[Sidenote: Ver. 15.] =For[240]=--the word takes up the argument at large, rather than the last detail of it--=if for food's sake your brother suffers pain,= the pain of a moral struggle between his present convictions and your commanding example, =you have given up walking (οὐκέτι περιπατεῖς) love-wise. Do not, with your food,= (there is a searching point in the "_your_," touching to the quick the deep selfishness of the action,) =work his ruin for whom Christ died.= Such sentences are too intensely and tenderly in earnest to be called sarcastic; otherwise, how fine and keen an edge they carry! "_For food's sake!_" "_With your food!_" The man is shaken out of the sleep of what seemed an assertion of liberty, but was after all much rather a dull indulgence of--that is, a mere slavery to--himself. "I like this meat; I like this drink; I don't like the worry of these scruples; they interrupt me, they annoy me." Unhappy man! It is better to be the slave of scruples, than of self. In order to allow yourself another dish--you would slight an anxious friend's conscience, and, so far as your conduct is concerned, push him to a violation of it. But that means, a push on the slope which leans towards spiritual ruin. The way to perdition is paved with violated consciences. The Lord may counteract your action, and save your injured brother from himself--and you. But your action is, none the less, calculated for his perdition. And all the while this soul, for which, in comparison with your dull and narrow "liberty," you care so little, was so much cared for by the Lord that He--died for it. Oh consecrating thought, attached now, for ever, for the Christian, to every human soul which he can influence: "_For whom Christ died!_"