³⁹得着 生命 的，将要失丧 生命；为 我 失丧 生命 的，将要得着 生命。

³⁹ He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

³⁹ Verse 39. He that findeth his life, &c.] i.e. He who, for the

sake of his temporal interest, abandons his spiritual concerns,

shall lose his soul; and he who, in order to avoid martyrdom,

abjures the pure religion of Christ, shall lose his soul, and

perhaps his life too. He that findeth his life shall lose it, was

literally fulfilled in Archbishop Cranmer. He confessed Christ

against the devil, and his eldest son, the pope. He was ordered

to be burnt; to save his life he recanted, and was,

notwithstanding, burnt. Whatever a man sacrifices to God is never

lost, for he finds it again in God.



There is a fine piece on this subject in Juvenal, Sat. viii. l.

80, which deserves to be recorded here.

----------- ambiguae si quando citabere testis

Incertaeque rei, Phalaris liect imperet ut sis

Falsus, et admoto dictet perjuria tauro,

Summum crede nefas ANIMAM praeferre PUDORI

Et propter VITAM VIVENDI perdere causas.



---------- If ever call'd

To give thy witness in a doubtful case,

Though Phalaris himself should bid thee lie,

On pain of torture in his flaming bull,

Disdain to barter innocence for life;

To which life owes its lustre and its worth.

Wakefield.