The Upright Column

“A straight pillar, the more you lay tipon it, the siraighicr it is, and the more stable; but tJiat which is crooJzed bowetJi under the super-incumbent weight: so the more God loadeth the godly the more doth he hold fast his integrity, while, on the other hand, the jnore the Lord caste th in upon carnal men, the more is their spirit perverted.” A little leaning from the right line is a serious thing: uprightness alone is safety. As our author well says, an upright column will bear anything; it would be hard with any known force to crush an erect pillar. So, when a man is upright before God, neither the weight of good or of ill can overthrow him: he stands in his integrity alike under prosperity and adversity, under fawnings or frownings. When the foundations of the earth are removed, he bears up the pillars thereof. He is like Mount Zion, which can never be moved, but abideth for ever. “Let uprightness and integrity preserve me”: these are a sure preservative in the day of trial.

The man who gives way to leanings or inclinations out of the straight line is never safe. It is only necessary to supply sufficient pressure and he falls. Whether he be loaded with wealth or pressed with poverty, he will come to the ground with equal certainty in due time. He is out of the perpendicular, and he must fall sooner or later.

O Lord, give me to stand before thee in perfect uprightness of heart! Take from me any inclination to the right hand or to the left, and establish me upon the eternal basis of thy grace, for Jesus’ sake. Upright Lord, thou alone canst set me upright, and keep me so; hearken to my prayer, I beseech thee.