IT is a fact that we do well to face, that every one is called to make a definite choice whether they will have Christ or the world. It is true that many have attempted to possess themselves of both, but it is always a miserable failure, for such people are never really happy.
Many there are who make a definite calculation as to whether they can part with the world, and they decide that they cannot. They would like to become the children of God, they would like to be real Christians, they would like to have the assurance of salvation, but the cost to them seems too great. The world has its attractions, its pleasures and its excitements; they cannot bring themselves to give up its balls, its theaters, its concerts, and its round of amusements.
So thought a young girl with whom the Spirit of God was evidently striving. She had had the advantages of a Christian home and of earnest and whole-hearted Christian friends, but at school she had come in contact with worldly influences, and these had proved too alluring; she had learned to dance, and she loved it; she felt her whole nature going out towards the world and its pleasures. What was she to do?
“I cannot go into the world and be a Christian too,” she said. “I must be one thing or the other.” It is a serious crisis in that young girl’s life—may God help her to make the best and wisest choice!
“Choose You This Day Whom Ye Will Serve.”
Read that chapter through, and see how full it is of God’s goodness and love to the people. He “gave” them this, and He “gave” them that; He “delivered” them here, and He “delivered” there. There was no question as to His love, He had proved it to them conclusively. The whole question lay now with them― “Choose you... whom ye will serve.”
In writing this we have specially in view the young people who have had the advantages of Christian training, but have not yet made a definite choice of Christ for themselves―Choose you―yes, it must be a choice:
1. It must be a definite decision―no half-and-half measures will do. You know the gospel in your head, you could clearly present it to others, but you have not made the choice. Nay, is this true? You have already made the choice, but, alas! so far it has been the fatal choice.
We want you now to alter your decision, and to choose Christ for time and eternity.
The young girl alluded to above knew and understood the gospel; she knew that Christ had died for sinners, and that she could be saved the moment she put her faith in Him; but she felt that it must be a faith of the heart, and that if faith was that of the heart it would be accompanied by a change of life, and would lead her to follow Christ consistently.
Let us imagine that two purses are lying on the table. The one contains one farthing, the other one thousand gold sovereigns. A poor and needy man is told that he may have one or the other, but that he cannot have both—would it take him long to decide which of the two he would choose? Could we imagine anybody so foolish as to give up the purse containing one thousand sovereigns, because he could not bring himself to part with the one containing one farthing? This is but a poor and feeble illustration of the comparative values of the world and Christ. True, the world in the light of eternity, with all its pleasures, its gaieties, its excitements, is worth absolutely nothing at all. But Christ?
Ah, tongue fails to tell, pen is utterly unable to write, nor can thought conceive His unsearchable riches!
“Choose you... whom ye will serve.”
2. It must be an individual decision―choose you. No one can choose for another. Christian parents may long and pray for their children’s conversion, but conversion is an individual matter. It is possible to be a child of Christian parents, and yet not be a child of God. True, the parents are largely responsible in the way of bringing up their children, but this is not the point under immediate consideration. The choice, so far as the young are concerned, must be an individual one.
Weigh the matter well over, young friend. Place the scale where the light of eternity will shine upon its beam, put the world into the one pan, and Christ into the other, and honestly decide which of the two outweighs the other, then fearlessly make your choice.
In writing thus we are not forgetting that it must be the work of the Holy Spirit. We are born “not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:1313Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)). Perfectly true, and yet while all is the sovereign work of God, the responsibility of the individual soul is as clearly insisted on. The preceding verse declares that “as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the children of God.” It may seem hard to reconcile these two statements of God’s Word, but there they both are, and both are true.
When Christ is presented to the soul, each one is responsible to receive Him, and, in fact, each reader of these lines has already so far decided either to receive or reject. Which shall it be? Choose you.
3. It must be an immediate decision. “Choose you this day.” More people die in youth than in middle or old age. Constantly we hear of sudden deaths by accident and sickness. Be on the safe side, and decide at once! The one who in early life decides for Christ, who wholeheartedly and consistently follows Him, and seeks to serve Him devotedly, is far happier in this life than the one who chooses the world, and then plunges headlong into its pleasures. It is like the lamp to the poor moth; fascinated by its brightness it flies into the flame, and soon lies scorched and crippled on the ground.
The sooner you decide for Christ, the safer will you be in the light of eternity, and the happier will you be throughout your earthly course.
“Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”
And is not Christ worthy of your heart’s choice? Think of His love!
“If I were the only sinner in the world,” we were once asked, “would Christ have loved me enough to have died for me?”
The question was a novel one, and set us thinking; but soon our thinking was turned to praising. We thought of Paul, who saw himself, as it were, the only sinner in the universe, and reveled in the thought of the individuality of Christ’s love. “The Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me” (Gal. 4:2020I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you. (Galatians 4:20)).
Himself for me!
what heart-melting words! It was as though all that Christ had, and was, He gave for Paul―all His love He poured out upon him. Yes, we are each one entitled to appropriate all the love of Jesus as though we were its only object; and yet, what He is to each one individually, He is to all collectively.
“Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen” (Rev. 1: 5).
He “loved me, and gave Himself for me,” says Paul. He “loved us, and washed us,” says John.
Both are equally true, both are divinely perfect.
What mysteries of redeeming love!
Choose you this day whom ye will serve.
A. H. B.