DESTINY AFTER CHOICES

DESTINY

“And He saith unto me, Seal not up the words of the prophecy of this Book; for the time is at hand. He that is unrighteous let him do unrighteousness yet more: and he that is filthy, let him be made filthy yet more: and he that is righteous, let him do righteousness yet more: and he that is holy, let him be made holy yet more. Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is."—Rev. 22:10-12

          The revelation of Jesus Christ, which He sent and signified to His servant John, has to do, for the most part, with things yet to come—with the end of the present age, and the ushering in of the new and golden day of Christ ruling in the Kingdom of God, man’s day over. The awful pronouncement contained in the central of these three verses, has special reference to the seal­ing of character that will take place at the advent of Jesus Christ—using that word advent in its largest sense, a sense em­bracing the varied aspects of His second coming. That coming of Christ will be a decisive moment to millions; fixing their character unalterably and forever. All men wait in the purpose and counsel of God for the coming of Jesus. There have been events in history, of which we speak as remarkable and epoch-making.
            In the great movement and purpose of God, the last great event was the Incar­nation—the first advent—and the next will be the Return of the Lord—the sec­ond Advent. The present dispensation is one which takes its meaning and its char­acter from the first, and will find its consummation and its crowning in the second.
            Let it be kept in mind that this is not the first of the dispensations of God, neither is it the last; and the ultimate Divine purpose for humanity is not to be accomplished in this dispensation of the Spirit. There have been revealed to us, in hints, and pictures, and symbols, and in a few direct and forceful words, the fact of other Divine movements, even when the Church of Jesus Christ is completed, and the specific and special dispensation of the Holy Spirit is at an end. But we, of course, are interested principally in the dispensation in which we live; and of all peoples of the earth, none are more deeply involved in the conditions and movements of this age, because it has pleased God in His gov­ernment of the nations, and His selection of peoples for the carrying out of His purposes, to set upon us the choicest of His blessings, and to cause us to live in the brightest light, even of this Christian era. Therefore, while in a study such as this, other themes will suggest them­selves, and other problems arise—such as the position of the heathen, dead, and living, at the coming of Christ, and the new conditions obtaining after His ad­vent—we must turn from all of these, keeping our attention fixed upon this fact: that the verse which we have now to consider is one that has to with the present dispensation only, and specially with those people on the earth who have actually lived within its light, and there­fore have known, theoretically, its method and its meaning.
            At the coming of Jesus Christ, all the great forces of which we have spoken in previous articles—the forces which counteract heredity, environment, and create right influence—will be withdrawn in the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit. Beyond that withdrawal there will be new dispensations and movements of the Divine. But we, for all practical purposes, in the consideration of the greatest of all subjects, that of our des­tiny, have only to do with the dispensa­tion in which we live. Men and women are passing away from the scene of their probation; a probation spent in the light of the gospel truth. These men and women, as they pass beyond the action of these forces of the Spirit in grace, abide in exactly the same condition as that in which death finds them, until the second advent of Jesus ends this dispen­sation and ushers in the new.
            Human life, shorter or longer, accord­ing to Divine arrangement, is a period granted to beings—the meaning of whose existence stretches far out beyond the fleeting years of that life—in which to create their own character, their own eternity; and thus each one has the power to make his own future. Let us, first of all, consider what probation is in order that we may secondly consider how destiny grows from that period; and in the third and last place, make an appli­cation of this consideration to our present attitude.
            We have said that this present life of ours is the life of probation. It is important that we should understand the character of that probation. In this series of articles we have taken those verses in the writings of the apostle which hold Jesus Christ and Adam before us as being heads of the race—we have spoken of them, one as the child of disobedience, the other of obedience; transmitting the forces of their own lives to others, and each answering to environment—in one case to the true, and in the other to the false; in one case being wrecked, in the other victorious; and from these two typical cases we have drawn certain les­sons which apply to ourselves.
            Let it be remembered that the proba­tion of Adam and of Christ both differed from ours. Each stood upon his own responsibility, the first man, as we be­lieve, having a perfect start, with no tendencies inherited that would conspire to wreck his life—with the most perfect environment that man has ever known, for the creation of the tested and victo­rious character which God was seeking. Jesus Christ Himself embarked upon hu­man life as a child—passing through boy­hood and manhood up to maturity; but, nevertheless, because He always dwelt in the true environment—that of the pres­ence of God consciously known—He stood upon His own responsibility.
