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THE ROYAL WAY

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 28, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 46.

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THE ROYAL WAY.

By Editor

THERE are many ways in this world: ways of beggars and peasants; ways of princes and nobles; ways of kings and emperors; but the ways of all lead to one place—the grave. That grave may be a hole in the ground in some potter's field, or it may be a magnificent mausoleum of costliest marble. But the one head rests as peacefully as the other, and both alike are ignorant of all things else; for thus saith the scripture: "Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." Ps. 146:3, 4.
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VERY crooked are many of these ways of men. Many have led through dark forests of sin and crime and wickedness. Many of the ways have been over the hills and rocks of hardship and toil, of wo and pain. Many have wound devious paths through the everglades of sorrow. Many have followed ways of selfish pleasure, ending at last in the ashes and detritus of burned-out hopes. Other ways have been respectable, well-traveled ways, but ending in hopelessness and nothingness.
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SOME of the most crooked ways, the most wicked ways, have been the royal ways of the world. The road has been paved with skulls and bones, and cemented with the blood of oppressed and suffering humanity. All the triumph which the way has brought has been at the expense and sacrifice and slavery and wo and misery of others. Empires have been wrecked, nations impoverished, the fairest lands despoiled and devastated, thousands have been slain, or worse than slain, that a royal way might be cast up, and a poor mortal walk therein. We need not recount them; the student familiar with history will recall not a few. What wonder that these royal names of the royal ways have undergone change, not wholly unmeaning, sometimes full of meaning, among the mass of people.
"Rotten Row," supposed to be a corruption of the French term, "Route de Roi," meaning the route or way of the King. It is a beautiful way or road, in Hyde Park, London, extending from Hyde Park Corner to Kensington Gate, one and one-half miles long. It is ninety feet wide, separated from a promenade fringed with soft green turf. Some of the most brilliant displays of wealth and fashion in the world's metropolis are seen here in the afternoons, and at the church parade on Sundays. The Route, or Way, of the King in many places of earth has, because of sin and corruption, become morally, "rotten row."
"Rotten Row," supposed to be a corruption of the French term, "Route de Roi," meaning the route or way of the King. It is a beautiful way or road, in Hyde Park, London, extending from Hyde Park Corner to Kensington Gate, one and one-half miles long. It is ninety feet wide, separated from a promenade fringed with soft green turf. Some of the most brilliant displays of wealth and fashion in the world's metropolis are seen here in the afternoons, and at the church parade on Sundays. The Route, or Way, of the King in many places of earth has, because of sin and corruption, become morally, "rotten row."
BUT there is a Royal Way which knows no corruption. It is not called that because the King alone travels it, but because the King made it for His subjects to walk in—subjects purchased by priceless ransom. It is lifted above the lowlands of lust; it sinks not to the sloughs of wickedness, or the pits of corruption. It is a highway cast up, ballasted in living rock upon a like foundation. That royal way is the way of God's commandments, the way of holiness, the way of righteousness, and life. "As for God, His way is perfect; the word of Jehovah is tried." Ps. 18:30. It is the way of His precepts. Ps. 119:27. It is the way of His commandments. Verse 32. It is the way of His statutes. Verse 33.
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O, SOUL, why not turn from your own ways which end in disappointment and death, and choose the royal way of God. Truly the prophet has said, "O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jer. 10:23. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. 16:25. There is a curse which reaches the whole length of the way of sin; but there is blessing in God's royal way. "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah." Ps. 119:1. There is death in man's way; but in the royal way of God there is life; for "in the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death." Prov. 12:28. The soldier of God may lay down
in the midst of his struggle to sleep for awhile, but he will know that the Master will awake him in the glad morning of the resurrection. There is unmitigated, hopeless sorrow in the ways of earth; but there is rejoicing in the royal way of God's "testimonies." Ps. 119:14. There is peace and surety in God's way; for "great peace have they that love Thy law, and they shall have no stumbling-block." Ps. 119:165. Every blessing of the royal bounties is found in the royal road of God. Peace, joy, life, strength, righteousness, are the elements of His way. It is the way of Christ; "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love." John 15:10. Why not choose it, and choose it forever? Why not pray the prayer of God's servant of old. "Teach me, O Jehovah, the way of Thy statutes; andI shall keep it unto the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart." Ps. 119:33, 34.