My Fathers Way Right

My Father's Way Right! (A Reflection for the New Year)

Octavius Winslow, 1862

"He led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation." Psalm 107:7

"Lord, what You will; when You will; how You will." Thus prayed the devout Baxter, and so prays each Christian pilgrim delivered from the iron furnace of Egypt, and by paths chequered and changeful, through sunshine and shade, joy and sorrow, defeat and victory, sickness and health—is slowly and wearily, yet most safely and surely, traveling to the heavenly and eternal city!

What a holy, elevated state of mind; what mellowed and matured experience do these words express! It is the calm repose of the soul in the confidence of faith in God. The moment the believing soul is brought to rest in Jehovah, the heart blending with His heart, the will absorbed in His will, the mind in unison with His mind, as notes of music or as rays of light meet and dissolve in each other—there is then the sweet and perfect consciousness that all is so safe!

Beloved reader, we are on the eve of a new path across the desert, a deeper invasion of the wilderness, another stage toward our home in Heaven. A mysterious, impenetrable veil conceals it all. What will be its history?

Brightness or gloom?

Smoothness or roughness?

    Joy or suffering?

      Time or eternity?

        Earth or Heaven?

Oh, what hand will for a moment withdraw the curtain and show us at one glance the end from the beginning? But hush, my soul! Not for the universe would I know it. It is all in my Father's mind, in my Father's hands, in my Father's heart—and there I will leave it all.

It is true. I am like an ephemeral insect extinguished in the sun, a tiny drop swallowed up in the ocean. But, to find my happiness, my safety, my being, I must thus lose myself in God, that God might be all in all. And, as in profound and anxious thought I linger upon the solemn verge of this new-born time; the sun of my life for a moment standing still upon its dial, and for a night I pitch my tent by the "wells and palm-trees of Elim," renewing my strength for the morning's march; my faith can exclaim,
"Lord, what You will—joy or grief;
when You will—my times are in Your hands;
how You will—Your way is perfect!"

And thus in quietness and confidence, I gather strength and courage for my homeward journey, fully assured that whatever my Father's way is—that way will be always right.

In attempting, as will be the design of these pages, to vindicate to the believing mind the rectitude of the Divine administration, the perfect wisdom and love of the Lord's guidance of His saints—we are prepared in the outset to admit that there may be much in the way by which our heavenly Father leads us that conceals this truth. The way itself may be so obscure, the circumstances so apparently opposed to our happiness and well-being—that, to our short-sightedness, it may look as if it were the wrong way by which we were led. A path paved so roughly and shaded so deeply, so utterly inexplicable and painfully trying to our apprehension, cannot be right.

We find it difficult to reconcile these apparent discrepancies in the administration of the Divine government with infinite wisdom, righteousness, and love. But we misjudge our Father, and misinterpret these symbols of His providence. Let it be remembered that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men;" that that which appears to us foolishness—is infinite wisdom; and that which appears to us weakness—is infinite strength.

Many of the Lord's people have to learn that he veils from the eye of His saints as much wisdom, rectitude, and goodness as He reveals; that God's hidings are equal to His revealings, and His concealments are equal to His disclosures; and that His character is but partially studied, and His glory but dimly seen, and He himself but imperfectly known—until from the experience of what He is, we are led to exclaim, "You are a God who hides yourself!"

And upon this dark background of God's dealings with us, what Divine glory is pencilled! How limited and obscure our knowledge of Him, but for it! Not more visible and beautiful to the eye are the glorious stars which deck the brow of evening, when its gray twilight deepens into midnight darkness, than appear the illustrious perfections of our God as they shine amid the mystery and gloom which encompass the Christian's homeward way.

I truly believe that we learn experimentally more of God in Christ in one difficulty, in a single sorrow, in a solitary affliction—than we learn from all the sunny paths we have ever trod, or glowing books we have ever read.

Do we not master the design and beauty of a painting by the study of its shadows as its lights—the skillful and exquisite blending of its opposites and contrasts? Thus it is we properly and perfectly acquaint ourselves with God. "Show me now Your way, that I may know You," was the petition of the patriarch. Whatever the Lord's way is, we become acquainted with Him in that way. And this is one reason why the Lord deals with us often so strangely, so opposite to all our notions of what is the best—it is that we may know Him. "The Lord is known by the judgment which He executes," as much as by the mercy which He displays. The light reveals glories by day, and the darkness reveals glories by night. The God who made the earth with all its beauties, created the heavens with all their wonders—and His wisdom, power, and goodness are revealed in both. So God would have us become acquainted with Him. He is not less wise, nor less faithful, nor less loving when clouds and darkness are round about Him—than when His smiles, like sunbeams, play around our path. We must study God in the darkness and in the light—and know that in both He is our covenant, faithful, immutable God, conducting us by the right way. To this let me add another illustration.

Our heavenly Father's administrative government of His Church is a series of moral problems, ascending from the simplest and most easy of solution, to the highest and most difficult of solution. Now, the life we live by faith in Jesus, is a daily working out of these problems; and as each step in the process is gained, —some mystery is elucidated, some trial is explained, some event is understood, the character of God unfolds, His glory unveils, His love is seen, the prayer is answered, "Show me now your way, that I may know you," and the believer is overwhelmed with the precious truth that it is by the right way his Father is leading him to a city of habitation.

A great and holy lesson may be learned here. It is this: that the proper mode of faith's reasoning in adverse circumstances is not from our way to God, but from God to our way. Faith must travel, not from the circumference to the center, but from the center to the circumference. God is the center of the believing soul; and from this point faith, going forth to service and suffering, to battle and conquest—must diverge, strong in His might and radiant in His love. Thus, the acting of faith to God is invariably its strongest, because it first deals with Jehovah before it confronts Jehovah's dealings. God will have His people judge of Him, not so much from what He does, as from what He is.

We may be able to read a promise when we cannot interpret a providence. If faith reasons from difficult ways, gloomy troubles, and sore trials to God—the probability is, that making this its starting-point, before it unfolds its wings to soar, the greatness and darkness of the event have so stunned and overwhelmed the mind that we cannot rise above it, and we find ourselves sinking in dark waters, when we should be cleaving azure skies. But faith, traveling up to God and drawing from His infinite resources of power, wisdom, and love—comes back with renewed strength, like the eagle, to meet the trial, to tread the path, to uplift the load, with the firm persuasion that God is leading us by the right way.

Child of trouble and of grief! Sit not brooding over your care, your difficulty, your sorrow; unfold your wings and soar to God! God has skill to deliver you, God has love to comfort you, God has might to strengthen you. "God is able to make all grace abound towards you."

Be it so that your plaintive cry is, "The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves."

What is faith's reply? "The LORD on high is mightier than the voice of many waters; yes, than the mighty waves of the sea."

Thus faith looks above the waves, rises higher than the floods, and rests upon the Rock that is higher than all! Look, then, at God in your trouble, and your trouble shall glorify God; and to every difficulty, want, and woe—you shall exclaim in holy triumph, "Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain,' for with my God all things are possible."

Let us now briefly illustrate the leading truth of these pages by a reference to some of the Lord's ways by which all his saints—the one Church and Family of God—are led.

Every spiritually taught believer must acknowledge that the Lord's way of salvation is right. To the unregenerate mind this is not so evident. A salvation that springs entirely from God, in which Christ is all, and the creature nothing—appears to the unenlightened mind, anything but right! If the sinner can only be something, or do something, if he may but participate in the work and divide the glory with God—then he is willing to be saved. The method must do homage to his intellect, please his sense, flatter his pride, and glorify himself. And when this is done, he will allow the prophet to approach him, in all his pride and pomp, and "strike his hand over the place and recover the leper."

Thus, justification purchased by human merit, Heaven won by creature-worthiness, is man's way of salvation—but not the Lord's. One solemn word, my reader: this tower of human structure must immediately and utterly fall! The Holy Spirit must confound your proud boasting, arrest your Babel of self-salvation, convince you of the madness and the sin of attempting either to substitute your own righteousness for Christ's righteousness, or of supplementing the work of Christ—which, with His last breath, He pronounced finished—by any doings of your own, or you cannot be saved.

One real, spiritual sight of the law of God, and of sin's leprosy working in you as a plague, and working most surely and fatally your eternal destruction, will extinguish the last flickering spark of hope which your own hands have kindled.

We no turn to the Lord's way of salvation. And truly in this sense might He exclaim; "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways." God's scheme of saving man recognizes, what every other scheme ignores—the existence, glory, and claims of His moral government. To trust in the mercy of God alone for salvation, is to deny the existence of Divine justice, holiness, and truth, and thus to rob Jehovah of some of the most essential and illustrious perfections of His being. What would be your idea of the purity and majesty of the laws and of the administration of justice in this nation, were every criminal let loose upon society by an act of mere clemency and caprice on the part of the sovereign of these realms? Would you not exclaim, "Justice is outraged, law is trampled in the dust, and the glory of this nation is departed!"

Apply this reasoning to the government of a diviner justice and of a higher law. What would be our idea of God were He to pardon sin and justify the sinner, adopt Him into His family, and make him an inhabitant of glory—at the expense of Divine justice, holiness, truth, and wisdom? Mercy alone, thus pardoning the criminal, must trample the moral government of Jehovah beneath her feet; in other words, undeify God.

No, my reader! Divine mercy alone cannot save you: "Our God is a consuming fire;" and the scheme of salvation that brings you to Heaven as a rebel whose sin is pardoned, whose guilt is removed, whose person is justified—must recognize, satisfy, and honor all those divine and glorious attributes of God.

The obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Christ just meets this tremendous case. His divinity supplying all the dignity, the merit, the glory, the honor, the satisfaction which God's moral government demanded; His humanity, sinless and pure, by its perfect obedience honoring and magnifying the law; and His sufferings and death enduring the penalty, and so satisfying the claims of justice—effected the scheme by which God could be holy, just, and true, and yet clear the guilty, pardon the sinner, make him a child of God and an heir of Heaven!

The whole scheme is set forth in these words: "He (the Father) has made Him (the Son) to be sin (a sin-offering) for us, who (Christ) knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Corinthians 5:21.) With what vividness is the substitutionary character of Christ's offering brought out here! Jesus was our Sin-bearer. He not only bore the punishment of our transgressions, but He bore the transgressions themselves. "He bore our sins!" "All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." What truth can be clearer? Is not this the very marrow of the gospel, the honey of the honeycomb, the life and essence of Christianity?

It is both astonishing and mournful to observe with what caution and reserve many in the present day set forth the doctrine of the imputation of sin to the Savior, and the imputation of righteousness to the sinner.

From beneath our feet this ground—and all is gone!

Take from us the bearing of sin by Christ—and you take from us our justification!

Take from us our justification—and you take from us our sanctification!

Take from us our sanctification—and you rob us of our holy fitness for Heaven, for, "without holiness no man can see the Lord."

Now, is not the Lord's way of salvation honoring and glorifying to Himself, while it meets the deepest necessity of man? It must then, be the right way by which He is bringing us to glory.

And what is the link that binds our soul to this divine salvation and makes it ours? Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—"the heart believing unto righteousness" saves us. The object of faith is not the work of Christ, essential and precious as that work is; it is CHRIST Himself! "Come unto ME," said the Savior. "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Observe, in both of these cited passages the person of Christ is prominently presented. It is not to a doctrine, to a dogma, to a fact—that I am to come for pardon, for justification, for sanctification; it is to Christ Himself I must come. "Come unto ME," are the glorious words which still ring in the ear of the sin-burdened soul. My faith must rest on Christ, in Christ, and entwine around Christ, and Christ alone—nothing more and nothing less.

He is my Savior—His work is the ground of my salvation.

He is my Physician—His blood is the balm that heals and saves me.

He is my righteousness—His obedience is the ground of my justification, my title to glory.