            It is not so with us. We are born with tendencies which we did not choose, and which, propelling us, force us along the lines of action against which our bet­ter nature rebels. We are surrounded from birth with certain influences that play upon us before we understand the meaning of them, or have learned to deal with them for the making or marring of our character.
            What, then, is probation to us? It is an opportunity for the play of the forces of grace upon characters which are ruined from the outset. I need not stay to discuss the awful fact of the ruin of character at the beginning. All the mys­tery and the meaning of it, who can tell.
            We simply face the fact that the tendency of human nature is to wrong, rather than to right; that the whole human race leans downward by the fallen nature into which it is born, rather than soars upward and heavenward. Yet, side by side with that fact, is the other fact of which we have been speaking, that God has put into operation forces for the re-making of character, which are superior to anything inherited—su­perior to any surroundings; so that the soul coming into living contact with those forces may rise superior to inherit­ance, and overcome all contradictory en­vironment.
            Between these two sets of forces each one of us stands; and the action of either upon our character will depend entirely upon our will. Amid the wreckage of human nature there is one vital element remaining—that which lifts humanity above the level of all other creation, and makes it almost Divine—the element of will! That has not been wrecked or ruined. Man still has his will—warped, bent, inclined to evil, it may be; but re­maining, so that if a man will yield himself to the forces of evil, they will work upon his life and blast his character: or, if a man will yield to the grace of God and to the power of the Holy Spirit, then those forces will make his character. Between these forces each man stands in the days of probation, having still his will, and being able to choose definitely for himself whether he will be marred by evil or made by good; whether he will become the slave of evil, losing his power of will in slavery to the evil he chooses; or, whether he will become the bond slave of Jesus Christ, his will yielded to Kingly dominion, and so learn un­der that blessed constraint to love the things that make for fair and strong character.
            My use of probation is described by the phrase of the text: "He that is un­righteous; he that is righteous." It can­not, in either case, be construed into meaning, "He that is in his nature right­eous or unrighteous"; for every man enters upon life, with his will between these forces, and his nature ready to re­spond to the one or to the other, as his will directs. It does mean that he who has refused the grace of God, and chosen deliberately the forces of evil, is the man who is unrighteous, because he has been carried along in the current to which he has committed himself.      On the other hand, he who has, by an action of the will, surrendered himself to the currents of grace and the forces of purity, is ren­dered righteous by those very forces to which he has committed himself. My probation is not the probation of a per­fect being, standing entirely alone. It is that of a man who begins life with an inheritance that hinders, and also with grace that can overcome that inheritance; with an environment that tends to degrade, and with another environment which is able to negative the force of the first: and upon the action of his will depends the issue.
            Out of that conception of probation grows the necessity for a solemn con­sideration of destiny. A man's destiny is created by his use of probation. There is a moment when the Divine command goes forth, and probation ends—and where a man is at that moment, his character is fixed, not in degree, but in direction—and that Divine word is never spoken until I have irrevocably chosen for myself. God never draws the line across human probation until the set determination, the whole sweep of the will, has decided what that final character is to be; but the moment God draws that line, then in that chosen direction man moves on; only he that is unrighteous is to be still more un­righteous, and he that is righteous is to be still more righteous.
The one thought that I want to fix in­delibly upon your minds is this—Destiny is fixed by the choice of the human will, which selects for itself its heaven or hell. Thus each one of us is building character forever. Those who are yield­ing to the forces around that mar the life, do so absolutely of their own free choice.
            Note, then, the awful responsibility of their action. They are not choosing for the moment only, but for tomorrow, and for the next day, and the next, for the years that lie ahead, and the ages that are beyond! It can all be altered now; but the day is coming when we shall no longer have the opportunity of choosing.
            When is that day of destiny? None can say. That secret nestles within the heart of God; only He knows the point that marks the end of man's pro­bation.
            This much is certain; probation will never end until the soul has deliberately chosen with the force of eternity; then there is no drawing back. No words more full of infinite meaning ever fell from the lips of Jesus Christ than these, "He that sinneth against the Holy Ghost is in danger of eternal sin." Not, as we have it, "eternal damnation," but "eter­nal sin."
