MONTGOMERY, in one of his poems, wrote:
“What is the world? A wildering maze,
Where sin has tracked TEN THOUSAND WAYS,
Her victims to ensnare;
All broad, and winding, and aslope,
All tempting with perfidious hope,
All ending in despair.”
What truth there is in these lines! Certainly the world can boast of variety. The ways that sin has prepared for its votaries to tread are indeed ten thousand in number. There is something to suit all tastes. But all these various and countless ways have certain features in common.
(1) They are all aslope. In pursuing any one of them the path is always downward, and the traveler goes with ever-increasing speed. Every step gives an impetus to the next step.
(2) They all hold out a perfidious hope, a hope that can never be realized, an ambition that can never be satisfied, an object that can never be gained, a will-o’-the-wisp that does but mock and delude its victims.
(3) They all end in despair. Some ways are strewn with flowers; others are beset with briars. Some are smooth and easy to walk in; others are rough and wearisome. But all the world’s ways have one ending: despair.
Not the poet only, but the Bible, speaks of the world’s various highways, so that in speaking of them we are using the language, not of fancy or fiction, but of sober fact. Let us see what names the Word of God gives to some of these smiling and seductive ways.
The “stubborn way” (Judg. 2:1919And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned, and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down unto them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. (Judges 2:19)). Here walk the men who will not listen to the warning voice that would bid them halt. “Is not even man free to do what he pleases?” they ask. “Who will dictate to us? We will choose the way that we prefer.” And with stubborn and willful deafness they turn from the echoes of the gospel, harden their hearts, and pursue their chosen course.
The “old way” (Job 22:1515Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden? (Job 22:15)). A way trodden since antediluvian days, when men were filling the world with their arts and their inventions, and trying to make themselves happy in independence of God. They “said unto God, Depart from us,” Are not the crowds that throng this great highway to destruction as great as in the days of long ago? Are there not many that appreciate God’s gifts, but do not want Him? Many that enjoy the good things that He has bestowed on them, but cannot bear to think of God Himself?
The “way of lying” (Psa. 119:2929Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously. (Psalm 119:29)). Many today have little regard for truth. To tell a lie is no sin in their eyes. To affirm what is false is to them an excusable device under certain circumstances. And as to the truth of God, they are far more ready to listen to the voice of falsehood, the voice that bids them believe anything and everything save the Word of Him who cannot lie.
The “false way,” the “way of transgressors,” the “way of a fool,” the “way of the heathen” all these, and others, are referred to in the Bible. I must be content, however, with mentioning one more:
The “way which seemeth right” (Prov. 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12)). Perhaps this is the most seductive of all the world’s ways. Here is a man who tells us that he wants to do right, and be right. Yet he is earnestly pursuing one of the world’s broad and slippery ways! But it seems right; it has the appearance of being all right, so the earnest seeker for what is right contentedly pursues his way until he discovers at length that “the end thereof are the ways of death.”
~~~
In contrast with all these tempting and slippery ways, all ending in despair, let me call the reader’s attention to the ONE WAY which leads to heaven.
Do not imagine that the old proverb, “All roads lead to Rome,” can be applied as suggesting that all ways that seem good, and that are trodden by earnest men, will eventually lead to heaven. Such an idea is false. We have seen that “the way that seems right” is but one of the ways that end in despair.
If anyone asks the way to heaven, he must be prepared for a most exclusive answer. The Lord Jesus said, “I am THE Way,” and there is no way to the skies but by personal faith in Him. The way is narrow—too narrow to admit either sin or self-righteousness. Those who tread this way have found cleansing for their sins in Christ’s precious blood, and are clothed with a robe of righteousness not their own. Their way may not lead them through the world’s sunny places. To many, the way of life has led by the prison cell, the torture chamber of the Romish Inquisition, the martyr’s stake. But the end is sure: “the end, everlasting life” in its fullness and glory.
Who are the wise? Who are the happy? Those who walk in one of the world’s ten thousand ways, or those who have found in Christ the Way to true happiness and peace now, and to heaven by and by?
This question is not difficult to answer. Let me ask another: In what way are your feet found, reader?
H. P. B.