Homiletic Magazine Proverbs 4:26 Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Mystery surrounds me. I find myself a resident of the illimitable realm of the unknown. The commonest objects touching me on every side start unanswerable questions. But amidst these enveloping mysteries, like a rock in the central ocean, emerges this certainty — "I am." That means, I know I am. I am dowered with self-consciousness. There is a chasm wide and awful between myself and everything which is not myself; the "me" is other than the "not-me"; I am a separate, solitary soul. Amid all the mystery surrounding me, there emerges this other certainty — "I ought." That means, I have the power of referring what I am to the judgment of the moral sense. There is, and must be, an irreversible distinction between what I ought and what I ought not. There is both a standard and an ability of discrimination. There is a law of right and wrong of which the moral sense takes cognisance. Amid the mystery there arises another certainty — "I can." That means, I dwell in the sphere of moral freedom; the helm of my being is in the hand of an unenslaved volition; I possess a self-determining and sovereign will. I am not a thrall, a thing; I am a power. There emerges this other certainty — "I will." That means, I exercise my power in this direction or in that. I will to do the thing I ought not, or the thing I ought. Man is a moral being, capable of choice, and actually choosing. You should ponder the path of your feet — I. BECAUSE YOUR FEET ARE PRESSING TOWARD AN END BY WHICH YOUR WHOLE PREVIOUS PATH IN LIFE IS TO FIND FINAL TEST. Thomas Carlyle says, "It is the conclusion that crowns the work; much more the irreversible conclusion wherein all is concluded; thus is there no life so mean but a death will make it memorable." As you are going now what will that final test of the end declare? II. BECAUSE THIS MOMENT YOU ARE CHOOSING YOUR PATH. You should ask yourself whether it be the right one. III. BECAUSE THE LONGER YOU WALK IN THE WRONG PATH THE HARDER IT WILL BE TO GET OUT OF IT INTO THE RIGHT, The awful law of habit; the binding power of bad companionships, etc. (Homiletic Magazine.) Parallel Verses KJV: Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.WEB: Make the path of your feet level. Let all of your ways be established. |
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