April 21

The way to life narrow

“Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:13-14).

Narrow is the road. Yes, if you are to be a Christian you must have your whole life concentrated on, and consecrated to, one thing; and, just as the vagrant rays of sunshine have to be collected into a focus before they burn, so the wandering manifoldnesses of our aims and purposes have all to be brought to a point, “This one thing I do,” and whatsoever we do we have to do it as in God, and for God, and by God, and with God. Therefore, the road is narrow because, being directed to one aim, it has to exclude great tracts on either side, in which people that have a less absorbing and lofty purpose wander and expatiate at will. As on some narrow path in Eastern lands, with high, prickly-pear hedges on either side, and vineyards stretching beyond them, with luscious grapes in abundance, a traveler has to keep on the road, within the prickly fences, dusty though it may be, and though his thirsty lips may be cracking.


I remember once going to that strange island-fortress off the Normandy coast, which stands on an isolated rock in the midst of a wide sandy bay. One narrow causeway leads across the sands. Does a man complain of having to keep it? It is safety and life, for on either side stretches the tremulous sand, on which, if a foot is planted, the pedestrian is engulfed. So the narrow way which we have to travel is a highway cast up, on which no evil will befall us, while on either side stretch away out to the horizon the treacherous quicksands. Narrowness is sometimes safety. If the road is narrow it is the better guide, and they who travel along it travel safely. Restrictions and limitations are the essence of all nobleness and virtue. “So did not I because of the fear of the Lord.”
—Alexander Maclaren.

“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).

Read full article...