it comes to the
edge of the abyss, and there _it_ stops, but the traveller does
not. He goes over; and nobody can see the darkness into which he falls.

Dear friends, Christ says, 'I am the Way.' Do you go to Him and cry,
'See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me into the way
everlasting.'

THE TWO HOUSES

'Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth
them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon
a rock.... 25. And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine,
and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which
built his house upon the sand.'--Matt. vii. 24, 25.

Our Lord closes the so-called Sermon on the Mount, which is really the
King's proclamation of the law of His Kingdom, with three pairs of
contrasts, all meant to sway us to obedience. The first is that of the
two ways: one broad, and leading down to abysses of destruction; the
other narrow, and leading up to shining heights of life. The second is
that of the two trees, one good and one bad, each bearing fruit
according to its nature; by which our Lord would teach us that conduct
is the outcome and revelation of character, and the test of being a
follower of His. The third is that of our text, the two houses on the
two foundations, and their fate before the one storm; by which our Lord
would teach us that the only foundation on which can be built a life
that will stand the blast of final judgment is His sayings and Himself.

Now, there are many very important and profound links of connection and
relation between these three contrasted pictures, but I only point to
one thing here, and that is that in all of them Jesus Christ most
decisively divides all His hearers--for it is about them that He is
speaking--into two classes: either on the broad road or on the narrow,
not a foot in each; either the good tree or the bad; either the house
on the sand or the house on the rock. Such a sharp division is said
nowadays to be narrow, and to be contradicted by the facts of life, in
which the gre