            It is possible for the will of man—so magnificent is that will in its construc­tion, so marvelous in its powers—de­liberately to choose evil; and to choose it so completely with such utter aban­donment to it as to pass out into un­known ages of pain and misery. There is no word in the Bible that exactly fits with our word eternal. The strongest word that we have is age-long; and no man has any right to do other than leave the issues of the eternities with God. In the ages that baffle our contemplation, there are men who will deliberately choose evil; and the progression of evil beyond will multiply and enlarge, and there will be no drawing back. Destiny is being created by the choice you are making now. We act as though mo­ments came to us to be smiled or sobbed away, as the case may be, and then to be done with forever. It is not so. Montgomery sang truly when he sang:

'Tis a mistake: time flies not,

He only hovers on the wing:

Once born, the moment dies not,

Tis an immortal thing."

            So that the moment, here and now pres­ent, in which I choose good or evil, purity or pollution, has its blossoming beyond this life altogether. That is the true view of human life. We have treated it as though it were fleshly, car­nal; as though such things were the sum and substance. What awful madness! Life is the workshop of eternity; the time for making destiny; and the result will be in accordance with the deliberate choice of the individual will for evil or for good.
            This law of probation and destiny operates through all the region of human life. Do we not see it operating in lower matters? We have an old saying that, "The boy is father to the man." It is perfectly true. We are but "children of a larger growth." What the boy is—in temperament, in character, in the essentials of his life—he will be in manhood's days. At thirty, we are told, a man's habits are fixed and his character formed; and it is remarkably true in the realm of Christianity that the majority of people who are Christians were born again be­fore they had reached thirty years of age. I do not know whether that has ever occurred to you. After that age, the number is very small as compared with the company of those who join Christ's army when the glory of youth is on their brow. It is infinitely harder to get a man who has gone over the borders of thirty years to turn to God than it is to lead a boy to Christ.
            May I not turn aside and say here to every father and mother: Do not forget that. While those kids are round your knee at home, train their thoughts in the right direction. Get the boys and girls who gather in your class, teacher, and fill the opportunity of service they pre­sent to you, as though you knew their eternal destinies hung upon what you do for them now; for it is possible that you will not be able easily to change their course at a later period. I make reverent and thankful allowances for grace. In some cases men have not only passed thirty years, but have reached the allotted span of seventy years, and yet have found the purifying grace of God; but by comparison it is a rare oc­currence. Let me repeat, and leave this point with that repetition, that the vast majority of people who yield themselves to Christ, do so on the sunny side of the thirtieth milestone of their life's journey.
            So you have the law at work already. Character is tending to permanence; and when a man once chooses, it is difficult for him to go back upon his choice. It is a terrible law; but we are bound to face it. Question the wisdom of it, if you dare; but the fact remains, and the fact of law is the proof of its wisdom—for all law is of God. Every time I choose, it becomes harder work to go back upon my choice; and the further I go along the line, whether of right or of wrong, the harder it is to turn back from that line. The choice made freely, now becomes a bond and a bias. I choose again in the same direction, and tomor­row it is harder to turn back than it is today; and so character is tending to permanence: and every hour is sealing it upon us in a way that, if we did but real­ize it as we ought, would appall us, and drive us to heart-searching before God.
            At the coming of Jesus Christ, when we appear before Him, He will simply pronounce upon us the sentence which we have already deliberately chosen. At the judgment-bar of Jesus Christ no wit­nesses will be called. Why not? Be­cause none will be needed. We do not see each other as we really are. We look at faces, and upon them we see character, to some extent; but behind the story of the faces is the story of mo­tive, and intention, and aspiration, of determination and of will. These are things we do not see. We cannot pene­trate their hiding-place. No man has seen God at any time! No man has seen his brother-man at any time!
