Three Ways of Walking

My dear friend, Miss Esdaile, gave me such beautiful thoughts the other day that I must tell friends in the “Message,” and I hope the thoughts will do them much good, as they have me. Said she, there are three ways of walking: ―
Walk before Me.
Walk after Me.
Walk with Me.
God, said to Abraham in Gen. 17:1, “Walk before Me,” and thou shalt he kept as a child beneath thy Father’s eye for safety and for warning. We read the same words repeated in the case of Solomon and Hezekiah. In 1 Kings 3:6 Solomon says of his father David, “He walked before thee in truth,” and Hezekiah said to the Lord, when he was sick unto death, “Remember how I have walked before Thee” (2 Kings 20:3).
So let us know and delight in the glorious thought that we too may walk before Him.
“Walk after Me.” The Lord Jesus, when on earth, continually said to would-be disciples, “Follow Me,” and so let us pray continually that we may follow Him and strive to tell others of the Way, the Truth and the Life. There is none other Name (Acts 4:12) who can save, so let us follow after Him (1 Peter 2:21).
“Walk with Me.” How can two walk together unless they be agreed? Are we of one mind with our Lord, knowing Him by faith and realizing His great love for us, even to die on the cross to save us? Oh, what wondrous love is His!
And so He invites us to walk with Him as friend with friend, as husband with wife, as parent with child. Enoch walked with God in close intercourse; and so we may continually draw near to God, and He will draw nigh to us, He speaking to us and we speaking to Him. Often on my bed I say with Samuel of old, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”
Emily P. Leakey.