a road it must have been! Made of
smooth, hard rock, three hundred and fifty miles long. No wonder that
in the construction of it the treasures of a whole empire were
exhausted. Because of invaders, and the elements, and time--the old
conqueror who tears up a road as he goes over it--there is nothing
left of that structure excepting a ruin. But I have this morning to
tell you of a road built before the Appian Way, and yet it is as good
as when first constructed. Millions of souls have gone over it.
Millions more will come.

"The prophets and apostles, too,
Pursued this road while here below;
We therefore will, without dismay
Still walk in Christ, the good old way."

"An highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called the way
of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for
those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion
shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall
not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there; and the
ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away!"

I. First, this road of the text is the King's highway. In the
diligence you dash over the Bernard pass of the Alps, mile after mile,
and there is not so much as a pebble to jar the wheels. You go over
bridges which cross chasms that make you hold your breath; under
projecting rock; along by dangerous precipices; through tunnels adrip
with the meltings of the glaciers; and, perhaps for the first time,
learn the majesty of a road built and supported by government
authority. Well, my Lord the King decided to build a highway from
earth to heaven. It should span all the chasms of human wretchedness;
it should tunnel all the mountains of earthly difficulty; it should be
wide enough and strong enough to hold fifty thousand millions of the
human race, if so many of them should ever be born. It should be
blasted out of the "Rock of Ages," and cemented with the blood of the
Cross, and be lifted amid the shouting of angels and the execration of
devils.

The King sent His Son to build that road. He put head and hand and
heart to it, and, after the road was completed, waved His blistered
hand over the way, crying, "It is finished!" Napoleon paid fifteen
million francs for the building of the Simplon Road, that his cannon
might go ove