WHICH WAY?

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Sep 20, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 38.

EVER since sin came into the world, there has been a conflict between the way of God and the ways of men. Man has either followed his own way to his own sorrow, or has followed God's way to his undying peace and happiness. In the strife for self-honor, he has found humiliation and remorse, or has died without hope with his fingers still reaching after the ever-fleeing apparition of mortal fame. In seeking the glory of God and the good of others, he has come down to life's reaping time full of hope and joy and trust and satisfaction. The way that looked hard to the eye proved pleasant to the feet; but in the self-chosen path of pleasure the feet find thorns and jagged rocks where the eye had seen naught but roses and smoothest paths and bowers of delightsome shade.

AGAIN and again man has so far forsaken the ways of his Maker that he has lost the very remembrance of Him by whose power and sufferance he lives. And because they did not like to retain God in their minds, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, and permitted them to follow out to its very ultimate the courses which they had chosen—the way which they had set up in opposition to God's way. He permitted them to demonstrate that Death stands at the end of every way that is out of harmony with the way of God. Then would come His message to them to forsake the paths of death, and turn their feet in the way of life and everlasting peace. There is one straight course to the city of God. No way that turns aside from the straight way can reach the goal toward which that straight path leads. A tangent never returns to the course it forsook. So as long as we remain in any of the hundreds of paths we may make for our own feet, we can not reach the goal of life.

A HIGHWAY IN THE HILLS—GRIMSEL ROAD, SWITZERLAND.

ANCIENTLY when a king paid a visit to another king, the order went forth to repair the highway over which he must enter the city.

Every rough place must be made smooth. Every high place must be made level. Every low place must be brought up. Every stone must be removed. There must be nothing to displease the visiting king in the matter of the road over which he entered the city. The Lord uses this as a figure of the work that must be done by us if we would receive Him into our hearts as our guest. When He enters, it must be over His chosen way,—the way of life, the only way of life—and we are to take down every barrier to His free entrance. He will not force the gates of our citadel, however flimsy they may be. But He says, "I stand at the door and knock." You must open to Him; you must bid Him enter.

WHAT is there that stands between you and your Maker? Unbar the gate; unlock the door. If your own will has undermined the way like a rush of waters, you have but to pray, "Thy will, not mine," and the chasm is bridged. If you have chosen the wrong road, you have but to say, "Lord, establish my goings; direct my feet in the way of life," and He will lift you out of your way and into

His. If you have allowed the chariots of doubt to demolish the way up to the citadel of your soul, you have but to pray, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief;” and your prayer will be answered, and the ruined road will be restored. Whatever mountains of selfishness and sin may stand in the way, you can confess, and He can take away. Your desire for His entrance, and your faith in His willingness and ability, will open the way for these mountains to be removed and cast into the depths of the sea.

GOD has marked out for our feet a way—His own way. Men have forsaken it. Now His message to every honest soul rings out in these words:

“Go through, go through the gates; Prepare ye the way of the people; Cast up, cast up the highway; Gather out the stones; Lift up an ensign for the peoples.” Isa. 62:10.

That is the highway of Jehovah, and that ensign is the ensign of the leader of the Lord’s hosts. There are highways and byways that ramify the whole earth—there is but one highway that our Lord calls His, and that is the highway in which Christ Himself walked. Walking “even as He walked,” we are walking in His highway. Walking as He did not walk, we are walking in the ways of death. There are voices calling to us from every side. There is but one Voice that can lead us in the way of safety that leads to the city of God. It is not enough to sit behind our gates and wait for some one else to do the work that needs to be done. We must emerge from our seclusion, “go through the gates,” and do what we can to prepare the broken way. Men have invented ways which they hope will lead to their own salvation, while they ignore the way already prepared for that purpose. God is not in these ways; for Christ declares, “There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” So long has the great world followed its own ways, that the way of Jehovah appears to them as a desert waste. But God declares, “Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain; and the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.” Isa. 40:3-5. The decree has gone forth for this to be done; the people of the Lord must obey the decree, and set the way of God more perfectly before the world. It has been confused with a mass of worldly rubbish; that must be taken out of the way. Some have sought to bury it under loads of self-seeking and self-service; these must be removed. Some have placed false interpretations upon its meaning; these must be brushed away by the plain teachings of the Word—that there may be no excuse for the wayfaring man losing his way, or even stumbling in that way.

THE law of God is the plainest expression of His way. David’s inspired prayer was, “Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments; for therein do I delight.” Ps. 119:35

Christ walked in the way of the Father perfectly; and because He did, He became man’s acceptable sacrifice; and this is what He says of Himself: “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.” John 15:10. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.” 1 John 2:6. That is walking in the way of God. If we are not so walking, we are not walking as we ought; for so says the Word. There are thousands of ways, but only one is God’s; only one leads heavenward; Christ walked in that way. Which way shall we walk? s.