PSALM cxviii. 24 411
May we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour, season after season, year after year, till He takes to Himself, first one, then another, in the order He thinks fit, to be separated from each other for a little while, to be united together for ever, in the Kingdom of His Father and our Father, His God and our God.
^ When one says, " Lord, I believe," in Jesus' sense, he means that he trusts — a very different thing. Jesus' physical Eesurrection, in the same way, is a question that can be decided only by evidence, and is within the province of reason. His spiritual Eesurrection is a drama of the soul, and a matter of faith. When I declare my belief that on the third day Jesus rose, I am really yielding to evidence. When I am crucified with Christ, buried with Christ, and rise to newness of life in Christ, I am believing after the very sense of Jesus.^
* John Watson, The Mind of the MasUr.
The Clean Path.
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Literature.
Cox (S.), The BircCs Nest, 131.
Gumming (J. E.), in Convention Addresses delivered at Bridge of Allan,
1895, p. 59. GriflQn (E. D.), Plain Practical Sermons, ii. 465. Hopps (J. P.), Sermons of Love and Life, 65. Leitch (R.), The Light of the Gentiles, 157, Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Psalms li.-cxlv., 281. Murphy (J. B. C), The Service of the Master, 9. Norton (J. N.), Warning and Teaching, 140. Simeon (C), Works, vi. 302. Smith (W. C), Sermons, 146. Voysey (C), Sermons, xxi. (1898), No. 22. Wiseman (N.), Children's Sermons, 205. Christian World Pulpit, xii. 198 (A. P. Peabody) ; xxiv. 90 (H. W.
Beecher) ; xxix. 315 (H. W. Beecher). Church Pulpit Year Book, 1911, p. 271. Preacher's Magazine, iv. 272 (J. Feather).
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The Clean Path.
Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed thereto according to thy word.— Ps. cxix. 9.
1. It is a great matter to know what is the right question to put, and how to put it rightly. The secrets of nature disclose themselves to the man who knows how to question her properly ; for he is already on the line of its solution when he sees clearly what the exact problem is. So also in any discussion, he who can lay aside all extraneous and irrelevant matter, and put his finger on the real point at issue, has already half won the battle ; for our errors mainly arise from our mixing up of what is essential with subordinate points, the settlement of which is of no vital consequence. It is the same in the affairs of practical life. There, too, it is all-important to put clearly before our minds what is the supreme question we have to deal with as moral and responsible beings. Our character will depend on the answer to that, but the answer will not be difficult if we put the question rightly. Here we are, for a few short years, in a world of struggle and conflict, having duties to ourselves and to each other and to God, having also various endowments and various temptations. What is the line of thought which should press on each of us as the supreme matter for our most serious consideration ? What is the question which every young man should put to himself as he looks out on the troubled sea of life with which he has to battle, and where he may make shipwreck if he take not heed ?
2. The question of our text, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? " if not absolutely the foremost, is yet among the weightiest thoughts which we should be laying to heart. There are, no doubt, still graver questions which we will do well to put to om-selves. What is the chief end of
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man? What is that by failing to achieve which we shall lose the very object of our existence ? Or, again, What shall a man do to be saved ? or yet further, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his heart ? These are points of still greater moment, and carry deeper results than the question of the Psalmist here. At bottom, no doubt, he had in view the cleansing of the heart as well as of the way ; for his was no shallow spirit, that cared only for mere outside behaviour. The Psalmist knew that we must begin by purifying the fountain if the stream is to be made pure. But the question, as he formally puts it, points to our actions rather than our desires and affections, and so far it is defective. Still, any young man who shall put before him the cleansing of his way as the aim which he must specially strive to reach, will surely make a very much worthier life for himself than they do who start in the race careless whether the way they take be miry or clean.
I.
An Anxious Question.
"Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?"
There are many questions about the future with which it is natural for young people to occupy themselves ; and it is to be feared that the most of them ask more anxiously " How shall I make my way ? " than " How shall I cleanse my way ? " It is needful carefully to ponder the questions : " How shall I get on in the world — be happy, fortunate ? " and the like. But there is another and more important question : " How shall I cleanse my way ? " For purity is the best thing ; and to be good is a wiser as well as a nobler object of ambition than any other.