OF all the objects that have been presented to you, may I ask, dear reader, which is the one of your heart’s choice? Is it worldly pleasure? Is it money, rank, worldly accomplishments, or the like? Is it self-advancement, or any other form of self-love? Is it religiousness? or is it Christ? God’s heart is set on Him. He delights in Jesus His beloved Son. He found a savor of rest in Him. The world knew Him not. They said, This is the Heir: let us kill Him. They saw no beauty in Him. His gracious words, “loving ways, and” tender-heartedness had no charm for men then; they did not desire Him. Their choice was “not this man, but Barabbas;” “away with Him,” “crucify Him.” This is very solemn; but is it not true? Therefore it is that I ask you, in all love, on what your heart is set? what are you delighting in? what are you choosing? You cannot serve two masters. It must be either Christ or something else.
You refuse also. Those who chose Barabbas refused Christ. How very affecting is the thought; but so it is. Everyone around us is both choosing and refusing. What are they refusing? Ah! that is the question. The Lord had to say, in the days of His flesh, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” They were refusing Christ, refusing life.
Dear reader, do you know Jesus the Son of God? I do not ask what religion you profess; but I do ask, Is He the object of your heart’s choice? Is He the chiefest among ten thousand to your soul, the altogether lovely? Can you, do you say of Him, “This is my Beloved, this is my Friend?” It will be so if He be the object of your heart’s choice; if you have received Him as the Saviour whom God hath sent. (1 John 4:9, 109In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9‑10).)
May I ask you, then, what you are CHOOSING? and what REFUSING? Moses, a man of faith, refused the world’s honors, and its pleasures of sin. Why? Because he had something better. His deliberate choice as a man of faith was rather to identify himself with poor men working at the brick-kiln, because they were God’s people, than the royal court of Egypt; and to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to have a transitory enjoyment of the pleasures of sin, knowing that God would reward him for his faithfulness. Have not these always been the principles of faith’s choice?
But, alas! what are people about? Are they choosing the pleasures of sin, or Christ? And what is God about? He is publishing the glad tidings of present and eternal salvation for even the chief of sinners, through the blood of Christ, that “whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Oh, how many, it is to be feared, will hear the awful words, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh.” (Prov. 1:24-2624Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; 25But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: 26I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; (Proverbs 1:24‑26).)
Again, dear reader, I would affectionately ask,—
WHAT ARE YOU CHOOSING? AND WHAT ARE YOU REFUSING?