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Music For the Soul
Devotional: December 17th

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THE NEED OF A DEFINITE AIM IN LIFE - I.

They went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came. - Genesis 12:5

The reference of these words, as we all know, is to Abraham’s great act of faith, when he left Haran and his native place to begin the pilgrim-life which God had called him to undertake. It is a strange description of a journey to leave out the journey altogether, and only to mark two points - the beginning and the end. The keynotes of the narrative are these two - " went forth"; " came in." The only things worth noticing about any life are whither it was directed and whether it reached its aim. All the toils of the road, the privations, the weary marches, the hunger and thirst, the perils and foes, are all dropped out of sight. Never mind about these. They "went forth to go"; - and they came where they went to go. As one of our modern poets has it, there are

"Two points in the adventure of the diver,

One when, a beggar, he prepares to plunge,

One when, a prince, he rises with his pearl."

"They went forth " for one definite purpose, "to go into the land of Canaan." Now, perhaps, you will remember that the New Testament lays stress upon what might, at first sight, seem a contradiction; and says that Abraham went out, " not knowing whither he went." But there is no real contradiction. Both statements are true. In Abraham’s case there was a combination of knowledge and ignorance similar to that which we may all have in our lives; for he certainly knew that he was to be led at last to a land which he should afterwards inherit, and he knew, when he crossed Euphrates and set his face westwards, that Canaan was his immediate "objective point" (as soldiers say), but he did not know, till after his departure from his first home, that Canaan was the promised land. Abraham went forth, as it were, with sealed orders. He was bid to go to a certain place, and, when there, he would get further instructions. He knew that he was to go to Canaan, and beyond that point all was dark, except for the sparkle of the great hope that gleamed on the horizon in front, as a sunlit summit rises above a sea of mist between it and the traveller. Like such a traveller, Abraham could not accurately tell how far off the shining peak was, nor where, in the intervening gorges full of mist, the path lay; but he plunged into the darkness with a good heart, because he had caught a glimpse of his journey’s end. So with us. We may have clear before us the ultimate aim and goal of our lives, and also the step which we have to take now, in pressing towards it; while between these two there stretches a valley full of mist, the breadth of which may be measured by years or by hours, for all that we know, and the rough places and green pastures of which are equally hidden from us. We have to make sure that the mountain peak which we think we see, with the sunlight playing on its sides, is not delusive cloud, but solid reality, and we have to be very certain that God has bid us step out on the yard of ground in front of us which we can see; and, having secured these certainties, we have to cast ourselves into the obscurity before us, and to carry in our hearts the bright vision of the end, to encourage us in the difficulties of the road,

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