Drifting.
The influences against which we are warned by the words of my text are those of currents which are flowing just where we are, and which may operate so insidiously that we may not know of their effect until, perhaps, it is too late to resist their power. Of these currents I will specify three.
I. Take first the agecurrent, or what a recent essayist, borrowing from the German, has called the "time-spirit." Every epoch has its own special tendency. These vagaries will pass away, even as the fleecy clouds remove from the summit of Mont Blanc; but Christ abides, like the grand old mountain, with its majestic mantle of stainless and eternal white. Hear Him, therefore. Hear Him, and keep fast hold of His sayings; so shall ye partake of His stability.
II. The second current to which I would refer is that of the place in which we dwell. Every city has its own peculiar influence. I do not hesitate to say that it is a less difficult matter to be an earnest Christian in some cities than it is in others. But the principles of the Gospel are not shifted by the tendencies of any place; and when we measure ourselves by them we may always discover how it is with us. Let us not take it for granted that because we are making some effort in the right direction, therefore we must be going forward. These efforts may not be enough to neutralise the forces of the current, and we may be drifting backward after all.
III. There is, thirdly, the personaldrift the drift in each of us individually. Let us not be self-confident here, or imagine that there is no fear of us. That imagination is itself the beginning of the personal drift. Distrust yourself, therefore, and trust only and always in the Lord. Anchor on to Christ; that is the sure preventive of all such drifting as I have been seeking to expose.
W. M. Taylor, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., p. 40.
References: Hebrews 2:1. J. G. Rogers, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 361; Bishop Westcott, Ibid.,vol. xxxvi., p. 136; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. x., p. 83.Hebrews 2:1-4. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 183.Hebrews 2:3. J. Natt, Posthumous Sermons,p. 425; Homilist,2nd series, vol. iv., p. 207; 3rd series, vol. vi., p. 166; Preacher's Monthly,vol. v., p. 300; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 185.Hebrews 2:3; Hebrews 2:4. Hay Aitkin, Around the Cross,p. 145.Hebrews 2:4. W. M. Taylor, The Gospel Miracles,p. 173.Hebrews 2:5. Homilist,vol. v., p. 1.Hebrews 2:5-9. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iv., p. 122; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 325.