“UNTO this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death” (Jer. 21:88And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death. (Jeremiah 21:8)). These words were spoken to the Jews when the King of Babylon was drawing near to besiege Jerusalem. Those who fell to the Chaldeans should find the way of life, whilst those who remained in the city should be in the way of death.
These wonderfully expressive words may be addressed to all in every age, and are especially applicable to these gospel days. Our Lord said to His disciples in giving them their parting commission, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned”. (Mark 16:15, 1615And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:15‑16)). The apostle John writes thus, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son hath not life” (1 John 5). And in the testimony of John the Baptist to the divinity of Jesus as the Messiah, we read, “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:3636He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. (John 3:36)). Jesus also, in like manner, in His sermon on the mount, speaks of two ways—one leading to life the other leading to death. “Enter ye in at the strait gate; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13, 1413Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. (Matthew 7:13‑14)). And Jesus again also declares in words which convey no uncertain meaning, that He is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
Of one way the Lord says that “many go in thereat,” and the reason of this is because it is “broad.” There are no difficulties to overcome. It is carnal, sensual, well pleasing to the basest desires of our nature. It is an easy way, strewn with flowers, but soon it is bristling with thorns and nettles, and finally ends in the pit of everlasting destruction and death. Of the other way our Lord says that “few there be that find it.” The reason of this is because it is “narrow,” and full of difficulties. A way against which all our evil nature rebels. A way in which there is involved self-sacrifice, self-denial, and cross-bearing, but it ends with everlasting life, in the heaven of eternal bliss.
Reader, upon which of these ways are you? Which way are you traveling? The way to life, or the way to death? Oh, stop and think. Solomon tells us that “there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12, 16:25). These same words are twice recorded in the Book of Proverbs, as if God wished it to be made quite plain to us. Your way may seem to you to be the right way, but in the end it will lead you to eternal misery. Do you not yet know the way of life? It is only through Him who has Himself said, “I am the way.” It is only through the “new and living way” which God hath consecrated for us in His Son Jesus Christ. Simple faith in Jesus is the only gateway to life. “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.”
Reader, which wilt thou choose?
T. M.
FAITH is the same mighty principle, whether it act on the plains of Palestine, on the top of Carmel, by the rivers of Babylon, or amid the ruins of the pressing Church. No fetters can bind it, no difficulties deter it, no pressure damp it, no changes affect it; it ever rises to its proper object, and that object is God Himself, and His eternal revelation. Dispensations may change, ages may run their course, the wheels of time may roll on, and crush beneath their ponderous weight the fondest hopes of the poor human heart; but there stands faith, that immortal, divine, eternal reality, drinking at the fountain of living water and finding all its springs in Him who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
C. H. M.