January 13

How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?

HEB. ii. 3.

Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sick-loth and ashes. But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment, than for you. — MATT. xi. 21, 22.

THE sinner to whom no opportunities of repentance come is lost. Tyre and Sidon stand in the text as the terrible examples whose judgment measures the intolerable. But of how much sorer punishment is he worthy who has trodden under foot the Son of God! The sinner to whom opportunities come but pass unheeded, has his part in the more intolerable lot of Chorazin. Tyre and Sidon are cities in Satan's land: Chorazin and Bethsaida are Satan's strongholds, which he can trust to fortify themselves against every approach of the Saviour, and to repel his every advance. God grant that we have not Chorazin hearts!

How infinitely solemn a crisis the gospel brings to every city, household, life, to which it gains access! A sweet savor of Christ unto God, it is in all: but to one it is a savor from life unto life, to another a savor from death unto death. What a spectacle of mercy and judgment! Alas to us who have seen these mighty works, if they remain to us but a spectacle without us, and not a living power within!

Rev. B. Warfield

Depth of mercy! can there be Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear, Me, the chief of sinners, spare?

C. WESLEY