            When we arraign a criminal in one of our Courts of Justice, we call our wit­nesses, and the judge will sum up, and the jury will base their decision upon evi­dence given as to the hearing of the ear, and the seeing of the eye. No other judgment than that is possible. All sen­tences pronounced, all decisions arrived at, are concluded upon the evidence which comes from the seeing of the eye and the hearing of the ear. How different the judgment of the Eternal! Out of the old Hebrew prophecies hear this great word: "And He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears." When men come to the bar of God, they will not come wondering what the verdict will be, or what the sentence to be pronounced. That verdict and sentence will not depend upon the words spoken by witnesses. The facts of their character will be at once verdict and sentence. The Judge will pronounce upon them the sentence which they have already pronounced upon themselves by their choice. This principle is revealed in Matthew's account of the judgment of the nations (see chap. 25). The King will say not, "Cursed are ye"—He has never pronounced such a curse at all, but "Depart, ye cursed"­ cursed before the word is spoken. How cursed? Cursed by their own choice, by taking into their own life the forces of evil; by surrendering themselves to the forces that make for evil; and so render­ing themselves insensible to the need of the suffering "least of His brethren ": cursed, not by God, but by themselves: literally suicides, because they have yielded themselves to the awful forces that mar and spoil human nature. "Come, ye blessed": not "Blessed are ye"; but "Ye are blessed by your own choice." To those that choose, in the probation of grace, the forces that make and remake and build, God extends the sweet invita­tion of His “Come"; but to the others He gives the terrible command to "De­part," No witnesses will be called; for all souls will stand naked in the presence of the Judge, and will come to the judg­ment-seat with sentence already decided by the deliberate choice of their own free will.
            We are on our way straight to the place of judgment; and, of our own choice, deliberately move to the right or to the left. There is to be no selective separation by Divinity. There is to be selective separation by the spirits of men and women themselves. "He that is right­eous, let him be righteous still; but he that is unrighteous, let him be unright­eous still." And a man is righteous be­cause he has yielded himself to the forces of righteousness; or, he is unrighteous because he has yielded himself to the forces of unrighteousness. Thus we build our character, and create our own destiny, and prepare our own eternity.
            In these busy days that seem to come and go with ever-increasing rapidity, and which we treat as though they were opportunities for the indulgence of carnal appetites merely, you hear men talk about "killing time." Oh, better kill anything than time; better waste anything than
the moments lit as yet with the light of hope; better fritter away any wealth that happens to be in your possession, than these days overflowing with the grace and tenderness of God; for every day is an opportunity to choose, and each choice is the building of another stone into the foundation work, on which eternity will erect the structure, a structure true to the character of the foundation laid.
            Is it not true that at the judgment-throne of Jesus Christ all extenuating circum­stances will be taken into account? As­suredly it is! The greatest joy I have as I look upon that judgment-throne is the joy that comes from the certainty that I shall be judged, not upon testimony received, but on the essential facts of my life and choice. No single factor which has made it difficult or easy for me to choose will be left out of account. The place of my birth, my parentage, the opportunities granted, the use made of them —everything will be taken into account, and the bases of judgment for men and women dwelling in these lands of privi­lege, and for those living in the heart of heathen countries, will be the same in this sense, that God will judge men right­eously and justly, according to the oppor­tunities they have had. It is that very identity of eternal justice which will dif­ferentiate between the responsibilities of the one class and of the other. God will not expect from that man who has never heard the sound of Jesus' name, the same report of himself at the Great White Throne as He will from you, who have been familiar with Him. Certainly, ex­tenuating circumstances will be taken into account; but, remember this: Jesus said, speaking of the Spirit, "When He is come, He will convict the world in re­spect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." Now, that is one of the phrases which is perpetually misquoted. Almost everyone puts in two words which rob it of its force and meaning.
People say, "Of righteousness, and of judgment to Come."
            The judgment of which He spoke was not to come, but judgment accomplished: "The prince of this world is judged." When, therefore, we speak of this as the day of grace, let us remember, it is the day of grace because judgment is pro­nounced already upon evil, by the victory of Jesus. If we deliberately make choice of evil, then must we share the judgment passed upon evil now, at the Great White Throne, and forever; but if we choose to yield to the authority of the Vanquisher of evil, then are we lifted into the sphere of His resurrection life, which is the life of absolute victory over all the forces that are against us.
            How does this affect the plea of ex­tenuating circumstances? If a man is to set up this plea he must apply it, not to half the case, but to the whole; not merely to the forces that were against, but also to those which were for him.
