“When gloomy doubts prevail,

I fear to call him mine;

The streams of comfort seem to fail,

And all my hopes decline.”

Only faith can make a Christian lead a happy life.

But now for Peter’s reasons. First, because “if ye do these things ye shall never fall.” “Perhaps,” says one, “in attention to election we may forget our daily walk, and like the old philosopher who looked up to the stars we may walk on and tumble into the ditch!” “Nay, nay,” says Peter, “if you take care of your calling and election, you shall not trip; but, with your eyes up there, looking for your calling and election, God will take care of your feet, and you shall never fall. Is it not very notable, that, in many churches and chapels, you do not often hear a sermon about to-day; it is always either about old eternity, or else about the millennium; either about what God did before man was made, or else about what God will do when all are dead and buried? Pity they do not tell us something about what we are to do to-day, now, in our daily walk and conversation! Peter removes this difficulty. He says, “This point is a practical point; for you can only answer your election for yourself by taking care of your practice; and whilst you are so taking care of your practice and assuring yourself of your election, you are doing the best possible thing to keep you from falling.” And is it not desirable that a true Christian should be kept from falling? Mark the difference between falling and falling away. The true believer can never fall away and perish; but he may fall and injure himself. He shall not fall and break his neck; but a broken leg is bad enough, without a broken neck. “Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down;” but that is no reason why he should dash himself against a stone. His desire is, that day by day he may grow more holy; that hour by hour he may be more thoroughly renewed, until conformed to the image of Christ, he may enter into bliss eternal. If, then, you take care of your calling and election, you are doing the best thing in the world to prevent you from falling; for in so doing you shall never fall.

And now, the other reason, and then I shall have almost concluded. “For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” An “abundant entrance” has sometimes been illustrated in this way. You see yonder ship. After a long voyage, it has neared the haven, but is much injured; the sails are rent to ribbons, and it is in such a forlorn condition that it cannot come up to the harbour: a steam-tug is pulling it in with the greatest possible difficulty. That is like the righteous being “scarcely saved.” But do you see that other ship? It has made a prosperous voyage; and now, laden to the water’s edge, with the sails all up and with the white canvass filled with the wind, it rides into the harbour joyously and nobly. That is an “abundant entrance;” and if you and I are helped by God’s Spirit to add to our faith virtue, and so on, we shall have at the last “an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There is a man who is a Christian; but, alas! there are many inconsistencies in his life for which he has to mourn. He lies there, dying on his bed. The thought of his past life rushes upon him. He cries, “O Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner,” and the prayer is answered; his faith is in Christ, and he shall be saved. But oh! what griefs he has upon his bed. “Oh, if I had served my God better! And these children of mine-if I had but trained them up better, ‘in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!’ I am saved,” says he; “but alas, alas! though it be a great salvation, I cannot enjoy it yet. I am dying in gloom, and clouds, and darkness. I trust, I hope I shall be gathered to my fathers, but I have no works to follow me-or very few indeed; for though I am saved, I am but just saved-saved ‘so as by fire.’ ” Here is another one; he too is dying. Ask him what his dependence is: he tells you, “I rest in none else but Jesus.” But mark him as he looks back to his past life. “In such a place,” says he, “I preached the gospel, and God helped me.” And though with no pride about him-he will not congratulate himself upon what he has done-yet doth he lift his hands to heaven, and he blesses God that throughout a long life he has been able to keep his garments white; that he has served his Master; and now, like a shock of corn fully ripe, he is about to be gathered into his Master’s garner. Hark to him! It is not the feeble lisp of the trembler; but with “victory, victory, victory!” for his dying shout, he shuts his eyes, and dies like a warrior in his glory. That is the “abundant entrance.” Now, the man that “gives diligence to make his calling and election sure,” shall ensure for himself “an abundant entrance into the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What a terrible picture is hinted at in these words of the apostle-“Saved so as by fire!” Let me try and present it to you. The man has come to the edge of Jordan; the time has arrived for him to die. He is a believer-just a believer; but his life has not been what he could wish; not all that he now desires that it had been. And now stern death is at him, and he has to take his first step into the Jordan. Judge of his horror, when the flames surround his foot. He treads upon the hot sand of the stream; and the next step he takes, with his hair well nigh on end, with his eye fixed on heaven on the other side of the shore, his face is yet marked with horror. He takes another step, and he is all bathing in fire. Another step, and he is up to his very loins in flames-“saved, so as by fire.” A strong hand has grasped him, that drags him onward through the stream. But how dreadful must be the death even of the Christian, when he is saved “so as by fire!” There on the river’s brink, astonished he looks back and sees the liquid flames, through which he has been called to walk, as a consequence of his indifference in this life. Saved he is-thanks to God; and his heaven shall be great, and his crown shall be golden, and his harp shall be sweet, and his hymns shall be eternal, and his bliss unfading;-but his dying moment, the last article of death, was blackened by sin; and he was saved “so as by fire!” Mark the other man; he too has to die. He has often feared death. He dips the first foot in Jordan; and his body trembles, his pulse waxes faint, and even his eyes are well nigh closed. His lips can scarcely speak, but still he says, “Jesus, thou art with me, thou art with me, passing through the stream!” He takes another step, and the waters now begin to refresh him. He dips his hand and tastes the stream, and tells those who are watching him in tears, that to die is blessed. “The stream is sweet,” he says, “it is not bitter: it is blessed to die.” Then he takes another step, and when he is well nigh submerged in the stream, and lost to vision, he says-

