Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1908-05-01
THE MARROW WAY.

By Rev. Harris j. Harrington.
Enter in by the narrow gate, for
wide is the gate and broad is the way
that leadeth to destruction, and many
are they that enter thereby. For mar
row is the gate and Strengthened the
way that leadeth unto life and few
are they that find it."-Mat vii, 13.
The self-constituted snints have
spoiled a great deal of scripture. They
have twisted this plain statement I'M
til it has been made to mean that the
best evidence of religion Is a cramped
heart and a starved intellect Men
who have been so singular that even
saints who lived with them soon be-
came sinners have taken their unique
ness as proof of their holiness. And
churches have narrowed their creeds
and shriveled their sympathies in or
der to prove their conformity to the
Lords supposed precepts by their con-
tradiction of His known practice.
But the plain, thoughtful man of the
world knows that Jesus never made
more accurate statement of every day
fact than this. He Is not speaking Of
a church or of religion as a speciality
In life; He is talking simply about liy-
ing and the two ways that men live.
Is it not a fact that there is en-
trance and room for every one who
drifts into the way of deterioration?
Are not the crowded ways the ways
where the failures walk? Are not the
narrow, difficult paths those where the
seekers after success climb?
The road to destruction, to failure,
Is not broad because the Almighty laid
1t out that way, making it like an In
viting boulevard. 1t is the way the
many drift. You do not have to look
long to find way to fail. Follow the
line of least resistance, and you will
not be lonesome therein.
And is not the teacher right when he
says that the road to larger life Is a
hard one, that no one enters 1t by ac-
cident, and that but a few toll up its
craggy way? Yet we know that that
ls the best way. The path of pain
alone leads to perfection.
But 1t is not the number In the road
that makes either right or wrong; that
depends on the direction OF the road.
The direction determines the number
who walk therein. Virtue is not virtue
because Ii Is rare, but because 1t Is
hard, and this is the reason 1t Is rare.
Why was not the right road made
the easy one? Because virtue without
victory would cease to be virtue. The
value of a good deed is not in itself.
but In the contribution 1t makes to
character. To be right is more than to
do the exact thing; 1t is to have over
come some wrong, to have made yet
again some choice, some decision, that
determines the trend of life Charac-
ter is not prize awaiting at the goal;
1t is created within you by the very
hardness of the way.
The law of the narrow gate and the
Strengthened way is written over all
life. Up through struggle come the
forms Of plant and animal existence
that find enduring life, the ones that
survive. Up through opposition and
revolution, bloodshed and agony, come
the nations that find life. No man
reckons the many that have gone
down. Up through hardships, toll, self
denials, opposition. bitter struggles
with himself comes the man who finds
life, who becomes a man indeed.
This is Christ's call to success, to
character, the only enduring and salts
flying success. Don't think, He says,
that the way to this Is 90 easy that
you are going to drift Into 1t. You
must seek It with care. II you would
really have life you must make living
the largest business you have on hand
You viii not become successful in your
sleep,
Toll and trial lead to triumph; they
make it. Obstacles are invitations to
the man seeking life; the narrow gate
and the Strengthened way challenge
him. Christ says, enter this path. not
because 1t is painful, but because its
prizes are so great. Only as long as
we strive do we live. The path of dal-
lance is that of death.