The Mark by H. L. H.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 2, 1873

The Mark.

By H. L. H.

It is said that no person can walk straight in any direction unless he follows some path or mark, or is guided by some distant object, toward which he may direct his course. Let a man be blindfolded, and if he attempt to walk in a right line, he will invariably find himself describing a circle, as persons lost in forests, or on trackless wastes, usually travel round and round, sometimes wandering for days, and yet never going far from the point whence they started.

The reason assigned for this is the unequal strength of the two sides of the human body, one foot walking a little faster than the other, and so turning the steps from a straight line to a circular course, and sending a man round and round in aimless and endless wanderings.

Indeed, let any person be blindfolded and placed in a large field, and told to find his way to any distant point in the inclosure, and he will probably be utterly unable to direct his steps so as to reach the place which he desires. Nothing but sight can guide the steps; and the sight must be rightly directed, and steadily fixed upon some distant object, or the steps will unconsciously diverge from the desired course. A person looking carefully at his feet while walking through a field, will find his path is far from straight. He can only make a straight path by turning his eye away from his feet, and shaping his course toward some object afar off.

The spiritual lesson illustrated by this fact is obvious. Men, blinded by the god of this world, wander round and round, without aim or end, and even when their eyes are opened to know the folly of their course, they either follow in a path which others have trodden, pursuing it in all its windings, and turning to and fro, or in passing over an untrodden way their feet unconsciously turn aside, and stray far from the course which they desired to pursue. One way alone remains. He who would make straight paths for his feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, who would, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation pursue a steadfast course, must fix his eye upon some mark toward which he may direct his steps with steady and unflagging zeal.

“Wherefore, laying aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.”

Taking him for our pattern, our guide, our beacon, our bright and morning star, we may walk boldly and confidently through this world of snares and cares, of errors and mistakes, assured that so long as our eye is fixed on Jesus, our feet can not go far from the narrow way. “Forgetting the things that are behind,” we may thus reach forward to the things that are before, and “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”—H. L. H.