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Steadfastness is one of the most important characteristics of a Christian. What are love, self-denial, patience, and faith without it? It is not the best regiment which makes the most headlong charge, but which can stand firm. The Spartans were forbidden by their laws to flee. In the Pass of Thermopylae stands a monument to Leonidas and his followers, bearing this inscription — "Go, stranger, and tell at Lacedaemon that we died here in obedience to our laws." What we want, as soldiers of Christ, is not so much zeal, or enthusiasm, or outward profession, as firmness to the end, steadfastness to die, if need be, for the laws of our God. We find plenty of zealous professors, but after a time the fire dies out into dead ashes; they have no staying power. Note —

I. SOME OF THE DANGERS OF THE CHURCH NOW.

1. The restless spirit of the age. This is the result of various causes.

(1) The spread of education. Men are taught to cultivate their heads at the price of their hearts.

(2) The growth of cheap literature. The fact is, some of us in these days are getting too clever. We have got a few drops of learning, and we fancy that we can pour the whole ocean of knowledge into our poor little bottle. True education makes us humble, because it shows us our ignorance. What are the doubters and the unbelievers going to give you in exchange for what they rob you of? They can take away the Saviour, and only leave you your sins. They may scoff you out of believing in the resurrection. But can they laugh you out of believing in death?

2. A constant desire for something new, and, if possible, sensational. And, above all, these people want a religion made easy. They have no objection to being saved provided that the process is quick and cheap. They turn away from the thought of self-denial, &c.; they must be made good all at once. Beware of this mushroom religion; the best fruit is not that which ripens most quickly, and the best Christian certainly does not come to maturity all in a moment. The Persian fable tells us how a gourd wound itself round a lofty palm-tree, and in a few weeks climbed to its very top. The gourd asked the palm-tree its age, and the tree answered, "An hundred years." Then the gourd answered boastingly that it had grown as tall as the palm in fewer days than the tree could count years. "True," answered the palm-tree, "every summer has a gourd climbed round me, as proud as thou art, and as short-lived as thou wilt be."

3. This is a specially busy age. Every walk of life is crowded, and competition is most keen. Now there is great danger in all this to a man's spiritual life, if he has not God with him in his work. He will become selfish and unscrupulous.

II. THE MEANS BY WHICH CHRIST WILL CONFIRM YOU UNTO THE END.

(H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.)

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KJV: So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

WEB: so that you come behind in no gift; waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ;