Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1904-05-31
CHOOSE.
God Does Not Impose AFbitrary AM
UnreasonAble COmmAndA, 6et
Sets Before Us Facts.

The Bible does not impose upon as
arbitrary and unreas ona bic commands.
It sets before us facts and invites US
to decide with enthusiasm for one al
formative or the other-for GOD Will
have no lukewarm service. In view OF
the awful temptations and the noble
opportunities with which every lie
abounds, it says to every man who has
ears to hear: Choose" A glance at
any concordance, says the Sunday
School Times, will show how often
the Bible presents US with the
thought that God makes choices.
Choice is one of the highest ex-
ercises of the rational nature, and
the divine command to choose
such command as was urged by Moses
and Joshua, by Christ and Paul, by all
teachers and leaders who have felt
the everlasting Importance OF hfe's
issaes-such command can dis
honor no man. 1t assumes that we
are rational beings, who were not
msde to be driven, but who can exam
inc and decide for ourselves.
* The power to choose, which lifts US
above the brutes, is a power that we
neither conspicuous successes nor
brilliant failures, just because men so
seldom arrest, themselves and make
some deliberate resolve. The mistake
which blights so many Lives is, not that
they make definite choice CT evil. but
that they never choose at all 100 sell
dom do men look alternatives honestly
in the face. They do not choose, they
drift. You could almost count up on
the fingers of your two hands all the
men YOU know who have ever maze
some great and solemn choice which
has seriously shaped their subsequent
career. How many could tell why they
are in this trade or profession, and not
in that; in this church, and not in that?
We are where we are, often, simply be-
cause our parents. Or some other OF the
powers that be, put us there. So far,
that is right; we must receive our start
in Life from others. But, as we love
God and our own souls, we must not
stand there; we must learn to choose
for ourselves. and not drift into the
other world with the helplessness OF
the beasts that perish.
Numberless things Of the highest
moment were determined for us before
ever we saw the light. We did not
choose our parents, our family, our
country, our language, our religion,
our social station, the sphere within
which our friendships are possible or
by which our education is limited.
We stand, as it were, within charmed
circle, across which we often feel we
cannot step. If We move at all, 1T is
only, like the prisoner, to walk to and
| fro and round and round. Yet God has
| so made US that it. is in our power to
choose the greatest things. Our path
may sometimes seem to be tracked out
| for us before ever we begin life's jour
| ney; we may seem to be sternly COM
passd about by necessity, yet Gods
| word to every man is Choose" And
| woe to him who stops his ears and al
| lows himself to be borne onward
every day nearer and nearer to goal
which he has never once looked
straight in the face!
Nor need our choice be blind one.
IL is to be made in the light of our ex-
perience. God asks no man to choose
without giving Him facts to deter
mine his choice. We cannot look over
our little lives, still less over the ex-
panse of history, without choosing for
| God. if we choose at all. Do you not
see how your life has been nodded by
Divine fingers? how the disappoint-
ment which a few years ago you felt
sure would crush you has opened up
| for you other treasures of undreamed-
| of happiness, which would have been
forever sealed had God then given
/ YOU your own foolish way? DO you
not feel that the bereavement which
seemed to bury your own heart in the
grave of your dear dead has brought
you after many days peace, and
even a quiet JOY, which you never
knew before? Your past is written al
over with the finger of God; it is IL
the light of all that. that you are te
make your choice. The God who bid.
YOU choose is the God who helps yot
to choose, who
| From our mothers arms
Hath blessed US on our way
| With countless gifts Of love.
! And still is-ours to-day.
|. And the time to choose is to-day
! Time has no meaning for God: Cor Hin
! who is. and was, and il to be, there il
no yesterday and no tomorrow. But
| we are creatures of time. A hundred
| years ago we were not; in another
| hundred years,we shall not be-not, q
L