IN the present day there is much said and written about twentieth-century civilisation and the progress which we have made compared with the way in which our forefathers lived. We are always keen to hear of something new, and manifest such an itch after novelty that we may be compared to the people of Athens when the Apostle Paul sojourned among them for we read that, “All the Athenians, and strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” The old paths are looked upon as not suitable for the present age and those who adhere to them are looked upon as “behind the times” and useless for this world. They are reckoned to be “impracticable elements” and a hindrance instead of a help. This is very much the case as regards the professing Church. The old paths are forsaken so that it is clearly fulfilled what Jeremiah says, “The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts.” Preachers ceased to declare the whole counsel of God and especially what has been described as the “sterner aspects” of the Gospel, and succeeded in emptying their churches. As progress in this direction had its manifest disadvantages, instead of returning to the old paths, they went forward to get the people back again to the churches, by bringing in things which, not only have no connection with the Gospel, but militate against it. They have no room in their gospel of progress for the old paths. Much, however, as these old paths are despised by so-called church leaders, there is one thing which should cause us to be drawn to them, and that is, that they are commended by God. “Thus saith the Lord, stand in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” Thus we find God and those who, under pretence of making progress, depart from the old paths, at variance.
God further describes these old paths as “the paths of uprightness,” the “way of good men,” and “the paths of the righteous.” This shows us that these paths have their origin in God Himself, for He alone is upright, good, and righteous, and as He is in Christ He is the only way. Therefore, to forsake the old paths is to forsake God. The Bible brings these old paths before our notice as a “narrow way,” that “leadeth unto life,” yet it is but few that find it; whereas “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” In the old paths there is an acknowledgment of God as the Ruler of all things and the One to whom we are accountable for all our deeds done in the body; there is a desire to cleave to Him and to follow Him through good report and through evil report, and a single eye to His glory in everything. Further there is a holy submission to His will and an earnest desire to know His mind as that is revealed in His Word. As this is true concerning individuals in their private lives it is also true concerning these same individuals when they organise themselves into congregations or churches. The doctrine to be preached, the government and discipline to be exercised, and the mode of worship are all conformed to the pattern shown in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. The keynote of all who walk in the old paths is, “What saith the Lord.”
In these old paths our forefathers walked and prospered. In their troubles and trials they committed their case to God, and could testify that He delivered them. “Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.” Past experiences of His deliverance enabled them in every fresh trial to go to Him and they were never disappointed. When by a multitude of thoughts their hearts were overwhelmed their cry was, “lead me to the Rock that is higher than I,” and they survived their troubles so as to be enabled to say, “Thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name.” In the government of the nation and in their dealings with other nations, as a rule, they adhered to the old paths, and proved with respect to these nations that, “their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges.” On the other hand where there were departures from the old paths, God was correcting them by manifestations of His displeasure. Their adherence to the old paths was equally manifest in the things which belong to the Kingdom of Christ. From the time of the Reformation the history of the Church and of the State is so joined together that it is impossible to separate them. Our Constitution holds our Sovereigns bound on oath to support the Protestant religion, and thus the State pledges itself to religious liberty and becomes a strong bulwark against the intolerance of the Roman Catholic system and the pretensions of the Pope. In our day it is sad to see that bulwark being weakened and our nation departing from the old paths, and, with this weakening, a corresponding lack of spiritual and temporal prosperity.
It is impossible to enumerate the many ways in which the old paths are forsaken in this land. Which of the commandments of God have we not transgressed openly and daringly? We who are under covenant obligations to the God of Heaven to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments have conspired to break His bands and cast His cords from us, vainly and foolishly imagining that because we have changed our attitude towards God’s paths that God has also changed, and that we can deal with Him as we like. The respect for the things of God which for the most part characterised even men of the world, has gone, and men who are the most careless and indifferent as regards matters of the highest importance, daringly and presumptuously intrude themselves into the highest offices of the Church, as if uttering the plea recorded of old in the doom of Eli’s house, “Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest’s offices that I may eat a piece of bread.” How widespread this evil is in our day shows how we have departed from the old paths when we consider that after the Reformation in Scotland, though the Reformed Church was sorely in need of ministers, yet the courts of the Church refused to receive into its ministry any except such as showed marks of genuine piety. Our attitude towards one another is another evidence that we have forsaken the old paths. God commands us to love our neighbour as ourselves, but now the love of many has waxed cold. Instead of that love which God commands there is hatred, wrath, strife, evil-speaking, and envy manifesting clearly that those who are guilty of these things are of the devil.
The evil and danger of having forsaken the old paths is revealed in Jeremiah xviii., 15, 16, 17, where God says, “Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burnt incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up: to make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing: everyone that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.” This clearly reveals that not only will God not accompany men when they forsake the old paths, but that He will become their enemy. And who is able to fight against the Almighty? There is great danger in our day, when we have forsaken the paths in which God is to be found, that God will give us over to the fierce rage of our enemies. We have deserved it, and there is nothing to hinder Him doing it. In the past while we as a nation walked in the old paths He dealt with us as with children but He has warned us that, “if His children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments: if they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.” This should cause us nationally and individually to seek after the old paths, for there is no safety for us elsewhere. In seeking after the old paths there must be a mourning for how we have gone astray, such a mourning and seeking as Jeremiah prophesised of when he said: “In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God. They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.”—J. C.