The Apostles stood around the Lord on the eve of the last Passover, and hanging with melancholy pleasure upon his words--his parting words--he spoke of his departure, which was then at hand, and their hearts were sad; for years they had been his companions, while traversing the land of Judea, enduring the storm and contempt of those he came to save; they had listened to his pure teachings; they had seen the miracles of mercy he had performed; they were near him at the gates of Nain, when he gave such glad tidings to the widow, who mourned the loss of her only earthly stay; they stood by the tomb of Lazarus, when he called him from the embrace of [61] death; they had shared in his privations and sorrows, and now, when he was about to leave them to struggle against the world alone, deep sorrow was depicted in every countenance, and sadness brooded over every heart. He knew well the grief that caused them to bow their heads in silence; he saw the tears with which the pain of parting had suffused their eyes; his heart was stirred with sympathy, and the words of consolation, "Let not your hearts be troubled," flowed from his hallowed lips.

      He bade them believe--to exercise that noble principle of faith, by which, though absent, they might still be united. In the simplest style he informed them of the cause of his departure; and consoled them by presenting to their minds the glories of that bright abode which he was about to prepare for their reception, where they should dwell forever at his own right hand. But there was one amid that tearful band, to whom these words seemed dark and mysterious; his mind was not sufficiently enlightened concerning the things of heaven--he saw not clearly, as he desired, the path to the home of the blessed, and, in the solicitude of his heart, he makes the anxious inquiry: "How shall we know the way?"

      The Saviour reproves not the doubter; but kindly turns to resolve the doubts of this weak disciple, whose love was strong, though his faith was weak, and to point out the way to life eternal. He points him not to the old path, marked out by Moses and the Prophets, in which all God's ancient people trod; but, fixing his gaze upon Thomas, he exclaims, "I am the Way."

      He does not represent himself as the great author of that system, which, if believed and obeyed, will result in the salvation of those who place themselves under its influence; or as the author of that new and living way which he came to open up for our lost race; but calling on those around to behold in him the full and perfect embodiment of the new dispensation, he declares, in the loftiest style of metaphor, "I am the Way." Since the day that man was exiled from Paradise, and the presence of his Maker, he has been continually striving to return, and recover his lost dignity; but his moral vision has been so beclouded by the effects of the fall, that all his attempts to find his way back to God have been almost fruitless--the true path has been lost, and, like the bewildered traveler, whom nightfall has overtaken in the midst of a dense forest, he groped his way through the gloom, uncertain whither his wandering footsteps led. True, he was permitted to worship at a distance, through the instrumentality of sacrifice; but when this method of approach was contrasted with his former intimacy, in the days of his innocence, when he stood face to face with God, the way seemed dark and mysterious, and he longed [62] for a closer approach, for a nearer view of that pure and holy Being, from whom he had everlastingly departed.

      This feeling was universally entertained, and all the rites of pagan worship have sprung from this irrepressible desire to find the way to God, which nothing has been able to extinguish in the heart of our erring, fallen, yet not wholly degenerate race. Man has ever felt that there is some object in the universe to whom worship is due; that there is a happier clime than the earth on which he dwells, and that every victim he has slain, and every prayer he has offered, has proved his belief in a great overruling Being, and his yearning desire for happiness, when all earthly scenes shall forever have closed.

      Philosophers have arisen, who have looked upon and pitied the condition of their kind; they have reasoned profoundly, concerning the great Author of all things, and the nature of the worship that should be paid him, until dazzled by the splendor of the theories they have framed, and looking upon themselves as little less than divinities, have cried out to their fellows, "This is the way, walk ye in it.' But the light of unassisted reason was too feeble to point out the path for the lost man's return and the theories of the wise men of this world only lead to bewilder and dazzle, but to blind; hence, all such striving after God has only resulted in the most debasing rites, and grovelling superstitions.

      The night of moral gloom was fast closing over the world; the Jews had nullified the law which God had given them, by their traditions, which had usurped its place; the pagan nations were plunging into still deeper ignorance, and grosser superstition, and the world seemed to be abandoned to utter helplessness, when the Saviour came to visit, and bless us with the soul-cheering intelligence, "I am the Way."

      The declaration of the Messiah has gone forth to all lands; much of the darkness which brooded over the minds of our race has been dissipated; the way to heaven has been made abundantly plain, and men of every condition 2nd every clime, are called upon to turn their feet thitherward. But men, in their perversity, have sought out other paths for their feet, and thousands have been seduced into these forbidden ways under the delusion, that they led to the Celestial City and often the error has not been discovered until it was too late to retrace their steps. Christ is the only true way--all others are the paths of error, and will result in the misery of those whose unwary feet walk therein; though they are pleasant to the eye, and seem like the way of life, they will lead at last to the chambers of death. Flowers may bloom along these paths, and luxuriant foliage shade the thoughtless wanderers from the noonday heat; yet, though cool fountains murmur, [63] and the bright bowers invite to repose, they are but the wiles of the evil one to lure to destruction; for though these paths seem so inviting, they lead to a fearful precipice, down whose rugged steeps, all the lovers of the pleasant paths of sin, will be plunged to hopeless ruin. Listen not, then, to the syren voice of earthly pleasure, when she bids you turn your feet into her flower-strewn paths; but seek the narrow way of virtue which the Saviour points out, for though the way seem rugged, and beset with numberless difficulties, they will only prove your courage, and will soon be surmounted; the journey, though toilsome, will soon be ended, and your weary feet will stand in the City of God.

      Christ is the only way to happiness and life--and to walk in that way is simply to imitate his example, and keep all his commandments, for thus only can we trace his footsteps still. Let us, then, pursue with ardor and delight, our upward, our heavenly way--and as Christ, our leader, is himself the Way, let us ever continue to walk in him.

[B.]      

Source:

B. "Christ the Way." The Millennial Harbinger 23 (July 1852): 405-408.

[MHA1 61-64]