Exodus 14:15

Exodus 14:15

Progress is the great test of a Christian. It is not what we are absolutely, but what we are relatively, relatively to what we were. Religion must always be "a walk," and the child of God a traveller. Old things get further and further behind, and as they recede look smaller and smaller; new things constantly come into view, and there is no stagnation. The man, though slowly, and with much struggle, and with many humiliations, is stretching on to the ever-rising level of his own spiritual and heaven-drawn conscience.

I. We may be discouraged because of past failures. Still we have no choice but to go on. Life is made up of rash beginnings and premature endings. We have nothing for it but to begin again.

II. We may feel ourselves utterly graceless and godless. The remedy is, at once to determine to be a great Christian. We must aim at things far in advance. We must go forward.

III. Perhaps some great temptation or sin bars the way. Then we must not stand calculating. We must not look at consequences, but simply "go forward" to the new life of self-denial and holiness.

J. Vaughan, Sermons, 7th series, p. 15.

References: Exodus 14:13-15 . Clergyman's Magazine, vol. x., p. 152.Exodus 14:15 . C. J. Vaughan, The Days of the Son of Man, p. 251; Outline Sermons for Children, p. 17; R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 120; J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, pp. 428, 436; J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 52; S. Baring-Gould, One Hundred Sermon Sketches, p. 45; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 548; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 18; J. Hamilton, Works, vol. v., p. 166. Exodus 14:15-31 . Preacher's Monthly, vol. ii., pp. 130, 132.Exodus 14:16 . J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iii., p. 320. Exodus 14:19 , Exodus 14:20 . Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx., No. 1793.