them into the true and noble way. They are almost glad to think that
crosses and self-sacrifices await them in that way. Christ spoke no
words at the beginning about gains and rewards. Come, because I want
you, and God asks you, and it is your duty: but afterwards, when they
had obeyed His call, He talked to them often about the gains. They had
begun to understand them then. There is no man who hath left anything
for My sake, who shall not receive a hundredfold in this present time,
and in the world to come, life everlasting.

And we all learn in a measure what that means, when we have faithfully
served Christ for a little time. You talk about the sacrifices and
losses of the Christian life. Yes, but no man is fit to be called a
Christian who has not found in Christ ten or twenty times as much joy
as he has lost. If there were no hereafter, no future crowns at all,
it would be a terrible disappointment, but even, apart from that, the
present life of every one who believes in Christ and does Christ's
work, and loves as Christ loved, is richer, fuller, wider, and happier
in almost every way than the life which knows Him not. What about the
hundred talents? you say, and I answer with the prophet, "_The Lord is
able to give thee much more than this_."




JABEZ

BY REV. J. G. GREENHOUGH, M.A.