They forsook all, and followed Him. Luke 5:11. The story of which these words are the sequel I have read to you. / They who forsook all were, as you remember, certain fisherman, nothing more, [them] as to occupation, nothing better as to position nothing better. \ [Always] [Amongst] Probably, however, the finest specimens [They were men] of their class. [probably.] / Peter was one of them James and John were his companions and partners: and these 3 were no common men, although they compelled [to] live as if they were [catch and sell fish for their [daily] living.] / As it is now, so it was then - you would sometimes find the rarest characters where least expected: not always amongst the well-to-do and the leisurely, not always amongst the polished and elegantly dressed, but frequently amongst the hard-workers, the coarsely-clad, the obscure. / In point of fact, there are the men these toilers whose hands are often dirty and whose clothing is put on [clean] fresh every all & followed Him [all forsook this & then] 1882 Wilh h Wilenington, April 17, 1898 2 morning these are the men who help to move the world forward as do no other single class and without whom the world could get along hardly at all. / And here and there you will encounter men whose arms are big and muscular [with] from hard work, and whose hair is matted with undried sweat, yet who have those great brains or those wide hearts [that] which statesmen might envy or philanthropists might covet. / Such were the men I have named the men who afterwards became renowned in all the world and who are known to sit at whose feet the wisest have been content. or this day, [as the] when nobles and princes and philosophers of their times are quite forgotten: known as [the] those rulers of human thought whose empire each [days] [grows] day spreads wider: [the] those apostles of a religion whose conquests are never to cease until all earthly history [closes its records] [closes] shall have closed its records. / You and I might, however, have walked the shores of that lake whereon they 3 plied their humble avocation might have walked there for years hereafter, and [seen] observed the incoming and outgoing of those stalwart sons of [seas] wave and storm, [with once] without once suspecting the soul-forces that lay hidden beneath their bared and sinewy brawn. / But what man cannot see, God perceives. / And it is one of the proofs we have of the divinity of Christ that he was able to [persuade] [get le] get under [to the true manhood of such] the rough surface of these day-laborers, and, by the penetrative [of a] power of a rapid glance, to discern the very stuff they were made of, the stuff out of which could be made the kind of men of whose service He had special need. / So, He called these to Himself, as no other King would have done seeing beforehand the flash of their diamond-worth which was concealed even from themselves and forecasting that fitness for the indwelling of His inspiring spirit [which truly] with a sureness which was possible only to omniscience. / And the first [proof] evidence they 4 gave [to] of His fitness, to their own eyes or to the eyes of others who [soon] have learned to admire and to imitate their characters, was when they [left] forsook all to follow Him whose superior voice they recognized for it is not every man who knows the voice of a divine Master, especially when it proceeds from the life of the lowly. [It] This requires a suit of divinity on the man himself. / / Then, when you ask for the motive that impelled the sacrifice, you find in this a fresh reason for estimating their manhood highly. / It was because they were told that they should become fishers of men, that they left their old familiar [fishing] net: showing that they understood at least dimly what was expected of them; and that, in the new career thus opened up before them, they would be benectors of their race ,the noblest object of the noblest ambition: for, if they were [distrued] appointed to catch men at the bidding and in the name of that beneficent Lord [one of] whose [to] [most wondrous] [mightiest] miracles [they had] were all wonders [just witnessed] of both heaven & mercy, it must be, not to make merchandize of them, but to save them. 5 Ever since that day of wonders, this same Lord [calls] [has] has, however, been calling myriads, the world over, to discharge one way or another this same [office] service of men fishers of [getting] handing men into His kingdom upon the hook of His unbending truth of entangling them within the draw-net of His unbreakable gospel taking them out of the muddy & poisoned waters of hateful sin to place them in the clean and healthful [ocean] waters of His holy love. / If you and I, ?, have been summoned to His side if we have been induced to follow Him who was Himself the great Fisherman in the streams of our humanity; who came to draw [to catch] souls up from their [slimy] dark and slimy depths, [into] and place them in the light and sweetness of a heavenly day if we are at all sharers in [His] the Spirit that actuated Him we, too, are intended for only this: we, too, are to act as His apostles, and are to let [for letting] down into the hearts of men as best we may the bait of His saving [promises] assurances; to use all means and all ingenuities for catching both [great and small] small and great. 