EVERY true Christian must surely desire to follow Christ, though he may have only vague ideas as to how to do so. If there should be a reader who has trusted Christ, and whose eternal blessing has been secured by the work which was done for him at Calvary, and who yet does not yet desire to follow Him, then is this page not for him. Let him close the book and betake himself with earnest prayer to the Lord who alone can help him. For his comfort I would quote a well-known hymn with which he is evidently unacquainted—
“If I could find the coldest heart
And in its coldest mood,
A stone beneath the brooding wings,
My Saviour could and would
Put warmth into the icy thing
And give it life and give it wing,
My Saviour could and would.”
What is it then to follow Christ? It is to go the way He went after Him. It was a beautiful way by which He passed through the world — a Stranger here, loved by His Father, ever trusting that love, doing His Father’s will even to the death of the cross, and then going back to His Father’s house.
We see Him at the age of twelve, “about His Father’s business,” but subject to earthly parents; then, apparently unknown, for years working at a humble calling. We trace those three years of gracious ministry; we find Him at a wedding feast, and then at the bedside of a sick woman; again He walks through the cornfields and another day He goes to a funeral. He speaks words of comfort to a mourner and He sits down to supper with a few who loved Him, but in all He was doing His Father’s will, He had come to make known His Father’s name to weary hearts, He lived to please His Father.
He had no home here; His heart’s dear home was where His Father dwelt, but He would call out a people to whom He would make known the secrets of divine love and who should be the objects of His continual love and care, though He knew that to do this He must endure the cross.
Travelers tell us that in Palestine if you ask the way any whither, your friend will answer, “I am the way,” and going a little ahead will lead you to your destination. Do you understand when He says to, you, “I am the way? He called one and another when He was here; we read of one who left all and followed Him, also of one who went away sad because he had great possessions.
He says to you, to me “Follow Me.” Not to do great things, but in the humble, ways of life — its workshops, its weddings, its sick beds, perhaps its funerals — to go the way He went, trusting and obeying His Father, not seeking His own will, but always doing those things that pleased Him.
He may not call us to follow Him unto death, but only to remember “we are buried with Him by baptism unto death,” that His cross has severed ties which bound us here. He does call us to love and serve that church, or “company of called out ones” for which He gave Himself; not some particular community to which we may feel attracted, but, as sharers in His divine solitude, to minister gladly to His own among whom our lot is cast. The aged, the sick, the poor, the bereaved, the lonely are ever with us, and the pattern set before us is to love one another as He loved us.
The late, beloved Col. Jacob once told me of an Indian Christian who desired to confess Christ by baptism and in the remembrance of Him in His death. When the Christian position was put before him he exclaimed “What a lot of brothers and sisters to love me!” “No,” said Col. Jacob “What a lot of brothers and sisters for you to love!” Let us remember this.
There is another way in which we should follow Christ — the way of patient endurance. We read in 1 Peter 2:21-2321For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: 22Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: (1 Peter 2:21‑23). “Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not.” There is much of wrong and injustice in the world; its rewards are for the strong and fit, upon the weak and inefficient the world bears heavily. It is a very great thing to endure patiently, to suffer wrong without being soured in spirit, to follow in the way of Him who committed His cause to Him that judgeth righteously.
In John 12:2626If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. (John 12:26) the Lord’s promise to the one who follows Him is “Where I am, there shall also My servant be.” In chapter 14:2. He explains where He was going. “In my Father’s house are many mansions.... I go to prepare a place for you.”
The Lord Himself has trodden the path before us; all its difficulties, all its sorrows were tasted by Him as none other could taste them and still He says “I am the Way. Follow Me.” His help is sure, His home awaits you. Your feet that have trodden a thorny path shall assuredly tread those courts of love, you who have often been way-worn and sad shall share His joy in His Father’s house.
Shall we not turn to Him and humbly taking on our lips those, old sweet words, say to Him “Draw me we will run after Thee.” The Lord grant it to writer and reader alike!
L. R.