The Central Presbyterian

SOLDIER'S PORTION.

Which is the Way?

It is now more than twenty years ago since the following occurrence took place:
A young man of good connexions and property, who had spent his youth much in the manner in which the butterfly passes its brief existence in the summer sunshine, and amidst the flowers, had been brought to consider that great question to which no answer can ever be given—What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? -The consideration of this question, by God's grace, brought him as a penitent believer to the cross of Christ, and led him to a new life; he lived thenceforth not unto himself, nor for a world, the fashion of which passeth away, but unto God, and he presented his life a sacrifice unto Him who had redeemed him by his blood. He took every means which presented itself of leading others to the knowledge and love of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord, striving to fulfil his own vocation and ministry in the church of God.

One evening as he was slowly riding along a retired country road he heard the sound of wheels behind him, and presently a traveller in a gig drove up, drew in his horse, and asked if he could tell him which was the way to a country town at some little distance. The road happened to be rather intricate from the point at which they then were; but about two miles off it became plain, and sign-posts afterwards indicated it clearly. The young man. therefore, having explained the intricacy of the route to the traveller, said as he himself was merely riding for exercise, he would willingly accompany him so far on his road. The kindness of the offer and of the manner with which it was made pleased the young stranger, who, as they rode along, informed him that he was a commercial traveller. and having some business which must be transacted the next morning at the neighboring town, he had been uneasy when he found himself embarrassed as to the way to it. The young man turning to him, with a smile and look of benevolence and candor. turned this remark to a good account. and spoke to his new acquaintance of the way that leadeth unto life everlasting. Comparing our state in this life to that of persons desirous of reaching a certain destination, but uncertain of the way to it, he alluded to the folly of people saying that. if every one went his own way, all would meet at the same place at last; that all ways were alike, and that it was bigotry to suppose that we alone had found the right one, simply because we had looked at the sign-post which others were too proud, or too much engaged in looking about them, to read. As he found his companion quite ignorant of the religion of the gospel. he spoke to him of the two roads mentioned in the Bible as leading to our eternal destination : "the broad road" that leads to destruction, and "the narrow road'' that leads to life. He told him that both these roads were clearly pointed out, and that the word of God was the sign post which indicated them so distinctly, that none who looked with a real desire to see could mistake, and which showed their characteristics so plainly, that all who were walking in either might tell whether they were in the broad or narrow road.

He found that his companion, although he had a road-book and a travelling map. and often read them, had never been in the habit of referring to the sign post he alluded to. And then he spoke to him of Jesus Christ, who is "the way" by which men enter the narrow road to life, and the means by his Spirit wherehy they walk therein, and the end whereunto they finally attain. He told him that the characteristics of the two sets of travellers to eternity. those who walked in the broad road, and those in the narrow road, were inscribed on the sign-post he spoke of; and to make his meaning clear, he drew from his pocket a small Bible, and read from Gal. v : 19, 25. the following passages, that the first description, or that of the works of the flesh, indicated the broad road travellers; the latter, or that of the works of the Spirit, the narrow road travellers. "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit

The young man then dwelt on the known truth, that here we have no abiding city. and on the equally admitted fact, that almost all persons. high and low, rich and poor. profess to seek one to come : but with how much indecision and uncertainty! content neither to know the way, nor to see that they are walking in that which leadeth unto life; but that our abiding city is in eternity, and that after this life nothing will ever rectify a mistake if the way be missed.

The young man and the traveller parted at the cross roads; the sign post was there, and pointing to it the former said to the latter with a smile, …Farewell, remember the sign post I have spoken to you of. Look at the Bible to know if you are in the right way for a happy eternity ; and if ever in your future travels you should ask Which is the way!' remember that a stranger told you to seek the way that leadeth unto life."

Years passed on, and the two had never met : they had apparently forgotten each other. The young man had become a minister of Christ, and going once on some mission to a country town distant from his own rural charge, he was received by the rector of the parish. While they were together his curate came in, and at once stood still at the door, gazing at the visitor, who looked at him as one he had not seen before. Suddenly the curate darted forward, and stretching out his hand cried with some emotion, and with a sparkling countenance "I cannot, surely, be mistaken; you are the man who told me 'the way.'"The circumstance had quite passed from the visitor's mind. With gratitude and joy he heard that the way he had pointed out to a strange traveller had been found by him, and that the knowledge he had gained from his researches after that evening's journey, had finally been the means of bringing a soul to Christ, and adding a faithful and zealous minister to the church of God.