Righteousness and life
I. THE ASSOCIATION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE. It is something to have two such great ideas brought into close juxtaposition. Their very proximity is a revelation. They mutually illumine one another. We know more of righteousness when we see its bearing on life, and we have a better understanding of life when we recognize its dependence on righteousness. There is thus a relationship of ideas to be recognized here over and above the separate forms of the ideas themselves. The limitation of the subject is also instructive. We do not see to what else righteousness may be related. It may or it may not bring happiness, wealth, and success. What it is related to is distinct from all these ends, and greater than any of them—viz. life.
II. THE FORM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS THAT IS CONNECTED WITH LIFE. This is the path of righteousness. It is not righteousness regarded as an abstract idea, or viewed only as a law. It is not an external garment of righteousness, nor an internal principle of righteousness. It does not consist in one or more isolated deeds of righteousness. On the contrary, what is here presented to us is a view of a continuous course of righteous action. It may not be the highest path of holiness, but it is at least a right path. The traveller may stumble upon it, loiter by the way, even forget himself at times, and sleep. Yet, on the whole, this is the course he pursues. He is trying to do the right thing in his daily experience.
III. THE INFLUENCE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS UPON LIFE. The path is life.
1. It is the path of a living soul. No one can continuously pursue a right course unless he has the spiritual life in him. Dead souls may be galvanized into momentary spasms of goodness by an electrifying example or the shock of a great authority. But the path of righteousness can only be trodden by those who have within them the soul energy to follow it.
2. It is the path that quickens life. It is not like the deadly tracts of sin, those ways of wickedness that head down into the fatal swamps of soul death. This path runs over bracing mountain heights.
3. It is the path that leads to life. There is a fuller life beyond, not yet reached; and righteousness is the way to it. Every attainment in holiness is accompanied by a deepening of the soul life. The way of God leads to eternal life. The gospel of Christ does not set aside this Old Testament principle, but it gives the new righteousness of a new life.
IV. THE FATAL RESULT OF LEAVING RIGHTEOUSNESS. "A devious way leadeth to death."
1. The way of evil is devious. It is not only an alternative; it is a departure from the normal course. He who is in it is where he ought not to be. Then this way is no direct high road; it is a wandering bypath.
2. The deviousness of the way is fatal to the traveller upon it. The higher way is made for the good purpose of leading to She city of life. The devious way is not purposely made; it is a lawless beaten track, which runs out into the wilderness. It must be dangerous to follow such a course. To pursue it to the end is to court soul destruction.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON