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I. THE IMPORTANCE OF A PROMPT AND RESOLUTE DEVOTEDNESS OF MIND TO THE GREAT CONCERN OF RELIGION. This is to follow Christ, and includes:

1. The candid reception of His revelation.

2. It involves a surrender of ourselves to Christ as our Saviour and Governor.

3. It imparts an ardent solicitude for the prevalence of his religion.

II. THE EGREGIOUS FOLLY OF STIFLING RELIGIOUS IMPRESSIONS IN FAVOUR OF SUCH DEVOTEDNESS, BY WORLDLY CONSIDERATIONS. "Let the dead bury their dead."

1. Some are prevented from an immediate compliance with their convictions, by the notion that their happiness is to be found in the world, which they would be required to abandon.

2. Some by the remonstrances of worldly relatives and friends.

3. Some by some particular worldly object of pursuit, upon which, for the moment, they are intent, and which promises soon to leave them at liberty.

(J. Leifchild.)

I. THE MEN OF THE WORLD ARE BUT DEAD MEN. The sentence of death passed upon all men still abides: it is not repealed. As dead as men in their graves. You rotting above the ground, and they under (Romans 8:10). As there is in the sinner a seeming life, so is there in the righteous a seeming death. They may seek a new life.

1. They may become alive in their apprehensions of God.

2. They are alive in their devotions to God.

3. These awakened sinners are alive in their obedience to God.

II. As THE MEN OF THE WORLD ARE, SO ALSO ARE THE THINGS ABOUT WHICH THEY ARE CONVERSANT. They are dead things, they have no real life in them. They perish in the using. (W. Gilpin, M.A.)

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KJV: And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

WEB: A scribe came, and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."