What would His blood, or His righteousness, or His grace avail apart from Himself? Let me but be sure that my faith has brought me to a personal Savior, passing by every object and every being until I find myself, like the disciples on the mount, with "Jesus only," and I am saved! My faith must deal with His divine person—with His power, with His love; before it can venture upon His work. And when I see that my Redeemer is mighty to save, that my Physician is divinely skillful to heal, that His divinity enables Him, that His love constrains Him, and that His mission authorizes Him to save sinners—sinners the vilest, sinners the chief, sinners sinful as me—then, "looking unto Jesus," all the blessings of His salvation are mine, and my Heaven is sure!

My reader, gladly would I shut you up to this simple faith in the Lord Jesus. Be not afraid of Him! Shun not His presence, shrink not from His touch, tremble not to be alone with Him. Such love, compassion, gentleness, tenderness, graciousness, dwells in no other being in the universe, as in Him. He who graciously appeared to Saul of Tarsus, who expelled the "legion" from the demoniac, who condemned not the sin-accused woman, who plucked the dying malefactor from the cross and bore him to paradise—will not look coldly or frowningly upon you, poor trembling soul. Only come into His gracious presence, and you will be at home with Him in a moment. In His presence is life, pardon, peace, and hope.

I ask not your name, nor the number and character of your transgressions. You may have resisted evidence, have sinned against light, have stifled conviction, have been armored against a father's counsels, a mother's prayers, a sister's tears, a brother's pleadings; you may have made a covenant with death, an agreement with Hell, and have sold your soul to Satan—yet, if now in penitence and faith you will look to Jesus, and wash in His blood, and clothe you in His righteousness—then you shall be saved to the uttermost of all your unworthiness—to the praise and glory of His free grace to all eternity.

Oh, what melody in these words of Jesus, "I am the way!" Yes, Lord, You are my way—my way of pardon, my way of acceptance, my happy, holy, hopeful way through life, my bright way through the shadowed valley of death, my triumphant way up to glory. Walking in this way, I walk with Jesus, because Jesus is my way. He,
shares my trials,
bears my burdens,
soothes my sorrows,
guides my steps,
and leads me the right way home.

"Go your way, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God now accepts your works." "Yes! O blessed source of all my blessedness! O precious Jesus! I will go my way, for You are my way! I will eat my bread with joy, for You are my bread of life! I will drink the wine which You have mingled for me, for Your love is better than wine! And as God my Father accepts me in You, this forms an everlasting cause of everlasting joy! Joy in what I have; joy in what I expect; joy in even what I need, for those very needs will lead me the closer and the nearer to You! Joy in what I fear, for my fear will keep me depending upon You! Joy in what I suffer, for my sufferings are sweetly blessed when they afford a renewed occasion for my Jesus to soothe me under them, and in His time to deliver me out of them! Joy in all I lose, for lose what I may, I cannot lose You! I cannot lose Your love, Your favor, Your grace, Your Spirit, the efficacy of Your blood, and the merits of Your righteousness. Oh, precious security! Oh, precious salvation in the Lord our Righteousness!

Shall I not, then, live up to this heritage, and live under its influence, in the thankful, joyful use of it from day to day? Go your way, my soul. Go to Jesus as your way. Every day, and all day, eat your bread with joy; eye Jesus as your spiritual food, and always present at your table; drink hourly of His cup of salvation with a cheerful heart, for you are accepted in the Beloved."

In this way continue to walk, and you will walk with Jesus; and whatever be its straitness, or its loneliness, or its sadness—still you will have the comfortable assurance that it is the right way, and will eventually conduct you to the blissful place where Jesus is!

Equally right does the Lord's way of our spiritual renewal commend itself to the believing mind. Conversion is a great work. Next in its momentousness and divine nature to the work done by Christ for us—is the work done by the Spirit within us. It is everything in the soul's fitness for Heaven.

Converted, or unconverted;
renewed, or unrenewed;
regenerate, or unregenerate;
is the actual and solemn condition of every reader of these pages. And what multitudes mistake its real meaning, and in their perplexity and endless definitions of its nature, lose the thing itself! With many the notion of the New Birth, is that it begins with baptism when they enter the world, and ends in the sacrament when they go out of it! Thus many preach—and so many believe.

But I cannot imagine any individual really "born of the Spirit" having actually experienced in his heart this spiritual, divine, and heavenly change—for a moment entertaining or giving currency to the notion that the application of water in the form of baptism constitutes the spiritual renewal of the soul of man—his new birth, the implantation of that germ of holiness which grows eventually into a tree of paradise. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. As an individual has experienced, so he will testify.

If a teacher of others has himself passed through no moral regeneration other than his baptism, if this is all of the new birth that he knows or has experienced, so he will speak and so he will teach; and when he has preached this fatal error to the soul-destruction of others—he himself will become a castaway. Or, if sovereign grace interposes on his behalf, his work shall be burned up, yet he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. (1 Corinthians 3:12-15.) Truly "the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

But to you who are spiritually enlightened—how fit, how right does the Lord's way of making us new creatures appear! The provision of the Third Person of the ever-blessed Trinity just meets our case.

We are spiritually dead—the Spirit quickens us.

We are natural—the Spirit makes us participate in the divine nature.

We are carnal—the Spirit makes us spiritual.

We are earthly—the Spirit makes us heavenly.

We are sinful and love sin—the Spirit creates in us a new and holy nature—the tendencies, breathings, and ascendings of which are holy, heavenly, and divine. He has He quickened some who were dead in trespasses and sins." "Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." "Born of the Spirit."

Why does the Lord's way of making us new creatures in Christ Jesus thus commend itself to the believing mind? Because it honors the Spirit, and gives all glory to the Triune God. Oh, how right does that way appear, whatever it is, which:
empties the creature of self-righteousness,
stains the pride of man's glory, and
makes Heaven ring and reverberate with Jehovah's praise!

Saints of God! With trumpet-tongue, yes, with a heavenly life—a life like unto a sweet and holy psalm—proclaim everywhere that the Spirit's quickening of the soul with a divine and spiritual life is God's way of restoring our nature, making it happy, and fitting it for glory.

