The Problem of Guidance

Nobody thinks of climbing the dangerous passes and peaks of Switzerland without a guide. The experienced travellers are very careful about getting experienced guides. Even then a man sometimes loses his life. These guides have to learn the way at the risk of their own lives, and they take serious risks every time they cHmb. And this iS the sphere where a man can see and feel with his outer material senses.

How much more does a man need a guide for the climb on into the future days, where no man has yet learned how to see or feel an inch ahead. With all our great advances in knowledge and science, we don’t know surely a clock’s tick ahead what is coming. The coming year, and month, and day, — even the next moment is utterly hidden from our eyes. We are in Egyptian darkness that may be felt, and that is felt, about to-morrow. We are used to it from the earliest birth of life, and move on with a certain steadiness, planning, and shrewdly guessing how certain matters will go.

That very steadiness of step in our common life, on into the unlit darkness of the next hour,.

tells of a great Guide whose hand upon life all men have learned unconsciously to trust. But the factor of fear is never absent from human life, though it lessens steadily as one comes to know his Guide. The man who risks going alone in a dangerous mountain climb in daylight is reckoned foolhardy. Even he wouldn’t go in the dark night. How much worse is it to go alone on the life-climb without even a single ray of daylight to show the way. Yet many do just that. Foolhardy — would you say?

There is a tender awe in knowing that there is some One at your side guiding at every step, restraining here, leading on there. He knows the way better than the oldest Swiss guide knows the mountain trail. He has love’s concern that all shall go well with you. There is great peace for us in that, and with it a tender awe to think who He is, and that He is close up by your side. When you come to the splitting of the road into two, with a third path forking off from the others, there is peace in just holding steady and very quiet while you put out your hand and say, ‘’ Jesus, Master, guide here.” And then to hear a Voice so soft that only in great quiet is it heard, softer than faintest breath on your cheek, or slightest touch on your arm, telling the way in fewest words or syllables — that makes the peace unspeakable.

And if the road lead you into a thick, dark woods, and strange shadowy forms seem to threaten from behind the trees, you go quietly on singing a bit of a song, because He led you there, and is leading. That path may lead into some commonplace Nazareth village, into some wilderness with untamed beasts, or into some thick Gethsemane grove of gnarly olives, or even up a Calvary hill outside a city wall, but you go steadily on with the path, and the song, and a joy full of glory, for the Master led you there, and has not gone away.

And if perhaps the chosen road lead to crowds and great service and praise of men, you will be thinking it was His leading that brought you there, not your own wisdom or talent. He has some great purpose for these crowds, and may be some purpose through these crowds farther on. And you will be very careful not to disappoint or mar His plans. And, too, you will keep very quiet and close that the dust the crowd is raising may not bother your eyes and dim the vision of His face.

And if sometimes the way be lonely and long, and the brambly thorn bushes on the sides scratch face and hands, and sharp stones cut your feet, you can, if you will be quiet enough, find a new softness to the strong arm of the Guide around you, and a new fragrance in His presence beside you; and that will make you grateful for the roughness of the road, because it draws out more the fineness of His love, and of Himself.

God Plans every Life.

Guidance is entirely a matter of finding God’s plan, and then following it. God has a plan for every life. He will lead us into it, and then lead us in it, step by step. He made man’s home before He made man. In the simple Genesis record He planned the man, of what sort he should be and what service he should do, before He made him. He planned the best, for He made him in His own image. He gave Himself,, His breath, to insure that likeness, and later gave Himself again, His blood, to restore it. He planned a new trinity in making man. Himself and the man and the woman, for perfection of friendship requires three; and man was made for fulness of friendship with God. Every one needs two friends, one above to draw him up,, and one alongside to draw him out — so God planned.

God has a plan thought out for the universe, and for our planet, and for each man upon it. The great emergency that sin has made in the world called for special planning. It controls much of His planning for our lives. He knows that emergency as no one else. He feels the keenness and stress of it beyond any other. He knows each man of us, our gifts and endowments, what we can do, and do best. He loves each of us devotedly. The ambition of love is in His planning. He has great wisdom. His plan is best for all the world, and for each man.

