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IN TOUCH WITH GOD    by Edward Heppenstall

 
Christian Obedience JULY 31

THE NARROW AND THE BROAD WAY

Enter ye in at the strait gate . . . . 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.

There are no traffic jams on the narrow way to eternal life. The heavy traffic is all on the broad road that leads to destruction. Only a few take the first; the rest take the second. It is impossible to avoid both. You have to take one or the other. There is no third alternative.

The narrow way is that which is restricted to the will and purpose of God. We must take the field as champions of virtue and righteousness. Whatever is found to be unfit for the Christian life, whatever dissipates our minds or cools our devotion to God, whatever indisposes us to study the Bible or engage in prayer, whatever dulls our need to worship God, whatever pleasures we cannot thank God for and on which we cannot ask His blessing—all these things are not for us.

Never go where you cannot ask God to go with you. Never indulge in any pleasure or entertainment that will not bear the morning's reflection with God. Never be found where you would not like death to find you. Remember that the path is narrow and it is easy to stray.

The time comes to us all when the way of life divides before us. One way only is marked as the strait and narrow way. That moment of supreme decision has arrived. Christ shows us the narrow way. Satan beckons to the broad way.

Heaven above our head
Watches us in silent dread;
While the angels stand around,
Breathless in suspense profound.
—Author Unknown
Take the road with Christ. Let us keep company with the great men of God. Men and women who walk with Christ on the narrow way are the greatest need of the church. The narrow way offers us the grandest and most daring enterprises anywhere in the universe. What a prospect for our lives and for enlisting our friends and relatives to take this way into the New Jerusalem.

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