Of course that coming we take to be Christ's coming, and we have just
to consider the manner in which His coming fulfils this great promise,
and has made in the trackless wilderness a way for us to walk in.
1. Christ gives us a Definite Aim for Life. I know, of course, that men
may have this apart from Him, definite enough in all conscience. But
such aims are unworthy of men's whole capacities. Not one of them is
fit to be made the exclusive, all-embracing purpose of a life, and,
taken together, they are so multifarious that in their diversity they
come to be equal to none. How many we have all had! Most of us are like
men who zig-zag about, chasing after butterflies! Nor are any such aims
certain to be reached during life, and they all are certain to be lost
at death.
Godless men are enticed on like some dumb creature lured to
slaughter-house by a bunch of fodder--once inside, down comes the
pole-axe.
But Christ gives us a definite aim which is worthy of a man, which
includes all others; which binds this life and the next into one.
2. Christ gives us distinct knowledge of whither we should go. It is
not enough to give general directions; we need to know what our next
step is to be. It is of no avail that we see the shining turrets far
off on the hill, if all the valleys between are unknown and trackless.
Well: we have Him to point us our course. He is the exemplar--the true
ideal of human nature. Hour by hour His pattern fits to our lives.
True, we shall often be in perplexity, but that perplexity will clear
itself by patient thought, by holding our wills in suspense till He
speaks, and by an honest wish to go right. There will no longer be
doubt as to what is our law, though there may be as to the application
of it. We are not to be guided by men's maxims, nor by the standards
and patterns round us, but by Him.
3. Christ gives means by which we can reach the aim. He does so by
supplying a stimulus to our activity, in the motive of His love; by the
removal of the hindrances arising from sin, through His redeeming work;
by the gifts of new life from His Spirit.
'The labour of the foolish wearieth every one of them, because he
knoweth not how to go to the city.' But he that follows Jesus treads
the right way to the city of habitation.
4. Christ goes with us. The obscure words, 'It shall be for those' are
by some rendered, 'He shall be with them,' and we may take them so, as
referring to the presence with His happy pilgrims of the Lord Himself.
Perhaps Isaiah may have been casting back a thought to the desert
march, where the pillar led the host. But at all events we have the
same companion to 'talk with us by the way,' and make 'our hearts burn
within us,' as had the two disconsolate pedestrians on the road to
Emmaus. It is Jesus who goes before us, whether He leads us to green
pastures and waters of quietness or through valleys of the shadow of
death, and we can be smitten by no evil, since He is with us.