The life of the great Hebrew pioneer Abram clearly was thought out,’ and as clearly that of his lineal descendant, the great law-giver,^ and that * Genesis 12: i and on. Exodus 2 and 3.

of his immediate successor, Joshua.^ It was the consciousness that he was filling out God’s plan for himself that held Jeremiah so steady to his difficult and thankless, dangerous task.^ Paul, the man to whom we Gentile foreigners owe so much, had no doubt of this in his own Ufe;^ and he plainly set it down as a law of God’s dealing with men, The greater includes the less. God has no favorites. Every man’s life is planned. Every man should plan to live a planned life, the planned life, planned by Another. Every man may. He is touching the very tip-top of human achievement who comes nearest to fitting into the plan thought out for him. This glorifies every life, no matter how lowly, or in how hidden away a comer; for the touch of God’s plan is upon it. It dignifies one’s life; it has been thought out by a God!

“There is a divinity that shapes our ends. Rough hew them how we may.”

And that divine One will shape everything towards the end He has planned, if He may have our consent.

This is the working basis of the whole problem of guidance. It simplifies it much. It is not coaxing a friendly God to keep us along a path we have marked out for ourselves. It is finding and fitting into the plan lovingly thought out for us, and doing the serldce assigned to us in the

1 Numbers 27:18 and on. 2 Jeremiah 1:4 and on.

Acts 13: 2 and on. *I Corinthians 12: 11, 18.

great world-plan. Guidance is a matter of finding God’s plan and following it faithfully step by step. A man should aim to have a keen understanding of what God’s plan for him is.^ The likeness of God imprinted upon him puts him under obligation to find out the plan of God intended for him.

The first great question for every one is whether he is going to go God’s way, and to plan to fit into God’s plan. The real stiff work in the problem of guidance is here. This must be settled first of all, and then kept settled. It can easily be settled, and it can be kept settled. Yet almost every man of us is bothered with either one or the other of those two things. But if a man will do this part of the sum up, the figuring out of the rest is assured; and more, it isn’t hard. Let it once be fixed that a man’s one ambition is to fit into God’s plan for him, and he has a North Star ever in sight to guide him steadily over any sea, however shoreless it seem. He has a compass that points true in the thickest fog and fiercest storm, and regardless of magnetic rocks.

God Tells us His Plan for us.

God reveals his plan to a man. Of course He does. He naturally would if He expected a man to follow it. He has to tell it if we are to know it. He does tell it, and tells it in the plainest way. This is the second great factor in guidance. He not only reveals the plan to follow, and the path

1 Ephesians 5: 15-17.

to tread, but he is eager to do it. He takes every man into His confidence regarding the plan for his life. But His great trouble is to get our attention so He can tell us.

Ever since man lost the vision of God’s face in Eden, and the sound of His voice, God has had to do unusual things to attract man’s attention, and get him to understand His plan, and hold him to it. Our spirit-senses are dulled by sin. Something startling must frequently be used. The strange sight of a bush all aflame yet not burnt up takes hold of Moses’ scholarly temperament, and holds him quiet enough to hear the Voice and the plan.

A fire eating up the meal that Gideon had prepared- for his pilgrim guest tells that startled man of God’s unsuspected presence, and secures his splendid leadership in His plan. A lision of overwhelming glory led Isaiah into the deeper devotion that changed his spirit and his career. As extreme a measure as laming his body is used to waken up the scheming Jacob, for he has a will strong enough to be stubborn, but not yet strong enough to yield. A vision with features utterly repugnant to the hungry Peter tells him of God’s plan for his outside, outcast brothers. For Paul, light so bright as to make the sun’s light cast a shadow, and so blinding as to shut his outer eyes for days, that so the inner Ught might be lit, and the plan be seen. And later, a needlepointed thorn ever prodding, but softened with a wondroMS Presence, to hold Paul to the plan.

