Devoted to the Propagation and Defense of New Testament Christianity
VOLUME 5
September 3, 1953
NUMBER 17, PAGE 5a

Worthy Walkers

Edsol Glenn Thompson, Sunnyside, Washington

"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called."

Man is a walking creature. His going about upon the sphere of earth in search of the vitals of life is dependent upon his constant movement. His quest for the honeycombs of righteousness in the spiritual realm necessitates a progression of footsteps in this direction.

That he has a choice of paths set before him, and is endowed with the powers of selection therewith, is age-old in regard to originality and certain as daytime and darkness in reference to veracity.

Many drift into the easy lanes which lead to the netherlands of iniquity; they fall as seed by the wayside and are devoured by the fowls of folly. They strew upon rocks and stony ground and wither in the blazing rays of solar heat; they tread into patches of thorns and are choked in thistles of wickedness. They walk upon the waters of unrighteous ambition and peter out when the waves of adversity white-cap beneath their wayward feet; they walk in the counsel of the ungodly and alas their predicament is as unfortunate as is the wisdom of their counselors. They try to thread the needles of generosity with the camels of selfishness; they are "little selfish pools dried up by the continual rays of a constant shining egotistic sun." Some, not content with natural means of motivation, saddle the ass of stubbornness and "Balaam" their way to the land of idolatry; fellow-travelers mount the steeds of hobbyism in an attempt to yoke the disciples of righteousness with obsolete circumcisions. They board ships of disobedience and become thorns in the sides of fellow passengers and a stench to the nares of the Almighty.

Many, by way of contrast, elect the strait and narrow paths that lead to everlasting rewards; they continue steadfastly in times of loaves and fishes and in times of scarcity, regarding the feeding of their spiritual stomach of more import and recompense. They travel in the ways of Enoch of old and are not, for Jehovah takes their lives into the safety of His stronghold; they walk together in two's and three's, and in companies and are agreed. They follow in the steps of the Distinguished Physician dispersing the gospel prescription into all the universe; they shepherd themselves toward the Bethlehem Star and are thus wise men entrusted with and holding to the treasures of earth.

These are the pedestrians upon the highways of glory; theirs is the kingdom of God.