If, my reader, you have not the witness of the Spirit that you are born again, oh, give Him, the Divine Author and Finisher of this great work, no rest until in truth and in deed you have "passed from death unto life," have heard the voice of Jesus "calling you out of darkness into His marvelous light, delivering you from the power of Satan unto God—that you may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith that is in Christ!"

Another illustration of this truth is found in the Lord's way of sanctification. To the mere religious formalist, evangelical holiness is too spiritual and rigid. To garnish the exterior of the tomb—and which remains but a tomb still—is all that the religion of form and ceremonial can do. But true sanctification goes to the hidden corruption of the heart—it penetrates to the seat of the desperate evil. "Blessed are the pure in heart," is both the beatitude and the description of the truly holy. And the first step the Lord takes in this process of our sanctification—and this is a continuous teaching—is to make us acquainted with the sinfulness and impurity dwelling there.

Be not alarmed, then, at this deepening discovery, this growing knowledge of your own heart, your fallen, sinful nature—it is an essential step in your progress in holiness.

But the only view of sanctification which this sermon allows me to suggest, is that which presents Christ to the eye as the sanctification of the believer. "Jesus is made unto us sanctification."

The believer is as much to live upon the grace and power of Christ for the subduing of sin—as upon the blood and righteousness of Christ for the pardon and removal of the guilt and condemnation of sin. Christ is ALL in the matter of sanctification as He is all in the matter of justification. And, although justification is by the imputation of Christ's righteousness, and sanctification is by the impartation of Christ's grace, yet in both—His righteousness imputed for our justification, and His grace imparted for our sanctification—Christ is ALL!

And, has the Holy Spirit no part in this great work of creating us in righteousness and true holiness? Most assuredly. The Spirit is the Sanctifier—Christ is the Sanctification. He leads:
us to the blood that cleanses,
to the grace that subdues,
to the cross that crucifies,
in a word, to the precious Savior who has undertaken to do all for our salvation, to fit the soul for the purity of Heaven, which He has snatched from the flames of Hell.

Ah! pants not your renewed spirit for holiness? Thirsts not your soul, washed in the "blood," for the purifying of the "water" which flowed in one stream from the same dear pierced side?

Go, then, to Jesus for the grace and power that will dislodge your heart-sins, subdue your corruptions, cleanse you from your idols, conform you to His likeness, and make you holy as He himself is holy. Oh, this is sanctification:
to be Christ-like,
to gird ourselves for the lowliest service,
to seek not honor from man,
to bless when reviled,
to forgive when injured,
to sympathize with sorrow,
to aid the oppressed,
to defend the helpless,
to supply the needy,
to walk humbly with God.

Lamb of God!

This warfare will soon be over,
the victory will soon be won,
the last spot of sin will soon be effaced,
the last link of corruption will soon be broken,
and the last tear of sorrow will soon be dried!

Lamb of God! Until that blessed moment comes, impress more deeply and more vividly Your divine, beauteous, and holy image upon my heart, that I may be a reflection of Yourself, growing fairer and brighter until I awake perfected in Your likeness! "We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."

Oh, disciples of Christ, seek conformity to your Master! At whatever cost of self-esteem, pride, human opinion, or worldly advantage—seek, oh, seek, to be Jesus-like! Travel to Him daily for your sanctification:
take your infirmities,
go with your corruptions,
confess your backslidings,
acknowledge your sins,
breathe out your sorrows—
and draw largely and freely from the fathomless, boundless resources of His overflowing grace! He is as delighted and glorified in giving, as you are honored and blessed in receiving. "My grace is sufficient for you."

The Lord's way of teaching us is right. It is a distinctive mark of our Christianity, that we are divinely taught of God. To be taught by man is one thing, to be taught by God is quite another. How clearly does John put this, "The anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you need not that any man teach you."

Are we thus divinely taught?

Have we this inward anointing?

Are we learning more of ourselves and more of Jesus?

Are we taught that without Him we can do nothing, and that with Him we can do all things?

Are we learning more and more the lesson of separation from the world—separation from:
the pleasures of the world,
the conformity of the world,
the religion of the world,
the spirit of the world?

Are we spiritually and experimentally taught the truth as it is in Jesus?

Yet more. Not only is it a mark of the Lord's true people that they are all taught of Him, but that they are taught by the Word; and in nothing does the right way of the Lord's teaching more clearly appear than in this. God has set the highest value upon that which man the least esteems—His revealed Word. How strongly is this truth thus put: "You have magnified Your Word above all Your name." God has made a greater display of His glory in the Bible than in creation. The works of creation are full of the glory of His name.

He has engraved it deeply upon the granite rock.

He has penciled it resplendently upon the azure sky.

He has inlaid it meticulously in the enameled earth.

The sun reflects His glory,
the winds chime His glory,
the sea expands His glory,
the thunder rolls His glory,
the lightning flashes His glory!

His glory sparkles in every star.

His glory is mirrored from every lake.

His glory is shadowed from every mountain.

His glory echoes through every valley.

His glory breathes in perfume from every flower!

"O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom have You made them all! The earth is full of Your glory!" In all these wonders and glories, I see You—Your power and wisdom, Your goodness and beauty."

But God has magnified His name yet more gloriously than this.

Where, in all the marvels of creation, has He manifested His name as a sin-pardoning God, as in His glorious gospel?

Where has He written His name of love, as in the cross of His beloved Son?

Where has He recorded His name and unveiled His heart, as Father:
loving us,
caring for us,
pitying us,
shielding us,
providing for us,
in faithfulness correcting us,
and bringing us to His heavenly home
—as in Jesus?

Oh, read God's name, not in stars and flowers, in mountains and lakes—thus entwined with surpassing beauty; but read and study it in the Word of His truth, as revealed in the Gospel of His grace, as manifested in the Son of His love.

How has He magnified His name in the gospel that speaks of:
pardon to the guilty,
reconciliation to the rebel,
a Father's forgiving love to the returning penitent,
hope to the despairing,
salvation for the lost,
an eternal Heaven exchanged for a deserved Hell!