“And when ye hear my eyestrings break,

How sweet my minutes roll!-

A mortal paleness on my cheek,

But glory in my soul!”

That is the “abundant entrance” of the man who has manfully served his God-who, by divine grace, has had a path unclouded and serene-who, by diligence, has “made his calling and election sure;” and therefore, as a reward, not of debt, but of grace, hath entered heaven with higher honours and with greater ease than others equally saved, but not saved in so splendid a manner.

Just one thought more. It is said that the entrance is to be “ministered to us.” That gives me a sweet hint that, I find, is dwelt upon by Doddridge. Christ will open the gates of heaven; but the heavenly train of virtues-the works which follow us-will go up with us and minister an entrance to us. I sometimes think, if God should enable me to live and die for the good of these congregations, so that many of them shall be saved, how sweet it will be to enter heaven, and when I shall come there, to have an entrance ministered to me, not by Christ alone, but by some of you for whom I have ministered. One shall meet me at the gate, and say, “Minister, thou wast the cause of my salvation!” And another, and another, and another, shall all exclaim the same. When Whitfield entered heaven-that highly honoured servant of the Lord-I think I can see the hosts rushing to the gate to meet him. There are thousands there that have been brought to God by him. Oh how they open wide the gates; and how they praise God that he has been the means of bringing them to heaven; and how do they minister unto him an abundant entrance? There will be some of you, perhaps, in heaven, with starless crowns: for you never did good to your fellow-creatures; you never were the means of saving souls; you are to have crowns without stars. But “they that turn many to righteousness,” shall “shine as the stars, for ever and ever;” and an entrance shall be abundantly ministered to them. I do want to get a heavy crown in heaven-not to wear, but to have all the more costly gift to give to Christ. And you ought to desire the same, that you may have all the more honours, and so have the more to cast at his feet, with-“Not unto us, but unto thy name, O Christ, be the glory!” “Rather, brethren, give all diligence to make your calling and election sure.”

And now, to conclude. There are some of you with whom this text has nothing to do. You cannot “make your calling and election sure;” for you have not been called; and you have no right to believe that you are elected, if you have never been called. To such of you, let me say, do not ask whether you are elected first, but ask whether you are called. And go to God’s house, and bend your knee in prayer; and may God, in his infinite mercy, call you! And mark this-If any of you can say-

“Nothing in my hands I bring,

Simply to thy cross I cling;”

if any of you, abjuring your self-righteousness, can now come to Christ and take him to be your all in all; you are called, you are elect. “Make your calling and election sure,” and go on your way rejoicing! May God bless you; and to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be glory for evermore! Amen.