makes it much stronger, "Strive to enter in.". The word strive means to agonize, to contend. Fight your way in as a man fights his way out of a burning building. The Way Is Narrow —Bunyan says there is only room- for body and soul, not for sins. It is like a stile; you register as you pass through; your name is written down in heaven. The gate to everything good is narrow. If you become a citizen of this country, you go through the gate of the oath of allegiance. There is no other way. The King does not make the gate nar- row; the conditions necessitate it. The Scriptures tell of a City with twelve gates open day and night, and nothing shall enter into it to defile it (Rev. 22: 25-27). A rieh young man came to the Lord; he found the gate open, but he could not enter, with his evil habits; or a learned man, with his intellectual pride; or a worldly man, with his pleasures, would find it too narrow for entrance. There is a challenge at every gate- way to holy purpose and high resolve. Here the challenge is to lay aside every hindering habit of life, every object that the heart holds dear that proves an obstacle, and to press into and through the narrow gate. Jesus is the straight gate (Jno. 10:9) and His is also the narrow way (Jno. 14:6); it is the way of the cross. This way is not popular—few there be that find it. It seems narrow, but it leads to a life of large liberty. The contrast between the " w a y s " is often mis- understood. True freedom consists in constraint from having our own way. The " b r o a d " way leads to a contracted self-cultured slavish life. It is wide and wicked; it is the way that leads to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. A Popular Way —"There is a way which seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." "Ha ve any of the Pharisees believed?" was a question Which showed the tend- ency of human nature. The main thing about a road is, where does it lead? The narrow way indicates choice, se- lection; the broad way is one of chance, it catches the drifting crowd. " T he Lord knoweth the way of the right- eous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish" (Psa. 1:6). (2) WARNING AGAINST FALSE TEACHERS. '' Beware.'' The warning following the descrip- tion of the two roads is significant.
False prophets are to be expected who will give the wrong direction concern- ing the right road. Wild animals have an instinct of danger; a breath of air, a human touch, poisonous grasses are all scented and avoided. The instinct is cultivated until it is acute. A cul- tivated spiritual instinct will make us wary of false teachers. The false fol- lows the true and is a proof of the true; a false coin is a testimony to the true one. As in the natural world, so in the spiritual. Every species brings forth after its kind. The fairest test of a teacher is fruit. The sweet tem- pered, smooth toned teacher may be a wolf in sheep's clothing. Some of the most dangerous men living today are men whose mouths are buttered with beautiful words and whose lives seem lovely and lamblike, but whose teach-, ings are tinctured with the poison of the asp, and who delight in the de- struction of the old paths and ancient landmarks. These wolves find their way into the schools and colleges and often into the pulpit: they are destructive, not constructive. They are real avia- tors, for they leave their dupes up in the air. They rob them of their faith and leave them shipwrecked. "Beware of them," says the King. If we did not find these wolves with us we might well doubt the Scriptures; their pres- ence is the proof of the inerrency of the Word of God. The test of these teachers is the tendencies of their doc- trines. Instead of grapes and figs, you get thorns and thistles. The thorns tear and wound and the thistles mul- tiply and choke out the good seed. The history of the church can be traced in the sorrow and suffering that has been wrought by these enemies of the King. " Ev e ry t r e e ," no matter what kind of a tree, if it bringeth not forth good fruit, is destined for the fire. : The fruit of a good tree is love, joy, peace, etc.; now no tree can bear the fruit of peace save one whose roots are deep down in the doctrine of salvation through the shed blood of the rejected King. (3) WILL OF THE FATHER. "He that doeth." All accepted work done for the King must be done by the will of the Father. Many are prophesying in His Name now claiming cures for all sorts of maladies, but the work is in the power of another king than Jesus. He says He "never k n ew" these self-deceived and Satan- deluded professors. Many mighty works
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