Quiet Talks on Following the Christ | Page 3

our Lord Jesus' life down here, His characteristics and
His experiences. I mean what He was in Himself; and what He went
through, suffered, enjoyed, and accomplished; the Man Himself, and
the Man's experiences. These are the two things about which these
simple talks will be grouped. Our Lord Jesus wants us to follow that we
may climb up the hill as high as He did in these things.
Following means climbing. A friend has told recently of a journey
taken to a certain village in New England from which, she had been
told, a fine view could be got of the White Mountains. On arrival it
seemed that a low hill completely shut out the view, to her intense
disappointment. But her companion, by and by, called from the top of
the low hill and eagerly beckoned her to come up. A bit of climbing
quickly brought her to where the magnificent beauty of the mountains
broke upon her delighted eyes.
Our Lord Jesus climbed the hilltops, both in His character and in His
experiences. He wants us to share those rare hilltops with Him. He has
gone away ahead of any other. He is the Lone Man in both character
and experiences. And in some of His experiences He will ever remain
the lone occupant of the hilltop. But He is eager for our companionship.
He longs for the personal touch. He wants us to have all He has got. He
has blazed a way through the thicket where there was no path before.
He left the plain marks on the trees as He went through, so we could

surely find the way. And now He eagerly beckons us to follow.
But following means climbing. It's a hill road, sometimes down hill,
sometimes up hill. Which makes stiffer climbing? Usually the one you
are doing seems the harder. Sometimes the road is a dead level between
hills. And dead level walking--the monotonous dead-a-way, with no
bracing air, no inspiring outlook--is often much harder than down hill
or up. And so it too is climbing. Following means climbing. He
climbed. He made the high climb all alone. No other ever had the
courage to climb so high as He. It's easier since He has smoothed down
the road with His own feet; yet it isn't easy; still it is easier than not
climbing; that is, when you reckon the whole thing up--with Him in.
Now He asks you and me to climb. He cannot climb for you. That is, I
mean He cannot do the climbing you ought to do. He has climbed for
us, marked out the hill path, and made it possible for us to climb up too.
But the after-climbing He cannot do for us. Each must do his own
climbing. So lungs grow deeper, and heart-action stronger, and cheeks
clearer, and muscles firmer. Step by step we must pull up, maybe
through a fog, with no view of beauty, no bracing air yet, only His
strong beckoning hand.
But those who reach up and get hold of hands with Him, and get up
even to some of the lower reaches of the climb, stand with full hearts
and dumb lips. They can't find words to tell the exhilaration of the
climb, the bracing air, the far outlook, and, yet more, the wondrous
presence of the Chief Climber, even though there's a bit of smarting of
face and hands where the thorny tanglewood tore a bit as you went by.
Just now I want you to come with me for a bit of a look at the Lone
Man, who has gone before. I mean at the Man Himself. We want to
take a look at the characteristics of His life; what the Man was in His
character.
And please understand me here. Following does not mean that we are
to try to imitate these characteristics. No, it's something both simpler
and easier, and deeper and better than that. It means that, as we
companion with Him daily, these same traits will appear in us. It is not

to be imitation simply, good as that might seem, yet always bringing a
sense of failure, and that sense the thing you remember most. It is to be
some One living His life in you, coming in through the open door of
your will. Your part is opening up, and keeping open, listening and
loving and obeying. The touchstone of the "Follow Me" life is not
imitation but following; not copying but obeying; not struggle--though
there will be struggle--but companionship, a companionship which
nothing is allowed to take the fine edge off of.
And please remember, too, the meaning for us sinful men of these
characteristics of His. With us character is a result of choice, and then
nearly always--or