If something has come to you that seems very strange and unexplainable, better hold very quiet and still — God is probably trying to get your ear. He is talking; if you give your attention you will hear something. He needs some help; there is something to be done; he wants you to give Him a hand, a lift, a life-lift. He is trying to attract your attention. If you give it and fall in heartily with his plan, you will understand what He has been doing, and when the thing that hurts has done its work it will likely be taken away.

He reveals the general plan at once, but the steps in it only one at a time. He wants to keep us in touch all the time.^ His plan needs two at each stage, Himself and you. We need to be trained to keep His pace. We are apt either to dash ahead or to lag behind. Both bother the plans. There is a fascination in noting how such strong men as Abraham and Joshua were told a step at a time what to do. As one step was taken the next became clear, and, that taken, cleared the next. Steady walking takes most strength. Some of us are good at a dashy eagleflight up, or a quick spurt down the road, but we have not learned the walk-step yet.*

Accepting God’s Plan.

How may we know God’s plan for us? No question has been asked more often, nor more

Genesis 22:2; Matthew 2: 13.

2 Genesis 12: i, 4 with 7; 17:9, 10 with 23, and 18: i.

3 Note first ten chapters of Joshua. Isaiah 40:31. earnestly than just this — ‘’May I know certainly what God’s plan for me is?” And the deep glow of fire in the eye tells eloquently of the eager desire of the heart. Yes, surely we may know, and may know surely. He that is willing to do may know, and will know. The life-plan that has been thought out may be known, and there may be, too, the steady going along in the plan step by step without breaks. A man needn’t even stub his toe, much less fall down.

The first essential to knowing God’s plan is meekness. That simply means accepting Somebody’s else plan for the life. Meekness is not weakness; it is strength using its strength in deliberately yielding to a higher will. Moses is called the ‘meekest man because he yielded so fully and constantly to Somebody’s else plan. He might have been the Pharaoh of the world’s leading nation, but he chose to ally himself with a race of ex-slaves because that was Somebody’s else plan for him. And the spirit of that choice pervaded his whole life.

Jesus was not the meekest man. He was meekness personified. The word gets a new fineness of meaning from His life. He might have swayed Athens and Corinth, the centres of the world’s philosophies, with His philosophy of life, but He chose rather to teach the poor, for that was Another’s plan for Him. He might have held in His steady grasp the reins of a new earthly government stronger than that of Rome, but He chose rather to win the government of men’s hearts, for that was Another’s plan for those human years.

He might have been the centre of the highest social circles of beautiful, cultured Antioch-on-the-Orontes, but He chose to grace and sweeten with His presence the homes of the lowly, for so His Father wished. His voice could have been used to give out music that would have classed Him as the world’s greatest musician, but he chose to sing to babes, and to women and men tired out under heavy loads, for that was Another’s plan.

Those fingers of His could have chiselled marble and touched canvas into a life far beyond what marble and canvas have ever known, but He used them in ministering to sick and needy and tired-out folks, for so it had been planned for Him. He came to carry out the plan of Another. That was the great meekness of His great strength.

This quahty of meekness lies at the very root of guidance. It makes the road simple and straight. The man eager to do what God wants done will know certainly what to do.^ This is a family trait, by which the sons of the King may be recognized.^ Those in the inner family circle of God have a fine passion for doing what He wants done.

The second great essential in knowing God’s plan is obedience. This is really saying the first thing over again. Obedience is meekness; it is meekness in action, in daily use. Obedience is practising meekness. It makes meekness effective.

Psalm 25: 9. Romans 8: 14.

Meekness is accepting the plan; obedience is working it out bit by bit. Meekness is the attitude of one’s spirit towards God; obedience is the doing of the things He wants done.

A Disciplined Judgment.

