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This old Hebrew history is turned into a parable of our Christian life. There is a prophecy at the heart of it, and this prophecy says, "Judge not by the feeble glimmering light of human judgment. God's ways are higher than your ways; they take in higher issues, and immortal results. The Father will lead you by the right way. Press forward, for, as Quarles says, 'he goeth back that continueth not.'"

I. THE MORAL SIDE OF LIFE IS HIGHER THAN THE MATERIAL. To please self is the aim of most men, yet most patent is the fact, that to deny self-indulgence to ourselves is beneficial. The very physical frame, its laws of health and vigour, declare that! It requires, however, little self-denial to give up what is simply pleasant to the taste or to the eye. These are mere outward things. The more thoughtful student of life will see that God places human life under a higher and more searching discipline. A man is placed where his pride must be denied, his mental prepossessions laid aside, his will subordinated, his inmost purpose chastened.

II. THE PILGRIM SIDE OF LIFE IS ALWAYS PROSPECTIVE. It is no mere maze. We never return. Ours may be a long way, a winding way, but it is forward. A Christian man will feel with modesty, and yet with certainty, that his path is progress, that he does know more of the love of Christ, that his affections are more set on heaven, that salvation is nearer than when he believed, that the pilgrimage is one of temptation conquered, grace bestowed, and glory nearer to the soul. Spiritual pilgrimage is not a deceit in the moral sense. God is not allowing us to experience all these emotions merely that the circle of our little life may complete itself in the grave. We are nearing home, we shall soon be with Christ, which is far better.

III. THE LEADERSHIP OF LIFE IS IN THE HANDS OF CHRIST. Tell me who is leader, and I can also tell you much. Men admire sacrifice of ease and wealth, absence of bribe and advantage; and in Greece they glorified Socrates and Aristides, and in Rome, Quintus Curtius and Regulus. Men crave leaders, and can appreciate courage and self-control; only too often, alas, men do not ponder on the sacredness of the cause, the end of the ambition, the spirit of the campaign or pilgrimage. What we have to teach and to live in this age is that the Christ-led way is the right way.

IV. THE PILGRIMAGE ENDS IN THE FELLOWSHIP OF HOME. The discontinuance of things here below is the saddest of all experiences. Vessels keep coming and going out of this little bay of life. Along the roads new pilgrims appear where others rested; they loose their sandals, refresh themselves at the wells, and rise betimes for their onward way. We are quiet spectators of such pictures, and note the effects of change and time on others. For us, too, there is change and discontinuance. What we want is permanence! It is the beauty of the Christian Revelation that it uses all the symbols of a home to give our hearts rest in the thought of departure; that is what we want, that has been dearest after all to judge and soldier, merchant and statesman, monarch and peasant — the home! Yes, no image of court or temple is so inspiring as this — my Father's house.

(W. M. Statham.)

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KJV: And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.

WEB: he led them also by a straight way, that they might go to a city to live in.