One bright spring day, a middle-aged man strode at a good pace along an English highway. He stopped for his breath at the top of a hill, and found himself sprinkled with the first big drops of a coming storm. The man was not dressed for rain, so he quickly made his way to a small inn, “The Half Way House,” which he espied close to the hill-top.
As he entered, he met there a traveler who was preparing to set out into the storm. “Are you going farther today?” asked the traveler.
“That depends upon the weather,” answered the new-comer.
“My journey,” said the traveler, “depends upon the will of God.”
He buttoned up his clothing for the storm, and then paused a moment at the door. “My friend,” he said earnestly. “This is called the Half Way House, and I think you and I are both at least halfway on our journey through this world. May I remind you that the Word of God says, ‘There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.’” Proverbs 14:1212There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. (Proverbs 14:12).
The stranger then set out into the rain and wind, and our friend watched him struggling on towards the town.
Since it seemed impossible now to continue his journey, our friend decided to return to his own home, before dark, and very unwillingly set out to retrace his steps. He was very weary, and the sun had already set, when he noticed an old cart track which formed a shorter road than the highway. He followed this, but it was overgrown with long grass, and pitted with holes, so that complete darkness settled down upon him before he had gone far.
Thunder and rain added to his discomfort, and now he struggled up a small hill in the path, and stood for a moment almost blinded by a sudden flash of lightning. What was his horror to see, at his very feet, the steep and sudden pit of an old stone quarry! Another step in the dark would have probably meant instant death.
He sank trembling to the ground, as the words of the traveler flashed into his mind. “The end thereof are the ways of death.” He thought he was all right, but God mercifully showed him the end of his chosen way. Not only on that wild night, but all through his life he had walked the way of his own choosing, and there was death before him, death and eternal hell.
He struggled to his feet and found the old cart track, winding along the sides of the pit and rejoining the highway not far from his own village. It was very late when he reached home, but not too late, for that very night he hunted up the old Book, the Bible. The traveler had told him that the words were in Proverbs, and he searched until he found them in the fourteenth chapter, and was surprised to find them repeated in the sixteenth chapter.
Why does God repeat these solemn words twice? Because the “way that seemeth right” is so common, so crowded, so constantly chosen, and so pitifully certain to end in death. My reader, do you hope to go to Heaven? Is it your own way, or God’s way that you are following? That verse is like a light from heaven to show you the end of your road. Does your assurance of salvation and eternal life rest upon the word of the eternal God? Every other way but God’s way, ends in death.
Jesus said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24).
ML 06/28/1953