There is a third essential of immense importance, and that is, listening to God. God is telling us the plan, and telling us the next step to take, but our ears bother us; they are so dull. It is amazing how many deaf children there are in God’s family. The deafness seems to grow with the years too. For usually the child-ear — whether a child in years, or in religious experience — is keen, though it needs training. There is nothing so necessary as keen, trained ears. Yet there seems to be nothing rarer. An endless amount of doubt and difficulty in guidance can be traced back to this critical point.

The favorite word for listening in the Bible is the word waiting. It is a great word full of simple yet wondrous meaning. It means the turning of the face full up to God so. as to know by a look what He would suggest; hearing through the eyes. It is exquisitely put in the Psalms. God assures us that He is ever keeping His eye upon us so that by our looking up we can catch His eye and so know what to do.*

It means on our side watching God’s slightest movement as intensely as a slave in those old times watched for the first and least suggestion of the

* Psalm 32: 8.

master’s desire, As the watch-guard on night duty upon the city wall in old Judea kept his eyes keenly towards the east to see the first gleam of the coming day that would reUeve his long, lonely vigiP — so intensely and keenly we are to look towards God to get the first inkUng of His will. The life is to be lived with its face always turned to God.

But this can be put in a very homely, matter-offact way that may help yet more. There are three things given us for guidance, the Word of God, the Spirit of God, and our own sense, or reasoning powers, our judgment. These three are meant to agree. When they do agree in one the way is surely clear. When they do not agree, the only wise thing to do is to do nothing, to wait till they do agree. Usually the judgment is amiss and needs straightening up to the other two.

The Word of God read habitually disciplines the judgment. There comes to be a settled conviction as to God’s character and preferences and ways of working. There comes, too, a keener use of one’s thinking powers. The Spirit of God within makes plain the meaning of the Word, and adapts it to our needs in a very wonderful way. With the Book of God in his hands in good plain type, and the Spirit of God in his heart, and the common sense with which we are all endowed, no man need be in doubt when acting time comes, nor make any mis-steps. And this is said with keen consciousness of many a slip.

1 Psalm 123: 1-2. 2 Psalm 130:5, 6.

The great sheet-anchor bit in the old Book is in the Twenty-fifth Psalm: “The meek will He guide in judgment”; that is, in his mental processes. The American Revision uses the word “justice” in place of “judgment”; but the reference clearly is to being just in one’s decisions. Judgment is used in the sense of a decision. Here is the great simple promise regarding the process of guidance.

As I sift over the facts and circumstances that bear upon the decision, I must make the Spirit of God’s will guide my thinking. He wil). help me to see colorlessly, to weigh accurately, and to reach a right conclusion. This is putting guidance on the highest plane. God uses the thinking powers He has given us. They need the discipline of His Word, of His Spirit’s indwelling, and of use. Questions of right and wrong are decided by the statements of the Word. Questions of what best to do are decided by the judgment, disciplined by the Word, and guided by the Spirit.

Through habitual reading of the Word of God, in reverent dependence upon the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of learning God’s will, there comes gradually to be a disciplined judgment, a simple common sense in weighing and deciding what best to do. There seems to be nothing much rarer nor scarcer than this. The personal coloring and preferences and advantages get in so strong that they twist the eyesight badly.

The passion for God’s plan is the great counteractant for the undue personal element. The steady, burning passion to do His will makes one forget all else, and yet makes him fit eagerly in where service is called for, but with no sense of having done some great thing even when he has. He is absorbed in some One else through whose power the thing was accomplished, and whose glory is the one dominant thought.

Unhurried Waiting.

All of this is in that Twenty-fifth Psalm, the great guidance Psalm. It is written in the midst of difficulties and sore temptations. It should be studied much by the man seeking to understand guidance. It begins with of t- repeated prayer for guidance that reveals an earnest heart-desire to go God’s way. The praying stirs the memory of this man writing to the fact that he hasn’t always chosen God’s way, but preferred his own. It is the meek man who reverently ‘’fears the Lord” who is guided and taught about the way to go. The path pointed out is not only the right one, but proves to be a loving one for him who is obedient, “unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.” This meek, obedient man waits on God; he is in the spirit of constant listening. And he is guided in thinking out his decisions. He is instructed in the way to choose. God does the instructing; the man does the choosing; he is helped in his mental processes. The result specified is two-fold, great peace, his soul dwelling at ease; and power or good success, his seed inheriting the land.

