There is an old and arresting sailor’s proverb,
“Who will not be ruled by the rudder must be ruled by the
rock.”
It is very plain that a rudder used in conjunction with an intimate
knowledge of the chart with rocks and shoals clearly marked upon it is a deeply
important matter. Life or death depends
upon it.
The writer well remembers being on a small steamer traveling
between
But the old seaman’s proverb is capable of a very wide
application. The true rudder of life is
surely the fear of the Lord. Solomon,
the wisest man in all time speaks of the fear of the Lord nine times in the
Book of the Proverbs., “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”
(Proverbs
Look at the man without religion. He goes to no place of worship.
He has completely thrown off the fear of the Lord. He refuses the rudder. He is not controlled
by a higher power. His bark is bound to
move sooner or later over tempestuous seas, filled with jagged hidden rocks,
and as sure as these lines are written, he is heading for a terrible smash.
How many men and women there are, decent, truce-keeping,
moral, virtuous, kind, but who have no hand on the rudder of their lives. Although they would shrink from and condemn
the careless life of the man who has no religion, yet their lives are
uncontrolled by a higher power. They
are not marked by the fear of the Lord.
Beware, if you are one of such, the hidden rocks lie on your path of
self – will, self – determination, self – expression, the favorite word on the
lips of the twentieth century, and its condemnation.
As surely as our earth must abide in its true orbit in its
relation to the sun, without which disaster and destruction would inevitably
ensue, so surely will men and women perish in their sins, however much as
between man and man they may be admirable.
In the sight of God things assume their true proportion.
The Bible is the only book that explains what sin is, and
what death is, “the wages of sin is death”
The Word of God warns you as to the rocks. It tells you plainly about sin, and its results, and it tells you
of hell and its horrors. If the Divine
hand is on the rudder of your life it will guide you to the Savior. Do you wish to escape the rocks of eternal
judgment? There is only one way. Our Lord said, “I am the way, the truth and
the life: no man cometh unto the Father by Me” (John 14:6)
Not by admiring good will you gain salvation, but by
receiving the Savior into your life, trusting Him for salvation, realizing that
His death on the cross is at once the expression of God’s love and the
upholding of His divine righteousness, the only means by which salvation can
come to you.
Let the old seaman’s proverb, “Who will not be ruled by the
rudder must be ruled by the rock,” sink into your mind. If you do not, its meaning must surely be
learned by you through bitter experience.
We warn you. Let God
put His hand of infinite love on the rudder of your life, and lead you to the Savior,
who says, “Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out” (John