2 6 [And it is only when we understand this, our errand,] [that we will think it worth the world to [leave] forsake all and follow [Him] Christ.] But what does it mean, this forsaking of all? Well, it means now just what it meant in the case of those Galilean fisherman. / They, however, you will say, did not have to give up much, even when they forsook all. Only a few old battered boats, [and] a member [of] of patched nets, [and] two or three knotted ropes, and whatever else was [constituted] necessary to eke out their little stock of [rude] rude tackle. / Yet, although this was indeed a small sacrifice when [looked] measured by a money-standard a [too] few of our dollars would probably have overpaid them for the whole of it it was nevertheless all they had in the way of visible property: & was ?, as much to them as millions might [have been] to others. / You remember what our Lord said of the [they] 2 brass farthings [contributions] which a certain poor widow dropped into the temple-treasury [of] 7 : [how] that her contribution was greater than was theirs who [chinked] were chinking into it their coins of gold for it was her entire living. / [So,] Yonder Genmes anct disciples, when they [left] surrendered their modest fishing-gear, did, along with that, surrender the very means of their livelihood. When, with their bare feet and in their dripping garments, they turned to in lightest unencumbered marching order follow the Master, they left their avocation itself they left, stripped of the word, as effectually they believed as if they had died. / / And, then, had they no homes, where they were accustomed to eat, and sleep, and find shelter homes, humble indeed, but still familiar & endeared homes to which they were long used; which had their own associations of cheerful chat, of fireside [welcome] warmth, of friendly hospitality, of [days of] nights of sad sickness changed to days of sweet convalescence, and of [the] those hundred littlenesses of contented life which dwell in the memory of the poor as well as of the rich like the childhoods music that never is forgotten. 8 Yes and they were Jews, too. / They were compelled ? to forsake their very religion, as that religion was then understood. The religion they were now about to accept was [truly] indeed, essentially the same which Moses taught and to whose worship David turned his harp, but yet not the same which these men had learned from the later scribe and Pharisee, who had [grossly prevented its spirit] gradually chilled the ancient fire into a [mere] [modern] frozen [formality] form. To this every form[ality], however, icy though it was, these men were accustomed as to something sacred, and, every one knows that it has always been harder to forsake [that] our dress of religion which accustoming time has [fitted to the] amounted with a habit [of] of thoughts, than to abandon [its] religions very [substance] spirit [for we cling to the] the dress being what can be seen and is fitted to the true ch[urch] [an [easy] appeal to the sewers] the [substance] spirit being [invisible and intangible an appeal to] out of sight & ? easily forgotten [a difficult] [the soul.] / Well, Peter and the others had to forsake [this] their [modes] methods of religion worth what they were and 9 go forth, emptied even of [this] these and, along with this emptiness, but it not be forgotten, to be deprived of that old standing with these neighbors and friends which in a great degree depended upon a close adherence to temple and synagogue service. / They had to become outcasts, in short, from a society which had been as dear to their hearts as light to the eye. [Just as, now-a-days, it is with a heathen who forsakes his] [gods for the fellowship of Christians he is compelled to] [live an alien amongst his former companions.] / When, ?, it is said of these disciples, they forsook all, we see that this all had a very wide sweep, involving the whole of their previous lives, [outside] both inside and out. / They forsook not merely their meagre properties, but their [very] previous selves. / [They [left] quit the past almost altogether, when they turned] [their faces towards their [new [apposite] future] Xn. future.] / It was like a revolution, which left should leave only a recollection of the old things now gone forever. 