Then comes the great statement that the friendship of the Lord, the exchange of confidences, is given to such men, ‘’ and He will show them His covenant”; that is, what He has planned to do, and then the plans actually carried out. And the man writing emphasizes the true spirit that brings all this — ‘mine eyes are ever toward the Lord.^’ Such a man will know surely how to go, and will have strength to go when the way is hard, and, more, will find the road to lead him into far more of blessing than he had ever thought of.

The man who so waits upon God never decides anything hurriedly. His friends are likely to think him slow perhaps. He is unhurried. He may decide quickly sometimes, but that is because he has been brewing in secret over all the considerations. He is never hurried nor flurried. It is often hard to wait. Our natural impatience and our tired-out nerves prod us on when we should wait. It is always safe to wait. With the greatest need unmet, the keenest crises impending, it is safest to wait till we’re clear; that is, clear as to the next thing to do; and the next thing to do is always clear in time to do it.

And yet more: this man who waits on God is so intent on getting God’s plan done that he is not concerned about anything else. The plan he is in the process of shaping up may jail. But that will not concern him, for clearly it was not God’s plan if under faithful attention it fails. Personal pride to have a plan carried through doesn’t bother him a bit; he cares only to carry through Somebody’s else plan. Yet when the plan is clearly revealed, or clearly proves bit by bit to be the plan of the Master, he holds to it with a peculiar tenacity. And, as a matter of fact, the plan carefully decided upon in such a way doesn’t fail. God is eager to reveal His plan, and He does to the man eager to know. The meek man is guided surely in his planning. There is a fine word from Luke’s pen describing the decision to go to Europe the morning after Paul’s vision of the Macedonia man. Luke had joined Paul. Paul tells him his vision. “Straightway,” he writes, “we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the Gospel to them.” The old version says, “assuredly gathering” in place of “concluding.” The word underneath suggests a putting together of this and that, and so drawing an inference. It describes the common process of thinking a thing out. In this case the evidence was very clear, but the word used for the thinking and talking it over is very helpful. They were being guided in their mental processes. God’s law of progress is to take the next logical step. But one should not take a step when in doubt about its being the right one.

Guided in Judgment.

A drop of wine gives the flavor of the cask. A simple straw will show the direction of the vdnd. Very simple occurrences sometimes re-

* Acts 16: 10, American Revision.

veal how God guides. Some very simple instances of this sort came to my attention recently. A woman who has a flock of poultry to attend noticed one morning that a brood of very young Plymouth Rocks were not well. They seemed droopy and distressed. She had been caring for them thoughtfully, and could not make out the cause of their distress. The thermometer in the brooder where the little ones made their home indicated a proper temperature. Her womanly heart was moved with pity for them. As she stood watching, perplexed, she thought of how God must look down and pity too, and leaning against the corner of the hen-house quietly prayed to be shown the difficulty. At once it occurred to her to examine the heating lamp in the brooder. It proved to need a larger burner to make enough heat; the thermometer was not registering accurately. The change was quickly made, the temperature rose, and the little chicks were soon happy and contented.

A business man of Belfast, well known in that city, told this bit of his experience to a group of men in the Fulton Street Prayer Meeting room one noon. He is a builder, and recognized as an expert in that business. He had been called to examine a large building which was being seriously shaken and jarred by the motion of the machinery. Efforts had been made to find why the machinery shook the building so, but they failed to reveal the defect in construction. He was called in as an expert. He examined the building most thoroughly, but could find no faulty place. It was one of the best constructed buildings he had ever examined, he said. He was much puzzled to know where the defect could be, and felt quite nonplussed.

