The peril of the willful.
"We will ride upon the swift; therefore shall they that pursue you be swift." We will—there is man's sin. That is not a fit position for dependent man ever to take. "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare." "Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain For that ye ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that." From some points of view these strong-willed men may be regarded as the noble-men of earth. They have a purpose in life, which holds in and guides, as with bit and bridle, all the forces of their being. They are the great men in our mills and warehouses; the foremost as statesmen, and in carrying out great social and national enterprises. They seem to have a power of control over all the circumstances surrounding them, and a power of recoil from the greatest disappointments and disasters. Yet this disposition lays men open to peculiar dangers. Strong will is liable to become self-will—to refuse the ordinance of God; to refuse the help of God; to refuse to wait for God. It stands up in fancied majesty and says, "I will." "Whatever God may say or do, I will. I will be rich, I will be successful, I will be great." When a man in such a spirit says, "I will," he is on the very pit-edge, and on the pit-edge blindfolded.
I. WILFULNESS IS REBELLIOUSNESS. Because man is God's servant, pledged to carry out his Master's will, and not his own will. Man is God's child, and in duty bound to fulfill his Father's commands. Disobedience is rebellion.
II. WILFULNESS IS WEAKNESS. Because man is entirely dependent on the God whose will he refuses, for the means of accomplishing what he determines to do. His willfulness is as weak as a child's who has no money, no power, but depends entirely on his parents.
III. WILFULNESS IS FOOLISHNESS. For it is a setting of ourselves against the Almighty God, as if he would allow us to shift and rearrange his plans. Man's willfulness may make a noise, and bring him into trouble; but it is only a child's attempt to hold back the flowing of the great river of God. A little time of vain trying, and then the child is swept away by the flood, which still rolls on.
IV. WILFULNESS IS PERIL. It will be a marvel, almost a miracle, if such a man do not "fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition."—R.T.