Christ the Way
“I am the way.”’ — John 14: 6.
WE are all on a journey, not so much responsible for the manner in which we started, as for our destination. Where are you going? Is it the part of the wise man to say, “Idon’t know?” Decide at once as to which road you are traveling toward eternity.
1, A PLAIN WAY.
There is much mystery about Christ. So is there about yourself. We are all “fearfully and wonderfully made.” But, as the Way of Life, Christ is not mysterious. The child can have faith; the philosopher can do more. If salvation depended upon feats of memory, upon mathematical talent, upon imagination, many could not be saved; but faith is co-extensive with humanity. The ignorant and the weak-minded can have faith. We have it at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of life. While memory grows weaker, faith may grow stronger; while the judgment become unreliable, faith may become more steady; while imagination grows dim and confused, faith may be brighter and clearer. We do almost everything by faith. It is faith in the ticket which represents the Railroad Corporation, that induces us to take the train. It is faith in the cars, in the conductor, in the engineer, in the track, that leads us to continue our journey. God has taken this common possession of all human beings and made it the means by which we are to walk in the way to Heaven. “The wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err therein.”
1]. iA. PUBIC “WAY.
There, are many who seem to desire a back-doer into the king- 60
x a; y dom; who admire Christ, his doctrines, believe in him, and yet do not wish to confess him before men. ‘‘If any man would be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” “Come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord.” Christ was a public man. He did not parade his good deeds before the public, but he suffered publicly. That crown of thorns, that mocking purple, that reed sceptre, that scorning and buffeting and spitting were under the vulgar eye. Now is it just that Christ should suffer shame for us publicly, and we should go to heaven privately? He bore our sins, a spectacle for men and angels. Shall we accept his righteousness without acknowledging him before his enemies? Do you love the Saviour? Your next duty is to confess him. I say emphatically, your salvation depends upon it. “If we confess him not before men, he will not confess us before his Father and the holy angels.”
III. A HIGHWAY.
“A highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way of holiness, and the unclean shall not pass over it.” Not a way for the high people, but a highway for the lowly. A way lifted up above the world. And who dare say that Christ, in character, in aim, in aspiration, was not the highest and best of men?
There are swine wallowing in the mud alongside this way, but on the way are no swine. God proposes to lift us up in character, that we may willingly walk the highway of purity. Christ was high in doctrine. Some have complained that we preach too high a standard. The standard of Jesus was perfection. “Bo ye perfect, as I am perfect.” He was high, too, in practice. High doctrine and low life do not go well together. Let your standard be high, and let your life be always rising towards it. Low doctrine insures low living. A high standard inspires. There is something in it which lifts one up and urges farward to deeds of self-sacrifice.
IV. A PLEASANT WAY.
“Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.” The goal to be reached is enough to make us willing to go through rough paths. The darkness of the night makes the following day the brighter, and we may well pass through the darkness that we may behold the glory of the rising sun; but all along the way there is pleasantness and peace.
Some ways are pleasant from association. The traveler delights to pass through the village or the farm-yard, consecrated by the birth or the life of one of earth’s heroes. He stands amid the. ruins of ancient castles and cathedrals hallowed by associations. On the battle-field he calls up the clash of arms, the smoke and din and turmoil, and at last victory on the side of truth and liberty. Along this way to heaven there are delightful associations. We stand amid the ruins of castles of sin, taken and demolished by our victorious commander. Many battle-fields are hallowed by a thousand spiritual victories. On them Paul fought and conquered; on them the martyrs fell. We see the foot-prints of the great, the brave and the good. What way through earth is so hallowed by pleasant associations as this way to heaven?
Another attraction of the way is its scenery. We change our routes of travel, that we may behold the beautiful landscapes, the sparkling fountains, the grand cataracts along the road. Moral beauty is higher and better than physical. Beauty of character excels all beauty of flower, of leaf, of running stream and forest; and just in so far as this moral beauty excels all physical beauty, this way to heaven is the most beautiful for its scenery. Along it there are fruit trees laden with deeds of sacrifice and love; along it are fountains of joy and peace “springing up into everlasting life;” along it, too, are some glorious sunsets. Not long ago I saw in Asheville, N. C., one of God’s sfflicted children going down amid clouds of affliction, of physical agony; but those clouds were like the clouds of evening about the setting sun. “He maketh the clouds his chariots.”
Along this way is the most pleasant company. Do you love the good? Then, here are the best of all ages. The infidel charges Christianity with offering heaven to the thief and murderer, and such is the boast of our religion; but it comes to change the thief into an honest man, the murderer into a peaceful citizen.
long the “broad way” there is not the best of company. Our jail convicts, our free-thought sensualists, earth’s debauchees crowd that way. A few months ago in Chicago a modern free-thought apostle died. His boast was that he worshipped no god but reason and philosophy. His companions, kindred spirits, followed him to the grave, and there over his corpse, instead of prayer and requiem, they drank his health and threw the bottles into the grave. I am sure you are not sorry that their way is different from yours.
It is pleasant to notice the provision for our wants. The manna of heaven is scattered along this way. Daily supplies come from him who meets all the demands of our higher nature.
V. AN UPWARD WAY.
We do not with a leap anda bound goto heaven, but step by step, day by day, we climb in the Divine life higher and higher, until, after while, we shall step into the heights, the perfect likeness of our Master. Jesus was developed gradually. He was a babe, then a child, then a youth, then a man of sturdy vigor: “He grew in stature and in wisdom.” Babes at first, we are to grow stronger by feeding upon the word.
As we go westward from Salisbury to Asheville, we come suddenly to the Blue Ridgechain. The traveler wonders, as he*‘looks “pon the’pile of granite, how he is to cross it; but if he will follow the railroad track he will see that it is done by constant windings and gradual risings. He goes first about a mile and a half — circling around the mountain peak, and comes suddenly near the track beneath him over which he has passed. He can look down and measure the height which he has attained, and then looking up at the road above him can see the point to be reached by this gradual rising. Now into a deep cut, where he can see the light only by looking upward; out from this cut into a beautiful landscape, and suddenly from this into a dark tunnel, and just as suddenly out of the tunnel into another beautiful prospect; now into the cloud that hovers over the mountain, then into the sunlight that has broken through it, into the tunnel again, and finally near the top into the last dark damp tunnel of 1800 feet, and he is out into the beauties of the regions beyond. This fittingly represents the Christian walk, as he follows the line that Christ, the great Spirital Engineer, has marked out in his own person and character; at one time looking down upon his past experience and seeing the progress made; at another looking up at the high perfect model to which he is to attain; to-day passing through the deep cut of financial embarrassment, of trouble, of pressure, and only seeing the light by looking upward to God, and just as suddenly out of this into the beautiful landscape of promise and hope; then into the dark tunnel of affliction and sore bereavement and suddenly out of that into the sunlight; higher and higher into the likeness of Christ, nearer and nearer to the Divine model, until, after a while, the last tunnel of death is reached, and he passes through into the paradise of God. “Forgetting the things which are behind,” let us press forward and upward.