Verse 21.— For it had been better. Such as apostatize would have been better off had they never heard the gospel of Christ, for by their apostasy their sin is made the greater and the chains with which they bind themselves are stronger than they were before. A man once knowing the way of life, and turning from it, sins knowingly and willfully. Before he heard the gospel he was walking in the darkness of ignorance, to whom sym­pathy was to be extended. Such, however, as sin willfully and knowingly, are in a most deplorable and uncertain condition. My soul turns away in a nameless terror from the contemplation of the thought. Says the blessed Master: "That servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes" (Luke 12:47).