But the lesson that is pressed upon us by this word, understood in the
other meanings of 'prepared' or 'ordered,' is that all our 'ways,'
that is, our practical life, our acts, direction of mind, habits,
should be regulated by continual consciousness of, and reference to,
the All-discerning Eye that looks down upon us, and 'the God in whose
hands our breath is, and whose are'--whether we make them so or
not--'all our ways.' To translate that into less picturesque, and less
forcible, but more modern words, it is just this: You Christian people
ought to make it a point of duty to cultivate the habit of referring
everything that you do to the will and judgment of God. Take Him into
account in everything great or small, and in nothing say, 'Thus I
will, thus I command. My will shall stand instead of all other
reasons'; but say, 'Lord! by Thee and for Thee I try to do this'; and
having done it, say, 'Lord! the seed is sown in Thy name; bless Thou
the springing thereof.' Works thus begun, continued and ended, will
never be put to confusion, and 'ways' thus ordered will be
established. A path of righteousness like that can no more fail to be
a way of peace than can God's throne ever totter or fall. An ordered
life in which He is consulted, and which is all shaped at His bidding,
and by His strength, and for His dear name, will 'stand four-square to
all the winds that blow,' and, being founded upon a rock, will never
fall.

But we may also note that in the strength of that thought, that we are
before the Lord our God, we shall best establish our ways in the sense
that we shall keep on steadily and doggedly on the path. Well begun
may be half ended, but there is often a long dreary grind before it is
wholly ended, and the last half of the march is the wearisome half.
The Bible has a great deal to say about the need of obstinate
persistence on the right road. 'Ye did run well, what did hinder you?'