HINDRANCES TO ENDURANCE
‘But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.’
What are the causes which make endurance to the end difficult in so very many Christian lives?
I. Persecution because of the Word.—There is the ‘persecution that ariseth because of the word.’ In some shape or other this is inevitable. Men who have done much for Christ have sometimes given way at last under the stress of relentless persecution.
II. False teaching.—And then there are the ‘false Christs’ and the ‘false prophets.’ Our faith is undermined by people who talk and write in the very best English, and who have so much about them that is winning and agreeable that we cannot believe what is really going on.
III. Weariness in well doing.—And then there is the weariness which steals over thought and heart with the lapse of time. Human faculties, after all, are finite. They spend themselves and they fall back into lassitude and exhaustion.
IV. Trifling with conscience.—And once more, there is the trifling with conscience, not necessarily in great matters, but in a number of little matters.
V. How endurance may be secured.—Perseverance is likely to be secured by three things especially—
(a) By a sense of constant dependence on God.
(b) By prayer for perseverance.
(c) By keeping the mind fixed as much as possible on the end of life and on that which follows it.
—Canon Liddon.