The Terms of Discipleship (J. Brown)

“He that loves his life shall lose it; and he that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor” (John 12:25-26).

THE TERMS OF DISCIPLESHIP, my brethren, are unaltered, and unalterable. Are we thus servants of Christ? We call him Lord, Lord; but are we following him in self-denied service and suffering? are we lovers of our lives in the sense in which he requires us to be haters of them ? i. e., are we lovers of ourselves more than the lovers of him,—fonder of earth than heaven, —more taken up with time than eternity ? Let no man be deceived—let no man deceive himself—on this point. A mistake here, even though temporary, is hazardous—if persisted* in, it must be fatal. We can have no part in making atonement—it is unnecessary—it is impossible; but we must have part in the spirit in which the atonement was made. If we have not, we may rest assured we are not yet savingly interested in him; and, continuing destitute of this spirit, we never can be sharers of the blessings procured by him. No man who is not really disposed to lay down his life for Christ—to lay down his life for the brethren—to make his glory and their salvation the great objects of life—can have satisfactory evidence that Christ's death for sinners has become effectual for reconciling him to God.

John Brown

Dwelt in Haran (Acts 7:4)

“Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran: and from there, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein you now dwell”.

Even Abraham, blessed as he was, moved slowly in the path of faith at first. He did not quit Mesopotamia to dwell in Canaan all at once. Before this he dwelt at Haran. He got out of his land, but not so quickly "out of his kindred," so that there was a remarkable delay in coming into the land which God was to show him... Terah, as long as he lived, was a dead weight on Abraham’s obedience. We are told, "Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan" (Gen 11.31). But the land in these circumstances, they never reached. God told Abraham to quit his kindred as well as his country; and till this was done, he failed to reach Canaan. It would have scarcely been proper for Abram as the son to take Terah his father. So "Terah took Abram..." This however, was not at all according to the call of God to Abram. Hence we read, "they came unto Haran, and dwelt there." But when Terah died, "Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him" (Gen 12.4). Then the language is pointedly different:- "And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came" (Gen 12.5). There was no failure now that his faith was not hampered by the encumbrance of nature which almost necessarily took the upper hand; therefore the movement had lacked the power of God to give it effect. That gone, the blessing immediately followed.

William Kelley