The Mystic Control of the Journey

‘I went up by revelation.” — Gat. ii. 2.

HERE the ministry of revelation is throwing its light upon an ordinary journey, a journey to Jerusalem. Revelation is using its rays not to illumine some great doctrine, or to disclose a panorama of hidden truth, but to light up a road. This man, Paul, has claimed that the great Revealer has opened out deep mysteries to his understanding, and has given him insight into the mind of Christ; but he now makes an even more

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wonderful boast in the Lord; he claims that the mystic glory will relate itself to a journey, and will determine and direct a visit to Jerusalem. ‘‘I went up by revelation.”

Now we are indeed poor if we assume that we have the revealing guidance only in the larger explorations of the mind, those vast ventures through untraversed continents of sacred truth, and that we are left to the darkness of our own gropings in the roughand-tumble of everyday life. We are indeed bereft if some truth is illumined, but the immediate road we have to travel is held in the deep darkness of tropical woods. Can it be that the guiding hand fails us when we need light upon the journey?

Happily the word of promise is clear and sure. There are stars for vaster moments: there are lamps for common roads. The glory of the Lord is not alone for those who travel on great mental pilgrimages in quest of lands that are very far off; it is for that vaster multitude of pilgrims who travel between Antioch and Jersualem, or between sienna art eR 96 The Mystic Control of the Journey ae A ee ee ee

the little village and the great town. It is a very rich and significant promise that the glory of the Lord is to rest “‘ upon every dwelling,”’ and all the commonest interests of life are to be lit up in its holy rays. The Eternal Light is to “keep our feet,” and the “one step” is to be under His gracious direction and control.

A man once declared that he bought a copy of Emerson “by revelation,” and it brought to him bounty of fine gold? “What may have been said half-jocularly has very true and profound significance. For such is the promise and teaching of the Word. We can be led from Ceesarea to Joppa by revelation. We can choose our calling by revelation. That is to say, God’s holy light will penetrate our common judgments in common things. Unto the righteous there shall arise light in the darkness and they shall know the mind of God.