The point of the remark is that salvation is not to be assumed by any one as a matter of course, but is to be sought with earnest and persistent effort.16 We must fight17 if we would win; it is in its due application true of all, everywhere and always, that they must enter into the Kingdom of God through many tribulations (Acts 14:22).

The fact is that we have all spent too much time on one story of the great mansion of God’s universe. We need occasionally to go upstairs or downstairs in this mansion; downstairs and in the cellar study the rocks, or upstairs and see God in some of the higher stories, and learn the meaning of the text when it says: “It is he that buildeth his stories in the heavens.”

It is a trite saying that “money commands all things.” This can only be accepted with many qualifications, but certainly anger is among the things over which it not unfrequently does exhibit its power.