I SHALL take my chance!”
Two boys had started at early morn to visit a distant village. They were cousins, and their homes lay in the same pleasant valley. At noon they had reached their destination. They were about to return immediately when their attention was attracted by a traveling circus, and in one way or another the time slipped by until the sun was rapidly declining. Then they hastened towards home,
“Let’s try another road,” said the elder boy. “It will be pleasanter than returning by the way we came.”
His younger and wiser companion endeavored to dissuade him; but he was obstinate, and declared that he knew the road perfectly. On they went, and now the sun had disappeared, night was creeping on quickly. Presently it got quite dark, and the boys halted, for the elder had to admit that they had lost their way. Before them the road branched off to the right and left.
“I shall take my chance!” said the foolish boy, and he went off to the left.
The other waited until a man passed, who informed him that the proper way was that to the right. He reached home in safety, while his companion was found next morning exhausted and weary, lying under a haystack.
Two paths lie before us, dear children! The broad road that Christ tells us leads to destruction, and the narrow road to life eternal. Let us not say,
“I will take my chance, and follow my own blind impulses,” or take the way that seems pleasantest; but let us rather ask God to lead us, and to be our Guide. The narrow path with Jesus is always the happiest path.
ML 12/19/1937