ed with that great 'discourse that looks before and after,' and his
thoughts wander through eternity, and therefore he is capable of endless
advance, and if he is in the path where his Maker has meant him to be,
sure of endless growth. The more a man gets like a beast, the more has
he of the beast's lot of happy contentment in this world. And the more
he gets like a man, like the 'Son of Man,' the more has he to realise
that he is a pilgrim and a sojourner, as all his fathers were.

And so, dear friends, because disciples must follow the Son of Man who
is the King, and whose life is the perfect mirror of manhood, restless
homelessness is our lot, if we are His disciples. Ay! and it is our
blessing. It is better to sleep beneath the stars than beneath golden
canopies, and to lay the head upon a stone than upon a lace pillow, if
the ladder is at our side and the face of God above it. Better be out in
the fields, a homeless stranger with the Lord, than huddling together
and perfectly comfortable in houses of clay that perish before the
moth.

Do not let us repine; let us be thankful that we cannot, if we are
Christ's, but be strangers here; for all the bitterness and pain of
unrest and homelessness pass away, and all sweetness and gladness is
breathed into them, when we can say, 'I am a sojourner and a stranger
_with Thee_,' and when in our unrest we are 'following the Lamb
whithersoever He goeth.'

CHRIST STIMULATING SLUGGISH DISCIPLESHIP

'And another of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, suffer me first
to go and bury my father. 22. But Jesus said unto him, Follow Me;
and let the dead bury their dead.'--MATT. viii. 21-22.

The very first words of these verses, 'And another of His disciples,'
show us that the incident recorded in them is only half of a whole. We
have already considered the other half, and supplement our former
remarks by a glance at the remaining portion now. The two men, whose
treatment by Christ is narrated, are the antipodes of each other. The
former is a type of well-meaning, lightly formed, and so, probably,
swiftly abandoned purposes. This man is one of the people who always see
something else to be done first, when any plain duty comes before them.
Sluggish, hesitating, keenly conscious of other possibilities and
demands, he needs precisely the opposite treatment from his
light-hearted and light-purposed brother. Some plants want putting into
a cold house to be checked, some