There is no seeing Christ in Glory, unless
we run before the multitude, and are willing to be in the number of those
despised few, who take the kingdom of God by violence. The broad way, in which
so many go, can never be that strait and narrow way which leads to life. Our
Lord's flock was, and always will be, comparatively a little one; and unless we
dare to run before the multitude in a holy singularity, and can rejoice in
being accounted fools for Christ's sake, we shall never see Jesus with comfort,
when he appears in glory. From mentioning the sycamore-tree, and considering
the difficulty with which Zaccheus must climb it, we may farther learn, that
those who would see Christ, must undergo other difficulties and hardships,
besides contempt. Zaccheus, without doubt, went through both. Did not many,
think you, laugh at him as he ran along, and in the language of Michal, Saul's
daughter, cry out, “How glorious did the rich Zaccheus look today, when,
forgetting the greatness of his station, he ran before a pitiful, giddy mob,
and climbed up a sycamore-tree, to see an enthusiastic preacher!” But Zaccheus
cares not for all that; his curiosity was strong: if he could but see who Jesus
was, he did not value what scoffers said of him. Thus, and much more will it be
with all those who have an effectual desire to see Jesus in heaven: they will
go on from strength to strength, break through every difficulty lying in their
way, and care not what men or devils say of or do unto them. May the Lord make
us all thus minded, for his dear Son's sake!
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