The Great Choice in Life

God comes to every one of you, saying, “Choose what I shall give thee.” Goethe said that he admired the man who knew precisely what he aimed at in life. God wishes you at the commencement of your career to come up to the height of a great choice. “What shall I give thee?”

You must choose; your refusal to choose is itself a choice, and it is this liberty to choose your own aim in life, and at last your own destiny, that makes life so serious. You must choose between religion and irreligion; one of them must be right. Religion, to say the least, with hope of its truth, with no fear of its safety; irreligion, with constant doubt of its truth and constant fear of its safety— you must choose between them; and if you choose aright it will be well for you.

You have read Carlyle’s description of the Sphinx sitting by the wayside propounding her riddles to every one that passed; and if the passer-by answered correctly it was well for him, but if he did not answer the riddle he was destroyed on the spot. I have watched young men and others, and I say that life comes to every man in this world with its riddle, and if he answers it aright it is well with him, but if he tries to go on neglecting the commandments of the Giver of life; if he tries to go on living in his own way, and not in God’s way, life to him will be a thing of loss, and he will become an object to be wept over.

“There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”