As he stood looking in his perplexity, he sent up a softly breathed prayer to be shown where the trouble was. At once his thought went to a certain large post or beam on which part of the machinery rested. He went on to notice that it was not properly adjusted. There was plainly the cause of the violent jarring of the building by the machinery. Yet he had gone painstakingly over the whole structure without finding it, as had other experts. The defect was pointed out and remedied, and all jarring ceased. Could there be simpler and yet more direct illustrations of the old bit, “The meek will He guide in his mental processes?”

A small group of young men entrusted with the supervision of one of the great religious activities among young men were spending a day in conference and prayer. Men were to be chosen for certain very important positions. A mistake in choosing would have very serious results. They talked over the men in mind and their suitability to the tasks involved, and prayed together. A decision was reached about certain men, but reached tentatively, not decisively, not finally. The suggestion was made that they separate, and pray and think separately, and then come together again. The matter was so serious that there must be no mis-step or mistake. They did so, and while in prayer alone the conviction came that it would not be best to send a certain man tentatively decided upon for a certain post. More prayer and conference followed, and the arrangements were readjusted.

So were these men guided in their mental processes. So were they guided to plan out unhurriedly with utmost thoroughness their serious task. These men were keen Bible students, with discipline of judgment much above the average, and with a rare openness of mind to the suggestions of God’s Spirit, as a result of long habit. Here was the habit into which they had been led through long experience, of being guided by the Spirit through their trained thinking powers. The withdrawal from each other’s presence made them more susceptible to the presence of the One whose will they were bent on doing.

The Boys and the Tramps.

The Spirit of God adapts the words of the Bible to our needs with a simplicity that is winsome. He constantly breathes through and out of these pages, these old narrations, and verses, and sentences. He takes these words and speaks them with an inaudible but very distinct voice into one’s rhind. He gives them a precious meaning that fits wondrously and warmly into our needs. So it comes to pass that a passage will have a warm personal meaning fitting into some experience of one’s life quite in addition to its first historical meaning.

It is a bit of the versatility of Scripture that its words have both a historical and a philosophical meaning. As originally spoken they tell perhaps of some story in a certain man’s life, and then the words so spoken and written are found to have a deeply simple philosophy that applies directly to life to-day. This ‘strikingly brings out the fact that the Scriptures answer a double purpose. There is the first purpose for which they were written centuries ago, and then a present purpose in fitting into and helping our changing, daily needs, and adapted to each man’s reading. Surely this old Book is inspired; it is inbreathed with a living Spirit. There is a living presence in it fitting its words with a warm, living touch to every man and every circumstance.

I had an illustration of this one summer in a New England village. I had gone to the prayer meeting in the old white-painted Congregational church. The subject was Bible study. In the social mingling afterwards a quiet little woman said to me, “I would like to tell you of a verse that helped me greatly one time.” And I listened. I seemed to know at once that I was to get something. I was standing close up to a sacred human life, and was to be allowed to look in. I listened reverently and eagerly.

Her story was a simple one. She lived on the edge of town, with the neighbors not very close. Her husband’s business took him away much of the time. This bit of experience came the previous winter. She enjoyed the weekly prayer meeting and always planned to attend. Yet she knew, as she returned home from prayer meeting, that there was sure to be at least one tramp, and maybe more, taking a night’s lodging in the barn back of the house. She was alone in the house so far as having a man who might protect her was concerned. Naturally enough that made her nervous and worried her. She prayed, and tried to be brave, but could not seem to quite shake off the timid worrying about it.

At that same time the superintendent of the Sunday School had asked her to teach a class of boys. She had declined. She felt that she had no gift for teaching, and that she could not do it. But he gently persisted; he was sure she could; he needed a teacher for those boys; it seemed so hard to find one; would she not think it over and pray about it before finally deciding? And she had rather reluctantly agreed to this. These were the two things uppermost in her mind at this time, the danger threatening from the tramps, and the teaching of the boys.

Her habit was to spend a little while each morning with the Bible, reading and praying. This morning of which she told me her regular course of reading brought her to the fifty-first chapter of Isaiah. She was reading along in a meditative, unhurried way, praying softly as she read, and with those two things, the tramps and the boys, within easy reach in her underneath thoughts.