            The man who pleads extenuating cir­cumstances, and who continues in his wrongdoing because of that plea, by that very action makes it impossible that those extenuating circumstances should be allowed. What would you say of a man who, tempted to the breaking of the law of the land, says, "I am driven to this crime; it will be all right, the judge will take into account the extenuat­ing circumstances, and, therefore, I will do it"? The judge would say, "By that deliberate choice, you denied the extenu­ating circumstances; for had they been, the act would have been sudden and swift, and repented of." He that chooses deliberately to do wrong, because of ex­cuses he may be able to plead, proves there was no necessity for the wrongful act. The man who has time to calculate upon extenuating circumstances has more than time to put himself into treaty and contact with the forces of grace, which are superior to all such circumstances. God can excuse no man who, pleading excuses in order that he may do these evil things, does not tell the whole story of the case. The strict justice that will make all allowance, also demands that we shall make full use of the forces that God has put into operation for us, and which lie close to our hand.
            There is no thought of the future so full of solemn heart-searching power as this of permanence of character. Do you choose impurity in any of its forms? Then you choose it, not for today, but forever. Do you choose purity at any cost? Then you choose it, not for to­day, but forever. The issue of this mo­mentous choice lies beyond all time and all scenes that fade. How this lifts my present life into the most lurid and awful light! What am I here for? I am here that I may prepare for all that lies beyond. What does tomorrow bring to me? Business hours, do you say? Opportu­nities for hard work, and beyond that, rest? No, actually: tomorrow brings, if its light shall dawn, further hours to choose, not for today, but forever. I choose as I teach this truth. You choose as you read it. And our choice does not end with the selection of this or of that, it runs out into the eter­nities by how we follow this truth.
            The ultimate issue of every action of every day is not what it seems to be in the view of men and women whose vi­sion is bounded by the horizon of proba­tional life; but the true issue of these do­ings of today is the character that exists from here on. Have I, then, to build my own character, to construct my own eternity, to make for myself my heaven or my hell? Assuredly I have! Then how long will God give me in which to do it? How long will He allow me in which to build and create that destiny? Not an hour; not a moment. Now is the only word that God speaks to human souls. "But," you say, "I cannot build character in an hour; I cannot undo what has been done in the past in a moment. How can I?" Now! It is here to undo or do; to break down or to build up. In God's now, ever present with you, never far away, this moment you can will. Beyond that you can do nothing. But in the plan of God that is enough! You will, and force responds to your will. You say, "I will take the way of sin"; and immediately all the disintegrating forces of sin begin to play with your moral fiber and rob you of the force to will anything but that which you have now "willed." Or, you say, "I will do right," and then the stronger forces of grace begin their work upon you; to build up where you have broken down; to repair the ruined structure of your character: and so every moment is a mo­ment in which I am to will, and every crisis is a crisis in which I am to will; and to my will respond forces of evil or forces of righteousness, according to the way I will.
            How, then, shall we "will"? There, on the one hand, stretches the path—easy and flowery and filled with music, so men tell us—a path that needs no her­oism. If I will that, then that is the is­sue as well as the crisis: and away to the other side stretches the path that is rough and thorny—so men tell us—the path that demands nerve, and is shadowed with conflict and strife. If I will that, then that is the issue as well as the crisis. But that is not the true story of either of these paths. I have simply for a mo­ment taken the popular conception of them. Hear another story of this path, so flowery and radiant with light and color, and vibrating with music. "The way of transgressors is hard"—not the end of it, but the way itself. Hungers, dissatisfaction, disappointments, are its companions; and the soul is never at rest. Well, if I choose it that is the issue as well as the crisis. What of this other path? It is the path of perfect peace, where harmony is substituted for strife, and the storms are swallowed up in peace, "the peace of God which passeth all understanding"; and if I will that, that is the issue as well as the crisis. The one leads to the everlasting hunger, and the other to the everlasting rest.
            God, in Christ, bends over man in in­finite pity—over the man whom He has created in His own image, endowing him with power to will, and He says, "Wilt thou be made whole?" and I turn my back to the allurements of this side that leads to evil and to hunger, and I say, "O Nazarene, Thou hast conquered by an infinitude of love; and if out of the wreckage of my life Thou canst create character that abides, I give myself to Thee, and I `will' to follow Thee." That path leads right on to the eternal rest. I choose in my pulpit; and you cannot help me. You must choose in the pew; and I cannot help you. God help preacher and people alike to choose aright.