The Tupelo journal., 1903-01-02

Promised Land of the New Year.
VIII you enter that Promised Land
with Caleb and Paul and make it the
best year of your life?
The Promised Land.-The history
of the children of Israel is familiar
to all. How the promise came to
Abraham that his seed were to pos
sess the land of Canaan; how they
suffered bondage in the land of
Egypt for 400 years; how God raised
up a leader for them in Moses and
brought them by a miraculous way
through the Red sea, down through
the wilderness around Mount Sinai,
and up to the border land Of Canaan,
where we find Caleb pleading with
the people to &c up at once and pos
sess the land which God has prom
ised to give them, and which in His
strength they are well able to over
come. The Promised Land was a
land flowing with milk and honey. A
veritable garden spot where every Is
%raelite was to dwell in safety and
contentment under his own vine and
fig tree. A Promised Land for Israel,
but is there a Promised Land for
everyone who will go up and possess
it? Let us see.
The Promised Land was given by
promise of God to Israel; it was Sc
lected by God, and God led the way
up and into the land. This triple
association of God with the Promised
Land has its close parallel in the re-
lations which God sustains or wishes
to sustain to every life. It is said
that life is what we make it, and a
trenchant saying of the present day
is: Don't wait for your opportu-
nifty; make it," Longfellow, in his
psalm of Life" says:
Lives of great men all remind US
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind US
Footprints on the sands of time"
These declarations are true when
God is linked in the thought and
when He has an opportunity to work
out in the purpose and activity o.
man, but they are only half truths il
man seeks by himself and in his OWN
strength and wisdom to make his
own opportunity, and TO make his life
a sublime success. There can be NO
truth apart from Him Who is The
Truth. There can be no true success,
true happiness, true achievement of
any kind which does not include God
every life is the supreme POSSIBLE
ity which lies in hat life through
Christ Jesus; as Paul puts it: 1.-THE
high calling of God in Christ Jesus"
The supreme possibility of the chill
dren of Israel lay in their entering
the Promised Land of Canaan and oc-
cupying it. How the glory of that
possession shines out in the reign of
Solomon, so that to this day the
splendor and wisdom of Solomon are
cited as a basis of comparison. The
children of Israel, if they had not
entered their Promised Land, might
perhaps have built cities elsewhere.
they might have become a successful,
and prosperous nation, possibly. but
they never could have reioiced in the
splendor and riches, and prosperity
and power of a Solomon's reign il
they had not occupied the land God
chose for them and gave to them. So
it is with the individual life. 1t may
refuse to enter the Promised Land.
and still seem to win success and
honor, and fame, and riches, but the SUI
preme possibility ofthe Promised Lane
is not realized.
The Promised Land was Divinelv
selected. and God by His wonderful
providences led the way into it. So
before you and me in the New Year.
1t is Divinely appointed. and God will
lead yon and me into it. if we
will but let Him. The "high
calling of God in Christ Jesus"
is the land flowing with the
milk and honey of Divine possi~
bilities which God calls every soul I'd
enter. There are %fightings by the
way, there are Jordans to be crossed,
| there are Jerichos to be overcome,
there are enemies to be driven out.
but God leads every step of the way.
And what is "the high calling of God
in Christ Jesus?" Is it a calling
which takes a soul out of active touch
with the practical. throbbing life OF
the world and makes him a nonen.
tity? Is it a calling which puts a sill
ver-stringed harp in our hands, an
angelic smile on our faces and a song
in our mouths,
ooh. to be nothing, nothing.
Only to lie at His feet"
No! A thousand times no! Strange,
isn't it? that such an idea should
| have gotten abroad in the world. Ii
Gods Word is to be believed, and it's
grand procession of heroes which
passes before us from Abel, the first
successful sheep raiser, and Noah,
famous in his time as a mighty archi-
tect and builder, down to Paul, the
greatest logician and thinker of his
or any other time, is to be allowed
to bring it's weight of proof, then
we must admit that the men who
have entered the Promised Land OF
the high calling OF God have been
in the most practical and vital con-
tact with the world. The high call
ing of God in Christ Jesus does not
shut the Office door, does not husA
the hustle of the mart of trade, does
not stop the factory wheels, does net
close the books of the student or
quiet the busy hum of the halls of
learning and invite the cobwebs Of
ignorance to weav their disfiguring
mantle over the intellect. No, It