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I. CHRIST IS THE PRE-EMINENT OBJECT AND THE BOUNDLESS SOURCE OF ALL MORAL ATTRACTION AND INFLUENCE.

1. He is the pre-eminent object of moral attraction. He is the centre of all moral power. It is the overpowering force of the sun's attraction that regulates the motion of the planets; it is the overwhelming attraction of the earth that neutralizes the mutual attraction of things upon its surface, and prevents them from inconveniently clinging together. So is Christ the centre of the moral world. As God, He claims our adoration: as Man, our lively affection. He is the realization of every Divine idea. In a gallery of paintings, comprising portraits, allegories, historic scenes, and ideal creations, one grand masterpiece, long concealed, is at length uncovered and disclosed to view. Immediately all others are forsaken; the admiring gaze is directed to this. It is " the attraction," not because of its mere novelty, but because it comprises all the subjects and all the excellences of every other work, and displays them with unrivalled power. He is the way to the Father, and to the soul's everlasting home. "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me." A wild country is spread before us, with numerous paths, by-ways, and intersecting roads. Many of these tracks are toilsome, but supposed to lead to the possession of some profit and gain; many are pleasant, but of doubtful issue; many are perilous; many are evidently ways of perdition. But at length a bright "way" appears, and it is seen to lead upwards, and to terminate in a glorious "city of habitation." Shall we not forsake every other way to follow this? He is the fulness of all good. He is all and in all. Is it not great gain to forsake all and to follow Him? He is the friend beloved. When a beloved friend arrives, business and pleasure are alike abandoned, for the joy of his society. Jesus comes, He calls to us; He announces the joyful news of reconciliation with God. Should we not forsake all to follow Him, and to be received into His everlasting friendship? He is the heavenly Bridegroom. The bride forsakes her father's house, her country, her early associates for the bridegroom.

2. He is the boundless source of moral influence. He changes the earthly into the heavenly. No teacher nor doctrine can produce a transformation like this; the all-powerful influence is with Christ alone. If we desire our own true glory, should we not forsake all to follow Him? He changes the corrupt into the spiritual. He raises the spiritually dead into a Divine life. This reminds us that the attraction and influence of the Lord Jesus Christ can only be savingly experienced through the instrumentality of faith.

II. To FORSAKE ALL AND TO FOLLOW CHRIST IS ALIKE OUR INDISPENSABLE DUTY AND OUR TRUE HAPPINESS.

1. It is our indispensable duty to forsake all and to follow Christ. It is not by abstract considerations we usually judge of duty, but by contemplating actual and living relations. Now, if we contemplate the actual relations Christ sustains to us, and of the reality of which we are assured by Divine testimony, the entireness of His claims will become immediately evident. As the Son of God, He claims supreme homage and entire obedience: as Mediator, He has a peculiar claim, because we are the subjects of His all-prevailing intercession. This imperative duty is sustained by every conceivable motive; it is also indispensable. It is the divinely appointed condition of salvation. We must look at the awful alternative. We are all under the most sacred obligation to hold the possession of earthly things in subservience to the service of Christ.

2. It is our true happiness to forsake all to follow Christ. "What shall we have therefore?" Is it not true happiness to derive present and everlasting joy in the contemplation of so pre-eminent an object of love; to experience the transforming influence of His Spirit and truth changing us into His likeness; and to enter into living and effectual relation with Him, all whose names are significant of unlimited blessing? "What shall we have therefore?" Exemption from eternal death, and the inheritance of everlasting life. The truth of Christ. The fellowship of the saints. An infinite compensation; a blissful result of self-denial. "And the last shall be first." As the first in their own and in the world's esteem should be really the last, so the last shall be first. The last in worldly esteem. The last in social conditions — Christians are required to avoid all vain display and ostentation. The last in their own esteem. "What things were gain to them, these they counted loss for Christ."

(J. T. Barker.)What called forth this question? An event had just taken place which had made a deep impression on the minds of the disciples.

I. LET US CONSIDER THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THOSE WORDS WERE UTTERED BY ST. PETER. There are some who always seem to delight in putting a bad construction upon the actions and words of God's saints. We have no sympathy with such men. They judge others by their own standard and motives. But in the words of the text we find no instance of human infirmity. Whatever St. Peter's faults may have been, certainly he was the last man to think of payment for service, or of reward. He was impetuous, affectionate, generous. .Nor, again, can we admit that there was something vain-glorious in the words. What, then, led St. Peter to say, "What shall we have therefore?" It was thankfulness. He was thrilled with gratitude at the thought of the grace which had enabled him to do what others had not done. But further, instead of pride there was, we believe, humility in this utterance. It was as much as to say, "What condescension that thou hast chosen us, such as we are, for so great a vocation!" They felt the greatness of the love which had called them, and their own unworthiness of the dignity. Let us look at the statements which are made. They are two. Christ had bidden the rich youth to give up all, and St. Peter now says, "'We have done this — we have forsaken all. Yes, it was not much, but it was all, and the sacrifice is to be measured not by the amount which is surrendered, but by the love which prompted it. Again, St. Peter adds, "We have followed Thee." This was the second thing which our Lord demanded of the rich youth. Perfect does not consist in the mere abandonment of external goods. St. Peter was careful to add that they had forsaken all with a definite motive — that of following Christ, and of being like Him in the external conditions of his life. It is not merely world-surrender, but self-surrender which Christ demands. The forsaking is the preliminary of the following. Detachment from the creature is useless unless it leads to attachment to the Creator. Sin consists in two things — the turning away from God, and the turning to the creature. "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, saith the Lord, the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no waters" (Jeremiah 2:13). Holiness, on the other hand, requires a spirit of detachment from visible things, and love for God. They loved Him. It was a progressive love.

II. OUR LORD'S REPLY TO ST. PETER'S QUESTION WAS AN ENCOURAGING ONE. He did not find fault with the question, knowing the purity of motive which prompted it. But He was careful to elevate their thoughts. They should have some great honour, some mysterious union with Christ in His exaltation, as they now had fellowship with Him on earth. Christ is Judge alone. They can have no share in His judiciary authority. In what sense, then, will the Apostles sit with Christ and judge the world? By the judgment of comparison. They will be examples of faithfulness to grace, condemning those thereby who have clung to earthly things and forsaken Christ. And besides this, by the judgment of approbation. They will be Christ's court, His princes, marked out from others by special glory and blessedness as the recompense of their allegiance to Him. Is this honour to be confined to the original disciples? We are not called, as Apostles were, actually to forsake all, and to follow Christ. But all Christians must share their spirit. We must "use this world, as not abusing it" (1 Corinthians 7:31). The outward acts of religion, necessary as they are, will not compensate for a worldly spirit. But the Christian life is no mere negative thing — the quenching of the love of the temporal; it is the following of Christ. Try by meditation to gain a clearer view of our Lord's example. Nor is it a sordid movement of soul to desire to look over the hills of time into the glories of the eternal world. Love, not selfishness, prompts all sacrifice made for Christ. But He who "for the joy which was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame" (Hebrews 12:2), permits the inquiry of the text when made in the spirit of hope and thankfulness. "What shall we have therefore?" It is not merely happiness, it is blessedness.

(W. H. Hatchings, M. A.)

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KJV: Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore?

WEB: Then Peter answered, "Behold, we have left everything, and followed you. What then will we have?"