THE other day a gentleman asked thee ticket-collector at H― Station the way to D―. He got plain directions, and as I was following up behind, coming to where two ways met, there was a finger-post pointing the way to.
D―, so he looked for a moment and read, and on he went, confirmed that he was on the right road. A little down the road a friend with a wagonette met him, who took him up and drove him to D―.
Now, I thought, this is a fine illustration of the way seeking souls―those who are inquiring the way to heaven―are met by the grace of God. First some one directs them, like Peter in Acts 10, “To him (Jesus) give all the prophets witness, that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.” Then, like the Bereans (Acts 17), who “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so,” they are helped. The Thessalonians were good ground hearers. They heard what Paul preached as the Word of God, and not as the word of men, but the Bereans went to the Scriptures, and saw all clearly. They were like the man looking at the finger-post. He had heard the way from the ticket-collector, then he read it for himself, and thus assured, on he went with certainty. But when his friend met him, took him up, and carried him, there was no more inquiry about the way to D―.
So the Spirit of God is come to carry and guide us all the way home; He is the guide and teacher―the power to carry right to glory. In John 14. the Lord said, “Ye know him.” When Paul came to Ephesus and found believers, he asked them, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed?”
The man in Luke 10, who was taken up from the roadside, was carried, and so Rebekah in Genesis 24.
“Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God, who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.”
Now, dear reader, where are you, whither bound? Doubtless you would like to go to heaven. No one wants to go to hell, yet many are on that road. To get in at the strait gate, you have to be in earnest, and be in time. Do not rest until you know for certain you are bound for glory, and that you have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, as your guide and power to lead and carry you on.
R. W.