10 But [has not] is it still required has it always been required that they who will follow Xt. must forsake then all to do so? the rich man his all, as well as the poor man his? / Must those savliest discipled be imitated in this as in other respects? / Is there no other, no easier way into the kingdom of heaven? / Many think there is. / Many are of the opinion that they need make almost no sacrifice [are] in order to be at one with the hosts who[se] step[s]ped [are] in the foregoing footprint of their divine Leader. Indeed, I know of some who [would] regard it as too [rude] much to ask of [when &] them to make a public profession of what they call their faith a faith they [can] prefer to hold in secret and to exhibit which to the world they would not even walk down one of these aisles, to stand for a few embarrassed moments before the pulpit. / The question with [too] not a few is, how little may I forsake, and be counted a goer after Xt.? 11 It must be, of course, granted that we are not required to follow Him in precisely the same manner as that which characterized [those w] the Peters and the Johns of the narrative. / For this would not be possible. / They were expected to follow, literally and actually, the visible Person of their Master: to accompany Him in His [passways] journeyings, to stay about Him in His tarryings, to keep Him always in sight, so far as they could [sharers] partakers of His toils, witnesses of His tears, beholders of His triumphs. And, in this peculiar aspect of their case, they were under the necessity too, of sharing his poverty; so that when He [had] found no [place to lay] house in which to lay His head, they too found none; when He had had no [temple] closet where to pray, save such as midnight might furnish on a lovely mountain side or in a Gethsemane garden, they likewise had only this; and, when, to the tax-gatherer 12 He had no penny to give, [and must] being compelled to perform a miracle to procure it, they also must depend upon the same extraordinary resource. / Such a following on the part of His disciples could have [been] occurred in the [nature of throngs] history of the Church, only [once] for a few singular years; and then must give way to a following less [exact] strictly imitative and exact: to become less of an echo more an affair of the [heart] inward man than of the outward, or outward only as an illustration and proof of the inward. Yet, there is a sense in which it ought to be broadly [be] and distinctly affirmed, that men must even now forsake their all, if they would follow Xt., in obedience to His [call] bidding. / To get at this sense mby a simple easy question needs to be answered: what is it that prevents any one from becoming [and from] a disciple of his [containing] [remaining] Saviour, a [disciple] soldier of the cross in good and honest earnest? / What is it that stands [preventing] an obstacle in the way? Well, this he must forsake be it [an] much 13 [much] or be it little but all of this, without the slightest reservation. / Had it been possible for those Galilee fishers to follow Xt. in the manner I have described, without giving up their boats, [and] and their business, and their beliefs, the useless sacrifice would not have been demanded of them. / But, seeing that it was precisely these that stood in their way, [they] these had to go, to the last item. / / When, afterwards, the great Teacher was approached by a certain rich ruler to enquire what he should do to [unhand] have eternal life, Follow me he was told [to follow] and [Hisss] in order to this, sell [all]that then hast and give to the poor. He went away sorrowful, for he had a great many possessions. / The hindrances in his case was the love of money, which unfitted him for [a] that service of self-denial[.] to which he was invited. / His being rich was, in itself, northing, an unimportant in circumstance, certainly, but his conviction that earthly treasure was better than the treasure in heaven. 14 which Xt., in so many words [offered] now offers him in its stead this conviction was everything was the true kernel of the want & was, is, the all which he refused to forsake, and, refusing, was lost. / Assuredly, one cannot follow Xt. unless he cease to love what is contrary to Xt. [Two, to] Two persons, if they would walk amicably together, must be agreed: must be so far of the same mind as to be in no danger of quarreling by the way: must [have a common] be bound by a mutual interest. / Thus, a good king and [his meanest] one of his subjects, happening to meet as travelers, may go along in an an unbroken friendship, when both have at heart the welfare and the glory of their common country: but, if the king [find] discover in the subjects heart, the [disposition] malice of a