The Old Paths — J. C. Ryle
The opening paper of Ryle’s Old Paths; Grace Gems carries only this chapter of that book.
“Thus says the LORD: Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it. Then you will find rest for your souls.” Jeremiah 6:16
I knew a man of God who made a great mark in his day, who said to me, thirty-five years ago, that Jeremiah was pre-eminently a book for the latter days of England. To that opinion I entirely subscribe. Holding that opinion, I ask my readers to hear a few words about the text which I have chosen. I commend it to you as a text for the times.
The book of the prophet Jeremiah receives from most Christians far less attention than it deserves. It is a noteworthy fact that hardly any portion of Holy Scripture is the subject of so few exhaustive commentaries and expositions.
I fail to see the reason of this comparative neglect. The book was written, under God’s inspiration, by a Jewish priest, at a peculiar crisis, in the last days of the kingdom of Judah. Jeremiah was God’s messenger to a wicked king — a worldly aristocracy — a corrupt people, in a rotten Church, and a dead formal priesthood. He warned his countrymen faithfully, but, like Cassandra of old, he was not believed. He lived to see the complete ruin of Church and State, the city burnt, the temple of Solomon destroyed, and the people carried into captivity. And, finally, it is a Christian tradition, that, after being dragged into Egypt by the Jewish refugees, who fled there, he died the death of a martyr.
I repeat that the writings of such a prophet as this deserve more attention than they have hitherto received.
I. First of all, you have in this text excellent general advice. Jeremiah says to you, “Stand, and see, and ask.” I take these words to be a call to thought and consideration. They are as though the prophet said, “Stop and think. Stand still, pause, and reflect. Look within, behind, and before. Do nothing rashly. What are you doing? Where are you going? What will be the end and consequence of your present line of action? Stop and think!”
Now to set men thinking is one great object which every Christian teacher should always keep before him. Serious thought, in short, is one of the first steps toward Heaven. “I thought on my ways,” says the Psalmist, “and turned my feet unto Your testimonies” (Psalm 119:59). The prodigal son in the parable “came to himself” before he came to his father. He began to consider quietly the folly and uselessness of his conduct, and then, and not until then — he returned home, saying, “Father, I have sinned” (Luke 15:18).
Lack of thought is, in truth, the simple cause why many make shipwreck forever. There are but few, I suspect, who deliberately and calmly choose evil, refuse good, turn their back on God, and resolve to serve sin as sin. The most part are what they are — because they began their present course without thought. They would not take the trouble to look forward, and consider the consequence of their conduct. By thoughtless actions they created habits which have become second nature to them. They have got into a groove now, and nothing but a special miracle of grace will stop them.
That is a solemn charge which Isaiah brings against Israel: “My people do not consider or understand” (Isaiah 1:3). “I never gave it a thought,” is the sad excuse which I have heard many a man or woman make for sin. The words of Hosea are strictly true of thousands: “They consider not in their hearts” (Hos.7:2).
There are none, we must all be aware, who bring themselves into so much trouble by lack of thinking as the young. From natural high spirits and ignorance of the world — they are always tempted to look only at the present, and forget the future. Too often they marry in haste — and repent at leisure — and lay up misery for life by wedding an uncongenial partner. Too often they choose in haste a wrong profession or business, and find, after two or three years, that they have made an irretrievable mistake, and, if I may borrow a railway phrase, have got on the wrong line of rails.
Esau thought only of present gratification, and sold his birthright for bowl of stew.
Dinah must needs go “to see the daughters of the land,” thinking no harm, and ends by losing her own pure character, and bringing trouble on her father’s house (Gen.34:1-31).
Lot thought only of the present advantage of settling in the well-watered valley around Sodom, and forgot the consequence of being mingled with a people who were “sinners before God exceedingly” (Gen.13:13).
All these found to their cost, the folly of not considering, looking forward, and thinking. They sowed to the flesh, and they reaped a harvest of sorrow and disappointment, because they did not “stand and consider.”