She came to the sixteenth verse. “And,” she said to me, “the first line of that verse seemed to stand out as though in bigger type: ‘/ have put my words in thy mouth.’’” Clearly that meant the boys. She grew quiet and still. The Master was speaking to her. She sat thinking about the class, with the feeling of hesitancy not wholly gone, and yet the decision clearly made. She would teach the boys the best she could, and He would be giving her the words.

After a little prayer, still thinking about the boys, her eyes turned half mechanically to the page to continue the reading. “Then,” she said to me, with a moistened glow in her eyes, “the next hne stood out big just as the first had done: And have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand.’” That meant the tramps. It seemed to her that the wondrous Spirit had taken these words, centuries old, spoken originally to the distressed nation of Israel, and had with a wholly new, tender meaning spoken them into her heart in her need. And I felt sure, and feel sure, that she was right. And the order in which the message came seemed peculiarly helpful. First came the bit about the service needed from her, and as quickly as she responded to that call came the word of comfort for her personal needs.

Instructed in the Night Seasons.

The habit into which I have grown in making decisions, even about smaller matters, is to gather up all the information on the matter, thresh it out and sift it over into the clearest shape possible, pray over it, be content to have it go either way regardless of personal preferences, and then sleep over it. In the morning hour alone I am apt to know pretty clearly what to do. If not quite clear I wait a while longer, including sometimes more than one night’s sleep. The sleep induces a quietness in which the thing assumes clear shape.

Then, too, there is a statement of the old Book that seems to me to fit in here, though I know well that some may think the interpretation of it rather fanciful. “So he giveth unto his beloved sleep “Ms the reading of both old and revised versions. But the margin gives this alternate reading: ‘’’So he giveth unto his beloved iti sleep.” I do not say that this is the first meaning of that tender old bit of the Book. I do not know. But I recall how He gives bodily strength in sleep, and has turned the tide of sickness and weakness in sleep, and I recall, too, that in the Old Testament times He used to reveal His plan to men in their sleep.

The man who proved to be God’s messenger to Job told that troubled man this:

“God speaketh once,
Yea twice, though man regardeth it not,
In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falleth upon men,
In slumberings upon the bed;
Then he openeth the ears of men.
And sealeth their instruction.”
* Psalm 127: 2. 2 Job 33: 14-18.

And the sixteenth Psalm has this:

“I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel; Yea, my heart instructeth me in the night seasons.”^

I am not speaking of dreams, but only of this — that through the perfectly natural channel of the thoughts, He gives in sleep that which guides us when awake. There is here no element of the supernatural involved. Through nature’s duly appointed channels, the mental processes, God in a time of greatest stillness clears the thinking and suggests what to do.

Finding the Life-plan.

The great question of finding out the life-plan has puzzled a great many, and should have a special word here. The fact that there is a life-plan for every one, and that God is naturally eager to tell it so that it may be carried out, clears the ground very much. The man who wants to know can know, without any doubt. Hundreds of young people are facing the question of giving their lives to the great, needy, foreign mission fields. There, without any question, is the greatest need, and there too is the greatest privilege of service. And in addition to that are the great home mission fields, and the church ministry. In our day there is a great call for many sorts of workers in addition to the ordained ministry.

The general plan for all followers of Jesus is that they shall go. The general marching orders

1 Psalm 16: 7.

to all who hear His voice are a plain, imperative “Go.” The early disciples so understood and went. In foreign mission lands there is a spirit akin to that of these early disciples. In Korea to-day they are going everywhere in the same way. Whenever there is a spirit of awakening in the Church there is always a spirit of awakening to this ringing call to go. Whenever the Spirit of God gets sway in a man’s life, among the other marked characteristics, is a new, yearning earnestness to take the message of Jesus to the far-off peoples who have had no word of it.