All this we owe to that JESUS of whom these sacred Scriptures speak. "Search the Scriptures for they testify about Me!" Search them:
to discover Christ,
to know Christ,
to admire, love, and obey Christ!

For the happiness of your endless destiny hangs upon your heart-knowledge of this divine, gracious, and precious Savior! Know Him personally,
know Him in truth,
know Him as your Redeemer,
know Him as pardoning your sins, clothing you with His righteousness, as dwelling in you by the Spirit, and as winning your heart to a grateful, loving surrender; and you need not shrink from the solemnities of death, nor from the dread disclosures of eternity. You are saved, SAVED forever!

It is, then, by His revealed Word that God teaches us. Men err in the present day, not knowing the Scriptures.

The errors of many are so essential,
the religion of many is so sickly,
the experience of many is so shallow,
the instability of many is so fatal,
and the hope of many so spurious
—from having swerved from the Bible—substituting the teaching of man for the teaching of God! If we lose our hold upon God's Word:
we part with our mariner's chart,
we throw overboard our compass,
we slip our anchor,
and shall assuredly make shipwreck of our souls!

But this must not be. We must try the spirits, prove all things, and test our own religious belief, condition, and progress—by the Word of God. To the Law and to the Testimony of God's revealed truth—let every doctrine and practice be brought.

Never was this exhortation more needed than now! In this day, when inspiration is denied, when the Bible is assailed, when God's revealed truth is trodden under foot of men—oh, let us rally around His Word:
believe in it firmly,
love it ardently,
live it holily,
contend for it earnestly,
defend it valiantly, and
part with it but with our parting breath!

"The law of Your mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." Your words were found, and I ate them; and Your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart."

The way of God's providence is right. Providence! it is a solemn and expressive word; and yet with what unholy levity is it often uttered! Providence is another idea for God! And when we say, "Providence assisted, Providence shielded, Providence provided," of what or of whom do we speak, but of the Great and the Holy One!

The Israelites in the wilderness were guided in their journey by the "pillar of cloud and of fire." But what deep and solemn significance do these material objects have when we read, "Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them in the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night." Why did not the winds scatter that cloud by day, and extinguish that fire by night? Because the LORD was in them!

Beloved, the same Jehovah has undertaken to guide you through this waste howling wilderness, up into the city prepared for you by God! His dispensations with us are varied, but always suited to our needs.
Some of His dispensations are dark; others are light.
Some are cloudy; others are luminous.
Some are adapted for the day, when light streams around us; others are adapted for the night, when darkness enshrouds us.
Both are essential to our right way to Heaven.

Not by blind chance, or human forethought, or creature sagacity—are we homeward led, but:
   by an Eye that never slumbers,
   by a Hand that never wearies,
   by a Mind that never errs,
   by a Heart that never chills, and
   by a Presence that never for a moment leaves our side!
Thus the Lord your God is guiding you.

By Him who loves you:
the hairs of your head are numbered,
your steps are led,
your difficulties are overcome,
your foes are vanquished,
your needs are supplied,
your sorrows are soothed!

Your heavenly Father, whose kind and merciful providence spreads its cloud-veil over you by day, kindles its fire-light around you by night.

Ah! how beneficently has He arranged it all!
Were it all cloud, then how dark and dreary would the night-season of affliction be!
Were it all light, then how dazzling and overpowering would the day-time of our prosperity be!

But He has most wisely and exquisitely balanced and harmonized the two in our history.

Joy and sorrow,
toil and rest,
    defeat and victory,
      the wounding and the healing,
        the casting-down and the lifting-up
—each acting and reacting upon the other, and both working together for our good!

The cloud of sadness, subdues and softens the light of joy.
The sunshine of joy, illumines and warms the chill cloud of sadness.

Just so, He is leading us by the right way home to Himself.
Beneath the culture of His hand:
what blessings spring from our trials,
what joy springs from our sorrows,
what wealth springs from our losses,
what lovely flowers and sweet fruit of holiness bloom and grow upon the thorn and the thistle of the wise and wholesome discipline by which our God is fitting us for Heaven!

Afflictions lift the soul nearer to God, as the flood lifted the ark nearer to Heaven. As the waters rose, the ark rose still higher. And thus the flood that saved the Church—drowned the world!

With His people, God's afflictions are loving and parental.
With His enemies, God's afflictions are judicial and punitive.

God places His saints in the furnace, for purification.
He places the ungodly in the furnace, for destruction.

The calamity that saves the godly, is often the ruin of the ungodly!

The affliction which is as a loadstone drawing the holy nearer to Christ—is as a millstone round the neck of the unholy, sinking them deeper into Hell!

"My times are in Your hand!" Psalm 31:15

Yes, child of God, you can testify how near to Jesus a sorrow has brought you; how close to God an affliction has driven you; how gently and blessedly the swelling waves of trial have uplifted you to Heaven. And thus from the cloud that looked so dark and threatening, the fruitful and refreshing shower has descended; from the calamity that wore an aspect so portentous and crushing, a loving, pitying Father has, despite your tremblings and your fears, educed the greatest beauty and the highest good—so truly is He leading you home by the right way.

If thus the reciprocal influence of God's varied dispensations creates so much beauty, and inspires so much happiness in our own experience—then let us meekly yield ourselves to our Father's guidance, regretful not of the past, careful not of the present, and anxious not about the future. God would have you glorify Him with your faith, Christ would have you serve Him with your hopeful trust, the Spirit would have you honor Him with your child-like love. And thus, with faith, hope, and love as your divine companions, you are led in the right way to the Celestial City of the blessed. Upon what grounds has faith to repose in the perfect rectitude of the way by which our God is leading us?

It would be a sufficient reply to the question by summing all up in the remark, that it must be right because the Lord Himself is our LEADER. "He led them"—not Moses, but He whom Moses saw in the burning bush -even the Son of God! And it is instructive to remark in passing, that, when Moses had been favored with this extraordinary vision of Christ, and not until then, he was prepared to go forth and link himself with the oppressed and suffering people of God, and become their legislator and commander.

