ONE of the least understood sayings of the great Teacher, and one very often quoted, is this: "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." It has usually been taken to mean that the majority of mankind were destined to endure eternal separation from God, and that "few" can be "saved." Under certain religious teaching, now happily outgrown to a large extent, many sincere seekers after Truth were led to believe that even their most earnest efforts might after all result in failure, and this, too, in the face of the Master's emphatic declaration, "For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth: and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
There is certainly nothing equivocal about this direct statement that "every one" who asks shall receive, and that he who seeks shall find, and yet the seeming contradiction between this statement and the one first quoted has driven many from doubt almost to despair. And, be it remembered, this has been no mere question of creed or dogma, —it was nothing less vital than the finding of the way to Life—with all it implies. While those who were struggling in the dark waves of doubt and uncertainty might not know what was needed for their rescue, much less the way to find it, the fact remains that they were not living in any true sense, any more than were the misguided votaries of pleasure whose best word was, "Let us eat and drink; for to-morrow we die."
When Christ Jesus came to mankind, he found none who knew the way to Life. He found the multitudes carrying heavy burdens of belief in the necessity of sin and suffering, and looking to death as the dreary goal of their false sense of existence. Of all such he said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." There was nothing exclusive about this promise! It was for all, and yet he said on another occasion that there are few who find the strait and narrow way to Life.
