Moses said these words first to Israel. But God says them to each of us, to every one who has a conscience, a sense of right and wrong, and sense to see he ought to do right and shun wrong. I have heard a great man call this the graniteon which all other spiritual beliefs rest, and so it is. It is taken for granted and built on in all God's revelation, in all Christ's atoning work, in all the Holy Spirit's operation. This is a choice we must each make, not, like the fabled one, for once, but day by day, continually. It is the resultant of all our life.
I. This daily endeavour to be holy, to be like Christ, will be a spring of interest which will never fail, when other interests fail with our failing selves.
II. If we choose well, we must end well. If we grow here fit for a better place, pure, kind, hard-working, unselfish, we cannot be a failure.
III. It is not for ourselves only, either here or hereafter, that God bids us choose good. We have got in our keeping the worldly peace of others.
IV. Love to the Redeemer, who died for us and lives for us, is the great spring of all right-doing. Only by the grace of God can we choose good.
A. K. H. B., The Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson,3rd series, p. 177.
Reference: Deuteronomy 30:15-20. Parker, Christian Chronicle,July 16th, 1885.