A sight of Christ will prepare the soul for any service of toil, loneliness, and suffering. It made this man of God willing to identify himself with people who were brick-makers in Egypt, poor, down-trodden, and oppressed, the slaves and serfs of Pharaoh. Oh, how needful it is to deal with Christ, to have a sight and manifestation of Jesus, before girding ourselves for any path of suffering, or for any service of toil, self-denial, and love. And when that divine, that blessed vision of Jesus transpires—as in the case of Paul, "Lord, here am I! What will You have me to do or suffer, undertake or endure?" will be the spontaneous, joyful exclamation of the Christ-loving, Christ-surrendered disciple.

To return to our remark—the way by which we are led through the wilderness must be right, because our heavenly Father is leading us. "I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; and I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." (Isaiah 42:16.)

"I will guide you with my eye." Behold the pledge that you are rightly and safely led. Would a fond parent blindly and willfully mislead his child? Never! And can you not trust your heavenly Father safely and faithfully to lead you in the right way home? It is Jesus, the Shepherd of the flock, who goes before the sheep, and has undertaken to bring them home. Will He lead a single one, thus following Him wherever the path, in the wrong way, the mistaken way? Never! You are under Christ's convoy and leadership; you are arrayed and fight beneath His banner; you are shaded and sheltered by His wing; you are in Christ's eye, in Christ's hand, in Christ's heart—your soul, your person, your interests. And do you think that He who leads Joseph like a flock, will not feed you according to the integrity of His heart, and guide you by the skillfulness of His hands?

It is the right way, because it is the Lord's way. Faith, amidst its sharpest trials and dreariest paths, has a strong, invincible hold here—the felt conviction that it must be right because it is the way of God. What dutiful, loving, trustful child would dispute the will or question the judgment of the kind parent? Thus would your heavenly Father that you, His loved and loving child, should confide in Him—His will ruling, His hand upholding, His wisdom guiding all your present and shaping all your future. It is the perfection of a perfect being, that all that He does is perfect. To question the rectitude of His procedure in any single act, were to dispute the infinite excellence and completeness of His nature. This is the character of your heavenly Father: He must do right. He cannot, from the very perfection of His being, do wrong. "As for God, His way is perfect." And this God is your covenant God and Father, in and through Jesus Christ; and do you think that you are not safe in His hands? "I will do you no hurt," is His assuring language in every dark and trying dispensation of His providence; by which declaration He would allay your fears, strengthen your confidence, and win your love. Resolve, then, this darksome way along which you travel into His unerring wisdom, unfaltering faithfulness, unchanging goodness; and believe that, rough and painful though His way is, it will eventually conduct you into the glorified presence of the Lord, where there is "fullness of joy, and at His right hand, where there are pleasures for evermore."

Another ground of assured confidence is, that all our way is prearranged. God has left nothing in the government of the world, and in the yet more important government of His Church, to contingency or afterthought. In fact, after-thought with God would be a contradiction of His being. God is an eternal present. With Him there is nothing past, nothing future. "He is from everlasting to everlasting, God!" He, then, who knows the end from the beginning, has in infinite forethought, appointed the way that you now take-to Him it is nothing new, or strange, or difficult; it is just the ordained path in which He would have you walk.

His Divine mind planned it,
His everlasting love chose it,
and His infinite resources provided for it!

Oh, what a spiritual, establishing, and soothing truth is this! It contains the element of all human comfort and of all divine glory. My reader, no event, no incident, the most minute, can transpire in your personal history but by His prearrangement. His Divine will either permitting or approving—of your Father in Heaven. We may, indeed, err in judgment, be the victim of our own heart's deception, or the deception of others, in the way that we take that way may have been thoughtfully and devoutly pondered, anxiously and prayerfully resolved; resolved too, as we supposed, relying upon God's guidance, and seeking but His glory-and yet, disappointment, mistake, and sorrow may be the sad result. Be it so what inference are we to draw; even to what conclusion are we to come from this fact? Obviously, we are to refer the whole matter to God's holy permitting will, who, doubtless, intended by the very error more deeply to instruct, humble, and sanctify us.

Thus arranged, permitted, and overruled by our heavenly Father—who will maintain that it was not the right way, and with a Divine hand, by which we were led? Oh, then, child of God, can you not, will you not, dare you not, entrust yourself to His guidance, and your interests to His keeping? With a will entwined with His, more pliant than the willow, with the spirit and demeanor of the weaned child—yield yourself to God to do with you as seems good in His sight. He will guide you with His counsel" in the right way, "and afterward"—after this pilgrimage of weariness, sin, and suffering is over—he will "receive you into glory!"

Let me conduct these pages to a close, by an application of their subject to two or three specific cases.

Your case is, perhaps, one of mystery—so mysterious, indeed, is the will of God concerning you, as painfully to perplex your mind, stagger your faith, and distress you with dark thoughts and suspicions of God. You are led to ask, as you gaze upon the wreck of so much human happiness floating around you, "Is this event of God, or of man? Is it my heavenly Father's doings, or my own? It is so astounding, dark, and fathomless—so contrary to my most matured thoughts, holiest purposes, and brightest expectations—it crushes affections so tender, blights hopes so radiant, baffles schemes so ripe, arrests usefulness so promising, and appears in all respects so disturbing and disastrous, that I am stunned, awed, confounded! Why is my Father dealing with me thus? Has there been no blindness of judgment on my part, no pertinacity of will, no heart-deception, no unfaithfulness in duty or in trust—that His hand smites so severely?

Again, you are, perhaps, my reader, the subject of a deep and bitter disappointment, enrapt in equal obscurity and gloom. It has fallen upon you at a moment when the heart throbbed the quickest with hope, and when all human expectation justified a totally different outcome of the event. How dark, how impenetrable, how crushing is the blow! "Truly, You are a God that hide Yourself!" Child of God, troubled and perplexed, be still—it is the right way your Father is leading you. This event, astounding as it is—is right. This disappointment, bitter and beclouding as it is, is right.

God is in it, and it cannot be wrong. It is through a dreary and trying stage of your pilgrimage that the Savior is leading you, but it is in the right way, and the issue shall prove that, though "clouds and darkness are round about Him, justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne." Let your heart devoutly and meekly respond, "I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are right, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me!"

