STEP BY STEP.
BY Charles A. JUDD.
“The steps of a good man
are ordered by the Lord.” – Psa. xxxcii:23.
How carefully
the mother guides the first steps of her little child, and yet how many cruel
falls come from steps wrongly taken. At every fall the mother’s heart aches,
but her child must learn to walk, or else suffer far more than the pains of
bruises.
So while our
Heavenly Father guides us, and tells us to “walk in the straight path,” yet we
wander off into forbidden paths and are sometimes forced to say, “but as for me
my feet were almost gone; my steps had well night slipped.” –(Psa. lxxiii:2.)
But God knows that the aches and sprains which follow our walking in slippery
ways are good for us, and in kindness he sets us on our feet, and lets us try
again. After a while we learn to let the Lord “deviser the way,” as well as “order
our footsteps,” and then we are able, not only to walk, but even to run in the way
of Holiness.
Some whose eyes
have been opened to the beauties of the “Higher Christian Life,” know full well
how, step by step, they have climbed up out of “the mists in the valley of
unbelief” into the purer air of the Holy mountains, and they shout with vigor
their praises to the name of the Lord Who led them.
Look with me
over the fifth chapter of James, where there is much food for thought on this
subject. It is easy to see that it is not stepping so very much above the
plains of morality, to believe that a just God will visit retribution on men
whose “riches are corrupted,” whose “gold and silver” are so “cankered” that
the very rust of them will witness against them (verses 2,3); nor is it hard to
believe that they will be punished for keeping back the hire of the poor who
have labored for them, or for living in pleasure and wantonness, or for having “condemned
and killed the just” (verses 4,5). But we must step up quite a ways in order to
understand why and how we should be patient in the face of such evils when we
feel their grinding power upon ourselves, and like the husbandman, who “waiteth
for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it,” have
patience to feel that “the coming of the Lord, draweth nigh.”
Then, still
stepping on, ti may be possible to learn to “grudge not one against another,”
to speak not evil of another, to take the “prophets,” who have spoken in the
name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience,” and
then to “count them happy which endure,” and even to rejoice in the attainment
of a Job-like patience.
Are we
afflicted? Yes, we can pray, and being merry can express it by singing psalms
(verse 13). If our afflictions com in the shape of sickness whereby we suffer
for days, weeks, months, and even years, it is for some even possible to smile
though tears of pain and say “Lord, Thy will be done.”
It seems as
though we were getting up pretty high when this point is reached,-but are there
no heights beyond?
There are, but
dare we try to reach them? We have said “Thy will be done;” where shall we go
to learn od’s will? Nowhere but to God’s Word. Then let us read on: “Is any
sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (verse 14). Shall we
take that step? Isn’t that getting up to a dizzy height? Do our heads swim? If
so, perhaps we are looking down over the way we have come, instead of looking
up to see if a hand is not reached out to us to lead us on. Perhaps we have
come in a company of fellow travelers who, having got thus far, are reveling in
the thought that they stand on the mountain top and only Heaven lies beyond.
They tell us it is presumptuous to expect to get higher, and their words sound
so distinct and reasonable that we are almost inclined to think them true. But
we have our Guide book, let us read it. We find that it promises, that if we
will step up a little higher we shall step out from the shackles of sin, which
bind both body and soul, and shall step into liberty.
God’s word says,
“The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and
if they have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him” (verse 15).
“But let him ask
in faith, nothing wavering: for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea,
driven with the wind and tossed. For let not the man think that he shall receive
anything of the Lord.” (James i:6,7.)
No argument is
needed here, for they who “walk by faith,” and can say to the Lord, “Thou hast
enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip” (Psa. Xciii:36), “know
the truth of the matter,” and it is useless to try to prove the promises to those
who are not “first seeking the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” It is too
long a stride to step right from the pleasures of the world into a “sweet
communion with God;” there is an old “leaven of malice and wickedness” which must
be “purged out” and replaced by “sincerity and truth.”
But to those who
know by experience that “the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord”, we
would say, let us still keep pressing onward and upward. There are those who
need these promises so much, oh, so much, and if they have come to you, or to
you, brother or sister, and you feel that if you take the step, it will lead
you up, into a higher life, where you will have only God to lean upon, do not
hesitate, but be assured that your foot will not slip. Do not be fearful that
you will bring reproach on God’s name by so doing, for He will only take care
of His own glory, if we only do our part.
Day by day, from
many parts of the world, testimonies are being received, which show how real
and substantial a foundation God’s promises have. Many of us indeed can say, “They
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength”-(Isa. xl:31), and “we know
whereof we speak.” But having had our strength renewed in so marvelous a way,
what use shall we make of it? Shall we say “surely we cannot now go higher?”
Shall we wander about to the right or to the left, satisfied with our position;
looking down and glorifying in the fact that we have climbed so far that we now
can rest?
“Let Him that
thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” –(1 Cor. x:12.)
Temptations
common to man may come to us, but God has provided a way of escape, “The Lord
knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.”-(2 Pet. ii:9.) We need not
expect, because we have been delivered from one trial, that we shall meet no
more. Our fauls will cause us to stumble, but we should guard against it as
much as possible; let us see if there is any safeguard given us. We read in God’s
word: “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that ye may
be healed.” Does not this seem like another step for those who have not
experienced God’s healing mercy? Is there not something about our spiritual
nature which still is not so lovely as it should be? May be we are not quite
ready to consecrate our all to the Master’s use. Maybe there is a keeping back
of something that we ought to lay on the altar. May that be the lack of doing
this very thing is an obstacle which prevents our stepping higher, and hampers
us with a spiritual lameness. So then it is a good thing to do “diligently try
an examine ourselves,” and confess our faults one to another, and having thus
obeyed the Scripture, expect and receive the blessing. Having done this we can
pray “effectual fervent prayers,” and like Elias receive answers that “avail
much” (verse 17).
But while we are
thus scaling such spiritual heights, we must not forget another practical side
of the question. Our Lord knows that we have daily physical side of the
question> Our Lord knows that we have daily physical journeyings, which lead
us out among many who are vainly trying to draw “Water of Life” from earthly
wells; their spiritual vision is obscured and their “feet are gone astray.” He
makes it our blessed privilege to labor with the erring ones, and with what
haste we ought to go to them and throw the rays of the great light of Truth on
to their path, and how earnestly we ought to pray for strength to wield “the
sword of the spirit” with which to vanquish the enemy who has them in his
toils.
It is possible,
whole being used as an humble means of showing a sinner “the error of his way,”
that we ourselves might rejoice at being able to take another step upward on
the “Mount of Holiness,” and that we might enjoy a great reward in the knowledge
that another “soul was saved rom death,” and “a multitude of sins” was hid
(verse 20).
And we might say
that the time at longest is not far distant when our mortal feet will step down
into the dark and mysterious waters of the river of death, and the next step we
take will be on the other shore, where we shall find our way leading into that
Heavenly City, which has “no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in
it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And
the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it.”-(Rev.
xxi:23, 24.)
