Strive to enter in at the strait gate, LUKE xiii. 24.
It is not uncommon to find people writing about the straight and narrow way; when, if they would look into their New Testaments (MATTHEW vii.13,14) they would read: "Enter ye in at the strait gate; . . . because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life."
Evidently the mistake arises from having in the mind's eye a path which is both narrow and straight, like a railway; whereas it is not the way which the Gospel calls strait, but the gate. Strait means cramped, limited, confined, narrow. "What," somebody may ask, "did Jesus use two adjectives with the same meaning?" Yes! precisely as, in the next verse, he uses two other adjectives which have the same meaning: "Wide is the gate and broad is the way which leadeth unto death."
