STRAIGHT PATHS
BY CARRIE F. JUDD
Behold, I send my messenger
before Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. The voice of one
crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight.
– St. Mark i:2,3.
Beloved friends,
are many of us crying out with hungering hearts to be taught “the way of the
Lord” more perfectly than we hitherto know it? Do we see that we have been
straying sheep who have “turned every one to his own way” instead of walking in
“the way of the Lord”? And are we beginning to realize with perplexity and
grief that our Christianity is only half-hearted service which cannot meet the
approbation of our Lord?
I doubt not that
these questions will come with sorrowful keenness to many dear, longing hearts,
worn with spiritual hunger and yearning for the “Bread of Life.” Christ says, “Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be
filled; “and while we are conscious that even in our hunger we are blessed,
that our intense longings for our Saviour indicate a much more blessed
condition than when we were satisfied with our emptiness, we are nevertheless
painfully aware that we have not yet been “filled.”
What then is
this crying out of our souls; this “groaning which cannot be uttered”? It is
the Spirit of God “helping our infirmities,” and causing us to know the things
for which we ought to pray. (Rom. viii:26); it is the Voice of the Holy Ghost “crying
in the wilderness” of our hearts, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His
paths straight.”
Yes we must “make
straight the way of the Lord” if we would see His glory revealed in us.” We
must yield our souls entirely to Him
that every thought may be ‘brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”
and that there may be no hindrance to His establishing in our hearts that
blessed highway of His holiness over which “the unclean shall not pass.” (Isa. xxxv:8.)
We can only “make
His paths straight” by throwing open every avenue of our souls to the blessed
Spirit Who is striving to remove the obstacles which prevent us from receiving and
crowning our King. We sometimes marvel that He does not enter when we entreat
Him so earnestly; we are almost inclined to think that there is some mistake
about his wishing to abide in our souls, and so we mourn the wonder, instead of
seeking to make His way straight, that the “King of glory” may come in.
We have
endeavored perhaps to consecrate our all
to Christ, to keep nothing back which might bar our souls to His glorious
presence, but we must bear in mind that he alone can judge rightly as to
whether or not we have made a full surrender, and we must ask Him to reveal to
us any deceitful mountain of pride, or valley of unbelief, that has not yet
been made “straight” before Him. For “every valley shall be exalted, and every
mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight,
and the rough places plain: and the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed. (Isa. xl:4,5)
The path of the
Lord must be made ready for Him by a complete surrender of our ways, which have ever proved so “rough” and “crooked,” that He
may transform them into His glorious way. And when by God’s Spirit we have been
enabled to open wide the “everlasting doors;” when there has been prepared “in the
desert a highway for our God” (Isa. xl:3), our King will not delay His
victorious entrance into our hearts, but will speedily reveal unto us the “presence
of His glory,” and cause us to sing, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Hosanna in
the highest.”
