January 24

The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.—Psalm xxviii. 28.

THAT man may himself "delight in the Lord's way," his steps are ordered by the Lord himself. For if the Lord did not order the steps of a man, so crooked are they naturally, they would always be going through crooked paths, and by pursuing crooked ways, would be unable to return again. He however came, and called us, and redeemed us, and shed his blood; he hath given this ransom; he hath done this good, and suffered these evils. Consider him in what he hath done, he is God! Consider him in what he hath suffered, he is man! Who is that God-man? Hadst not thou, O man, forsaken God, God would not

3 have been made man for thee! For that was too little for thee to requite, or for him to bestow, that he had made thee man; unless he himself should become man for thee also. For it is he himself that hath ordered our steps; that we should delight in his way. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.

Now that thou art following the way of Christ, promise not thyself prosperity in the world. He walked through painful paths; but he promised great rewards. Follow thou him; consider not only the way by which thou art to go, but also the destination at which thou art to arrive. Thou wilt have to endure temporal hardships; but thou wilt come to eternal joy. If thou wouldst endure the suffering, consider the reward. For even the laborer in the vineyard would sink, if he did not look to what he was to receive. But when thou hast considered what it is thou art to receive, all these things that thou sufferest will be inconsiderable in thine eyes; and thou wilt not esteem them worthy to earn that for thee. Thou wilt marvel that so great a recompense is given for so very little labor. For surely, brethren, for the sake of everlasting rest, everlasting labor ought to have been endured; and to attain everlasting happiness thou oughtest to undergo everlasting sufferings. But if thou wert to undergo everlasting toil, when couldst thou come to everlasting bliss? Thus it results that thy tribulation must needs be temporal, which being come to an end, thou mayest come to happiness that is without end. But yet, brethren, there might have been long tribulation to earn everlasting happiness:—to explain myself, as our happiness is to have no end, so our misery, and our pains, and our tribulations, might be of long duration. For were they even of a thousand years' duration, set a thousand years against eternity! What finite quantity, how great soever it be, canst thou set against that which is infinite? Ten thousand, ten hundred thousand, (if we may so speak,) nay, thousands of thousands of years, which are finite quantities, cannot be compared with eternity. To this is added, that God hath willed thy suffering should be not only temporal, but also of short duration. The whole life of man is but of a few days' duration; even if joys were not mingled with its sorrows, whereas these are certainly both more numerous and of longer duration than its hardships. And it is for this reason the hardships are both fewer and shorter, that we may be able to endure. Now if man were to be through the whole of life in toil, and in sufferings, in pain, in tortures, in prison, in scourgings, in hunger, and in thirst, every day, and every hour through the whole length of life, to the period of old age, yet the whole life of man is but a few days. That labor being over, there is to come the Eternal Kingdom; there is to come happiness without end; there is to come equality with the angels; there is to come Christ's inheritance, and Christ our joint heir, is to come. How great is the labor, for which thou receivest so great a recompense? The veterans who serve in the wars, and move in the midst of wounds for so many years, enter upon the military service from their youth, and quit it in old age: and to obtain a few days of repose in their old age, when age itself begins to weigh down those whom the wars do not break down, how great hardships do they endure; what marches, what frosts, what burning suns, what privations, what wounds, and what dangers! And while suffering all these things, they fix their thoughts on nothing but those few days of repose in old age, at which they know not whether they will ever arrive. Thus it is, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. This is the point with which I commenced. If thou delight in the way of Christ, and art truly a Christian, (for he is a Christian indeed, who does not despise the way of Christ, but delighteth in following Christ's way through his sufferings,) do not thou go by any other way than that by which he himself hath also gone. It appears painful; but it is the very way of safety; another perhaps is delightful; but it is full of robbers. And he delighteth in his way.