October 29

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.—Proverbs 16:25.

Some men are so obviously and daringly wicked, that their wickedness, as it is open and manifest to others, so it can not be hid from themselves. They are bound for the regions of death with their eyes open. They even glory in their shame. Others there are of a more calm, civil, composed course, whose way seemeth to be right, and yet in truth it leads to the courts of death. This is indeed a melancholy picture. Here we see sin reigning unto death in one, whose way seemeth unto himself to be the way of righteousness unto life. And this teaches a solemn lesson to all, and the great importance of taking heed to our ways according to the word of God.

There may be a reign of sin, where it is not perceived; and that insensibility is a main argument of it. For this is a certain rule,—the more tenderly and seriously any man is affected with sense and sorrow for the power of sin, the more he is delivered from it. The young man in the gospel was fully persuaded that he kept the whole law, and little thought that his own possessions were his king, and that he was a vassal to his own wealth,—till Christ convinced him of a mighty reign of covetousness in his heart. A ship may, in the midst of a calm, by reason of a great mist, and the negligence of the mariners to sound and discover their distance from land, split itself against a rock, as well as be cast upon it by some irresistible storm :—and so that man who never fathoms his heart, nor searches how near he may be to ruin, but goes leisurely and uniformly on in his wonted pharisaical security, may, when he thinks nothing of it, as likely perish under the power of sin, as he in whom the rage thereof is most apparent.

As there is a great strength in a river when it runs smoothest and without noise, which immediately discovers itself when any bridge or obstacle is set up against it; so when sin passes with most stillness and indisturbance through the heart, then is the reign of it as strong as ever, and upon any spiritual and searching opposition, will declare itself. The Pharisees were rigid, demure, saint-like men, while their hypocrisy was let alone to run calmly and without noise: but when Christ, by his spiritual expositions of the law, his heavenly conversation, his penetrating and convincing sermons, had stopped the current, and disquieted them in their course, we find their malice swell into the sin against the Holy Ghost. It is the light of the sun which maketh day, when itself lies shut under a cloud, and is not seen: so, in every natural man, there is a power and prevalency of sin, which yet may lie undiscovered under some general moralities. Thus as the serpent in the fable had a true sting, while it lay in the snow, though it showed not itself but at the fire; so there may be a regal power in sin, when, upon external reasons, it may, for a time, dissemble itself. Ahab and Jeroboam's wife were as truly princes in disguise as in their robes; and a sow as truly a swine when washed in a spring of water, as when wallowing in a sink of dirt. The heart of man is like a beast, that hath much filth and garbage shut up under a fair skin,—till the Word, like a sacrificing sword, cut open, and, as it were, unridge the conscience to discover it. "All the ways of man," saith Solomon, "are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits." He is the discoverer of the secrets, and entrails of every action.

The deceits of sin will soon be ripped off, and then the bald reality will appear, in the end thereof, which is death. Oh, let us be undeceived now, while we may by the grace of Christ conquer sin, and overcome death and hell. If we have in good earnest commenced striving against the monster, let us press the battle.

We shall reap, if we faint not. Our combat is short, our victory is sure, our crown is safe, our triumph is eternal: the grace of Christ is all-sufficient here to help us, and his glory is all-sufficient hereafter to reward us.