These mysteries which cast such deep, long shadows on your path are all evolving. God's thoughts of peace and purposes of mercy towards you. He has entwined your happiness and His glory with this event, and He would have you quietly, trustfully wait until He shall explain and interpret it all. "All these things are against me!" was the patriarch's mournful interpretation of God's painful and mysterious dealings. And yet all these very events were at that moment working out his good. It was by the right way, though darksome and mysterious—his covenant God led him when Joseph was not, and Benjamin was demanded, and the famine was sore, and his gray hairs were bowed in sorrow to the earth. Human reasoning could see nothing but bereavement, while unbelief could see nothing but a grave. But God was dealing well with His servant, and God is dealing well with you. Leave Him to explain and interpret ; with that explanation of all that is now so mysterious, you shall in this life, and in the life which is to come, be fully and forever satisfied.

Your ways, O Lord, with wise design
Are framed upon Your throne above;
And every dark and bending line
Meets in the center of Your LOVE."

Your way is one of earthly sorrow. Its bitter elements dissolve in your cup, its dark cloud shades your spirit. Your soul is sad, you are heart-sick and sore. God has permitted adversity to overtake you as with a tempest; or, bereavement has entered your dwelling as the messenger of woe. Words cannot portray the nature, nor sympathy sound the depth, of your anguish. You are so sorrowful that you cannot look up. Afflicted one! I will not ask your grief, from whom or whence it came. Enough that God determined it, that God has sent it, and that God will be with you in it. It is right, all right, infinitely right, for "He Himself has done it." Your Lord and Savior:
prepared this cup,
sent this cloud,
commissioned this sorrow.

I know that it is hard to bear, harder still to believe that it can be right! Right that you should be divested of wealth, despoiled of earthly comforts, be written a widow, an orphan, childless? Right that human affection should chill, earthly relations should change, lover and friend God should put far from you! Still, beloved, it is right! Right because your Father is Himself leading you. Come now and get beneath the sheltering Vine—that Vine over which the tempest once rudely swept, which bent and bowed before the crushing storm. That storm is over now. Jesus is the "Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief!" No! more. But to all His sorrowful saints, to all who drink the cup of woe, who bear His cross, who tread the path of suffering—Christ is a hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest." His heart shall be your pavilion, and His sympathy shall enfold you as a robe; and the more fiercely the rain beats, and the snow-storm drifts, and the mountain wind drives against you the firmer may faith grasp this robe, and the more closely may you bind and clasp its warm folds around you. This discipline of sorrow shall but endear the Savior to your heart, and mold your soul to His image of loveliness, increasing His preciousness and your deeper holiness and the outcome shall verify the sacred truth, "He led them in the right way!"

"You have no pang of hidden grief,
But He your Lord does know;
He saw the tears rise in your eye,
He counts them as they flow;
He heard the voice whose careless tone
Awoke your soul to pain;
Look up!—he wounds that others heal,
His love binds up again.

"Be not cast down, O trembling soul!
The Lord himself is nigh;
Think on Gethsemane's dark shades,
And His lone agony.

The friend that on His bosom leaned
Forsook Him in His woe;
You have no sorrow, mourning one,
But He your Lord does know.

"O mourning soul, you have one Friend
That changes not to thee,
Whose tender beams of love can bid
These earth-born shadows flee.

Look up!—the King of Heaven will dry
Your tear-drops as they flow;
O lean upon the breast of Him,
Who all your grief does know."

Your path may be one of soul-adversity. To the believer, this is the keenest and heaviest of all sorrows. The heavenly life is more varied and chequered than the earthly. The child of God is the subject of mental disquietude, depression of spirit, and sorrow of heart, of which the world knows nothing. Weary as the worldling is, he knows nothing of weariness of soul because of sin. Sorrowful as the unbeliever is, he is a stranger to that sacred sorrow which lays penitent beneath the cross. It is, therefore, possible, believer in Jesus, that you are now passing through some of those soul-exercises, those seasons of spiritual distress inseparable from the divine life and the Christian warfare.

You may be walking in soul-darkness, not seeing Jesus.

You may be sorely tempted by Satan.

You may be learning more thoroughly the total and deep depravity of your nature.

You may be wounded by some surprise of sin.

You may be deceived by a heartless and evil world.

The evidences of your saving interest in Christ may be beclouded, and you may be walking in bondage—your once sunny hope of Heaven well-near gone! But be not amazed at this—it is the right way. All the saints in glory have traveled it before you, and thousands of saints on earth are traveling it now. By these soul-exercises, the Lord is:
consolidating His kingdom of grace within you,
maturing your Christianity,
promoting your sanctification,
rooting and grounding you in His word and love,
and establishing you in Himself.

Never did Christ love you more than He loves you now. You may be ready to sink, but His hand upholds you. You may have lost sight of Him, the beloved of your soul—but He never removes His eyes from you. The central links of that divine and indissoluble chain that binds you to glory, may be so submerged in waves of doubt and sorrow, as to be to your view utterly lost. Nevertheless, God has made with you "a covenant ordered in all things and sure," and who or what shall separate you from His love in Christ Jesus? One full view of that Christ now, in His changeless love, overflowing grace, unfaltering faithfulness, and present intercession for you in Heaven—and your soul will emerge from its eclipse into a brighter sunshine, and with a sweeter song breathing from your lips, "I will be glad and rejoice in Your mercy, for You have considered my trouble; You have known my soul in adversities; and have not shut me up into the hand of the enemy. You have set my feet in a large room." Oh believe, then, that whatever the spiritual darkness, despondency, and trial of faith through which the Lord leads you—it is the right way, because it is your Father's way.