traitor or the [malice] enmity of a rebel, [they] the two are at once separated: and, if they are ever reconciled, that treason must be [forsaken] quieted, that [enmity] rebellion must be quelled. / The subject must 15 forsake all opposition to his king. / In this manner would I illustrate what is meant when you and I I are [exho] expected to leave our all for the sake of following Him who is [our] the great king of men. / It is to forsake whatever is against His will, or not in pursuance, granting and feeling that His will is, at every point, the truest and the best. / It is to quit, all our contradiction of His [word] doctrine, all our antagonism [of] to His authority, all our divergence from his precepts, all our variance with His plan of salvation. It is to pluck out an eye or cut off a hand if those be in the way. / It is to give up a wrong business, if we are engaged in one, evil companions, if we have any, wicked pleasures if we are indulging in such, godless associations of every kind, if we are accommodating ourselves to these. It is to let go all the world, so far as it is not in friendship with Xt. / It is to bid a good-bye the devil and his many imps; [that] those imps who go about and about, in this form & that, ruling the mind of [a] wayward [this] [world] mankind those imps who [laugh] chuckle in the sparkling 14 [which Xt. [had] in [so many] the plainest words, offered him in its stead this conviction was everything] [ and was ?, [that] the all which he [must] would not agree to forsake, and] [which, unforsaken, became his ruin. / It is not often] [necessary, however, to put men to a test so severe] [as this. But, assumedly, [one] one cannot follow] [Xt. unless he cease to follow what is contrary] [to Xt. It may be that your merchandizing is] [crooked well, it must be abandoned, [or made] [and] or made straight [straight]] [It may be that you] 16 cup of intoxication those imps who ride the steeds of sabbath-breaking or who lift the merry heels of midnight [dancing] carousing who shuffle the chancing cans of betting play [who cut the light leaves of the doubtful] [novel or spread the pages of dissipating newspaper] the imps who poke the fire where indolence sits down to gossip or to scoff who sit at the scales where cunning turns the beam of [roguish] honest trade who whisper peace to consciousness where church bells peal out their resisted invitations who vote the Bible a bore who mock at sacred things as if they were dreams of idiocy who [even] look out even from the closing eyes of death to dare the unknown beyond and who do ten thousand other things which cannot be named or need not be pictured [these] ye imps of sin, whatever ye name in ye tempting office, good-bye to you all, together with thee, then haughty imp of pride, and thee, then [low] ugly imp of profanity, and then, 17 then [ugly] deormed imp of prayerlessness [and thee then cunning imp] away with you one and all I am about to keep other company, where ye cannot attend me: for A nobler object, far, than you, Rises to my enraptured view, Jesus, in whom all glories meet, His face I see, I seek His feet His praise shall all my powers employ: My present hope, my future joy; For Him I count my gain but loss And glory mby in His cross. I give up all to this, my chief, whether [in] unto gladness or [in] grief: To follow His steps I resolve, Whateer the purpose may involve! 18 And surely, it ought to be regarded as no hardship, when we are called upon to forsake the all we posses or count that is bad in the sight of heaven: for the sake of following Him who conducts us to [that] possessions [all of which are good] the richest! It is just like forsaking the might for the day the ugly for the beautiful the deadly for the reviving the fallow for the restored the [perishing] perishing for the unending the shameful for the glorious the hopeless past for the hopeful future. Give the heart to Xt. and the all you are to forsake is already forsaken. The hardship is in this [only] alone in this. But, hard as this may seem and truly is, when you try to make this gift in your own strength, [It] it is the very easiest thing possible to do, when you obtain help from that almighty, and most ready live which is permitted [to] for overcoming the most reluctant unwillingness: a love which 19 has only to bring you to see the Lord for whose fellowship you are to seek one fair and full sight of whom is enough to cause the looker to forsake not only what he has and what he is that he may go after Him, but enough to make him wish that a thousand times more were his to forgo: and to say: Were the whole realm of nature mine What were a present you too small [ful] worth so amazing, so divine, [demands] [more than [even] such a meagre] [my life, myself, my [power] all]] Demands more than an angels all.