Surely it is a text that ought to make us consider our ways, search our heart, and send us to prayer. You may say you feel much, and think much about these things, far more than many suppose: I answer, This is not the point. The poor lost souls in hell do as much as this. The great question is not what you think, and what you feel, but what you do.

You may say that holiness such as I have described is only for great saints, and people of uncommon gifts. I answer, I cannot see that in Scripture. I read that “every man who hath this hope in Christ purifies himself' (I John 3:3). "Without holiness no man shall see the Lord."

You may say, it is impossible to be so holy and to do our duty in this life at the same time. I answer, You are mistaken; with Christ on your side nothing is impossible. It has been done by many: David, Obadiah, Daniel and the servants of Nero's household are all examples that prove it.

You may say that to be so holy you would be unlike other people. I answer, I know it well. It is just what you ought to be. Christ's true servants were always unlike the world around them:  they are a separate nation, a peculiar people, and you must be so too, if you would be saved!

You may say, at this rate very few will be saved. I answer, I know it. It is precisely what we are told in the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord Jesus said, "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it" (Matt. 7:14). Few will be saved because few will take the trouble to seek salvation. Men will not deny themselves the pleasures of sin and their own way for a little season...

You may say, these are hard sayings; the way is very narrow. I answer, I know it. So says the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord Jesus always said that men must take up the cross daily, and that they must be ready to cut off hand or foot, if they would be His disciples. It is in religion as it is in other things, there are no gains without pains. That which costs nothing is worth nothing.