Is your Christian path one of solitude and loneliness? Are you walking in a way in which there are no companions, no responsive affection, no congeniality of thought, soothing sympathy, or Christian fellowship? Be it so. Your heavenly Father sees that solitude is more essential to your soul's prosperity than companionship; that loneliness more needful for your fitness for Heaven than human society. He has separated you from others, only that He might the more separate you for Himself. If you have less of the creature, it is more than made up to you by having more of God Himself. If you have less "communion of saints," you have more communion with the Lord of saints. Oh believe, then, exclusively. And if you know that this lone and dreary path is the right way through the wilderness, and that by it Christ is conducting you to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the companionship of an innumerable company of angels, and to the blessed society of the spirits of just men made perfect; for whose sacred fellowship and bliss, earth's sorrow and solitude are but training and preparing you.

Is sickness the path you tread? It may be a long, a tedious, and a suffering one. And amid the gloom of the sick-chamber, the ceaseless pain of the body, and the mental sympathy which physical suffering always awakens—you may at times be tempted to question the love and tenderness of your Savior, and the wisdom and faithfulness of your God. But rest assured, O child of suffering, that it is right.

Could you now unravel this mystery of sickness, could you fathom the reason of this suffering of body, this anguish of the nerves, this feverish restlessness, these convulsive throes, that sleepless pillow, that couch of fainting and of languor, and that acute, indescribable sympathy of the mind with the body—the mysterious reciprocal influence of the mental and physical—you would, as in the light of a thousand suns, trace the perfect rectitude of your Father—-and see that there was not a pang of suffering, nor a shade of gloom, nor a circumstance of sorrow in this path of sickness and anguish which was not the message of love and the messenger of good.

To your troubled mind it seems a dark mystery that God should have thus so suspended all the activities of life, when to your view life was so busy and important; that He should have arrested your work of faith and labor of love, setting you aside from your cherished employment, leaving duties and plans and labors all neglected and incomplete. But, beloved, what is a mystery to you is no mystery to God. To Him this event, so draped in woe, is more lucid than ten thousand suns. It is part of a perfect whole, the dictate of an infinite mind, and the unfolding of a loving heart. And the instant that your own mind and heart fully and cheerfully acquiesce in the truth that it is right, infinitely right—every sentiment of opposition and regret will subside into the quiet repose of an infant pillowed in slumber upon its mother's bosom. "Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother. My soul is even as a weaned child."

Perhaps, my reader, you are approaching the solemn hour of your departure out of this world unto your Father. And now the most impressive yet most glorious illustration of this truth may be afforded, "He led them forth by the right way." You have been all your lifetime, it may be, in bondage through the fear of death; every memento of its existence, and every sign of its approach, filling your soul with alarm and trembling.

Or, it may be that you have not so much feared the king of terrors as you have doubted your saving interest in Christ. You have hesitated to appropriate the precious promises and consolations of the gospel to yourself, lest you should prove a self-deceiver. You have shrunk from a decided testimony for the Savior, you have refused to range yourself openly and avowedly on the side of Jesus, from the fear of uttering words your heart did not feel, or of confessing an attachment your inconsistencies might belie. And now the time has come when the silver cord is loosed, and you must enter the dark valley—but, lo! the destroyer has lost his terror, and the soul has dropped its chain, and all is calm, serene, and hopeful. There is no fear, no distrust, no despair. The Sun of Righteousness is pouring its effulgence full upon your soul, and bathed in this sea of glory, Jesus is leading you in the hour of death by the right way home, to be forever with Himself. "O death! where is your sting! O grave! where is your victory!"

In view of another year, which may close our pilgrimage forever on earth—crowding within its few fleeting weeks some of the most momentous events and solemn scenes of life—let the constant, heartfelt prayer be ours, "For Your name's sake, lead me and guide me! I am a sinful, weak, tempted one, constantly wandering, liable to fall, and am only safe and happy as upheld by Your hand and blessed with Your presence. My sky is lowering -earthly prospects are dreary friends are lessening-the shadows of life's close are drawing around me, and I am full of fear and trembling.

My Father, undertake for me. Give me patience under suffering, meek submission to Your will, and perfect happiness in You. Make me content with Yourself alone—willing, if You do call me, to resign all earthly comforts, portion, and friends for You. Lead me and guide me. Enable my heart to trust all into Your hands, walking in nearer communion with You, and sheltering more closely beneath Your warm, overshadowing wing. And should this be my last, my closing year on earth, Lord, let it, by Your richer grace given, be the holiest, most useful, and happiest year of my life!"

With this childlike spirit of trust, you may calmly submit all your future course to God. Believe that He is continually at your side, choosing all your paths, supplying all your needs, and is leading you in the right way, however sad and shady that way may be.

Jesus has undertaken your safe and certain convoy to Heaven. He has pledged the glory of His name to bring the grace that was but as the bruised reed, the love that was but as a flickering spark, the faith in Him that was but a trembling touch, the holy, spiritual breathing after Him that was but a feeble desire, the knowledge of Him that was but elementary, home to Himself.

If it is the Lord's way by which we are led, and in which it is the true desire of our heart to walk—then see that we observe the Divine precept, "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths." It is thus we shall set the always Lord before us, keeping Him in view, and taking no step which:
His providence shall not prescribe,
His counsel shall not guide, and
which prayer to Him shall not sanctify, cheer, and bless.

Thus following the Lamb wherever He goes, if the path be tortuous, the road dusty, the way often shaded and lonely; or, if our purposes are crossed, our plans frustrated, our hopes disappointed—we shall refer all to:
His Divine sovereignty,
His unerring wisdom,
and His changeless love,
and be still and know that He is God, and that by the right way, He is leading us to Himself!

"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps." Then, gently lead me and guide me, and let my will blend with Your will, as beam blends with beam. And let my heart respond to Your heart, as the harp responds in melody and sweetness to the winds; until by the right way, You shall have brought me into the heavenly and eternal City." And when we reach that glorious Home, and the first surprise and transport shall have subsided, it will be the employment of that eternity of bliss to remember all the way by which the Lord our God led us, and to trace His goodness, His wisdom, and His power in every step. And as in the pure light that encircles the jasper throne of God and the Lamb we read His dealings with us, we shall see cause to praise Him forever and evermore, that he gave us not the choice of our own path, but led us in our blindness by the right way to the Saints' Everlasting Rest!