The writer goes on to say, “Surely Thou didst set them in slippery places; Thou castest them down into destruction.” Isn’t that true? How many are suddenly cut off? Remember, the very next step that they take, they may be in eternity. So many are suddenly stricken in these days—meet with violent deaths—how quick it is!
It is a precarious pathway—the prosperity of this world; that of the rich men, the men who are millionaires. There is many a man today that once was rich, with his detail of servants, who is now around sharpening knives, selling shoestrings, etc., to get the bare necessities of life. If you would have told him this a dozen years ago, he would have thought you were mad, but, “their feet are in slippery places.” It is not an easy place to keep standing if you have only the prosperity that is given to the rich in this life.
I wonder what the Czar, head of Russia, thought when he was backed against the wall and looked into the muzzles of these executioners. What about all the glory that he enjoyed in that grand dominion? There would be only one thing that would give him absolution in that hour, and I trust he had it; that would be the knowledge of Christ; and if he passed out of this life, “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.”
“Now are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors.” All suddenly coming to an end! What must fill his mind? How different from one who knows Christ—a child of God who faces this life and the next with a calm confidence, knowing the Lord has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” We don’t need to envy those that prosper and wish we had their possessions. Just slip into God’s presence. Let us get His viewpoint in the situation, and then there will not be any envy, but a deep sense of thankfulness in our souls that we are not numbered among them. We have something so infinitely better.
“As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image.” “Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.” “So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before Thee.”
This is repentance on the part of the child of God for these reasonings in which he had been indulging. When we make an acknowledgment to God of our failures, it is a good thing to make a 100% clean breasted acknowledgment. When I was indulging in those thoughts, I was foolish, etc. He was tried, and reasoned it out from just what one sees—not taking God into account, in His way, perfection, love, goodness, etc.
“Nevertheless I am continually with Thee; Thou hast holden me by my right hand.”
Yes, dear child of God, that is the one you have, the Lord. Do not worry about the prosperity of the ungodly, you have THE LORD. What intimacy, love, consideration, confidence that comes to you; and the preciousness of the Lord right by your side! That is the only way to be happy in this world. Companionship with Christ, and you can have that. But let me tell you, if you want to enter upon a certain pathway of sorrow, just attempt to get your enjoyment the way the ungodly are getting it, and I promise you, you will have a full cup of bitterness before the end comes. You have heard too much truth, have had too much blessed ministry; you know too much of the way, to ever find your portion of happiness in the pathway of the ungodly in this world. True joy and happiness is found in companionship with Christ.
“Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.”
Dear, young person, don’t you feel that you need the dependable, guiding counsel of the Lord for your soul? What a day in which to live, with pitfalls on every side. If you are going to escape, the only place to get the needed wisdom is in the Word of God. It gives dependable counsel for your soul. If you want to be happy, and to be guided through this scene, saved from many a heartache, heed the Word of God. If you despise it, you will have to reap sorrow.
Everything you need to guide you through this world in a moral and spiritual way, blessed dependable counsel to your soul, is found in the Word of God. The way to be happy is to walk with God; the way to be miserable is to attempt to find your happiness in the world. A miserable, unhappy life, and a worse end.
“Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee.”
Dear young soul, if that is the language of your heart, I will tell you, you are on the road to happiness. Yes, you are happy, for that is happiness. “WHOM HAVE I?” Do you want something beside Christ? Do you want something more than Christ?—something that Christ has not given you? If you are satisfied with what He gives you, you are not only satisfied, but you will learn the secret of happiness. If we could only realize that God wants us to be happy and intends us to be, but the only way to be happy is in the pathway of obedience. Every time we step aside from that path way, lured by something else, we are courting unhappiness through sorrow, and sooner or later we will reap what we sow.
“My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.”
“For, lo, they that are far from Thee shall perish: Thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from Thee.”
“But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all Thy works.”
Take the pathway of obedience then. Before you can do that consistently, there must be the appreciation in your own soul of the mighty fact that God is for you, and intends only happiness for your soul. Learn to justify God in every circumstance, and calm peace will be yours.
(Continued from page 47)
(Concluded)