But in addition to the general marching order is the particular personal order. The Master has made plain His plan for His Church; it is to go. He piakes plain His plan for each member of His Church where he is to go. The whole scheme is mapped out by the Lord of the harvest, and each one’s place in the scheme, too. And while all may go in a very real sense to those neediest fields by prayer and money and earnest sentiment-making, some are not to go there personally, but to stay here. The great thing is to be where the Master has planned.

How shall a man know that plan for himself? He should aim to gather all available information, weigh and balance it carefully, and wait quietly upon God, both in prayer and in the spirit of his life, with a full, eager willingness to go far or stay near, to be wholly in religious serxice or a volunteer with other duties, as the plan may be. He that is willing to go shall know. He should inform himself about the great world-fields. That is very easily done to-day. The Student Volunteer Movement and the Young People’s Movement have brought the information close home in very easy shape.

He ought to think about his own abilities and special gifts. These gifts and talents are gifts from God, and so a trust. One should think soberly of what he can do, and cannot do, that he may know his responsibility, and meet it. Some sensible friend or two, sympathetic with you and with the needs, can be of real service here, to help you get an impartial view, while the decision must rest with yourself. The circumstances of one’s life must be considered, and the home responsibilities. I know a young man who burned with the desire to go to a foreign field. But it was very plain to him that he should not leave home; he was needed there. There was a deep twinge of regret as the situation cleared to him; but no element of doubt. Clearly it was so planned for him. And he has since been used graciously in every mission land while yet remaining home. That is the story of very many who have discerned clearly the plan, and gladly fitted into it.

All this one should gather up: facts about the world-need; about himself, with friends to help get the undue personal coloring out; about his circumstances; and the strong inward impulse. These should be sifted and weighed unhurriedly, and balanced, and time spent in quiet prayer alone with God over His word. So a man will come to know with the certainty that steadies all his coming service. And he will always know in time. But he must not be hurried; he may decide quickly but he must not decide hurriedly.

‘’My Sheep Hear My Voice:’

There are some snags in these waters to be looked out for, and avoided. Some terrible mistakes have been made by those who said they had heard the voice of God, and were doing as He had bid. I am not speaking now of those who have done insane things under such a delusion. But godly, well-equipped men, earnest and whole hearted in their demotion, have made pitiable mistakes that have sadly blighted both life and service.

Sometimes a failure to obey in some matter, a break with God, a getting out of touch, a bit of sin not fixed up at once but persisted in, has led to the unwise step, and a wrecked career of service. We are made of such inflammable, catchy stuff that we must fight shy of the fires of passion and of pride, and Kve very close to God, lith a constant cleansing from defilement, if we are to go straight.

And sometimes where no such thing comes in there is a plain slip in judgment, with sad results. The records of serldcc are full of those who have been led away from the middle road to side paths not meant to be trodden. God is no longer able to use them. The switcfiing from the road has meant a switching from service. Paul was constantly on the watch lest after having been used of God he should have to be laid aside as no longer serviceable.^

Mark keenly that the tempter is a great imitator. He is a mighty actor, skilful in impersonating God. He follows God as closely as he can. There is a fascination in running through the Bible, especially the book of Revelation, and noting the imitations of the evil one. There is a voice of God, and there is a voice that is not God’s but sometimes mistaken for His. There is need of constant watchful care. Yet one may be sure. The Master said, “My sheep hear my voice” ;^ that is, they recognize it. The actual sheep in that land are very keen and quick to recognize their own master’s voice. That sheep simile is immensely helpful here. The sheep live with the shepherd. It is by long daily intimacy with him that they know him so well.

So with us. By the intimacy of daily contact with God, by the intimacy of knowledge with His Book, one may come to recognize unerringly His voice, and by the cultivation of a quiet spirit one grows keener to know that voice, for it is a voice of great, still quietness. There is a Voice of God as well as a Book of God. God speaks by the voice of the Spirit to a man’s inner spirit. He is apt to speak in the words of the Book. Sometimes He speaks otherwise. And when He does it is always in accord with the Book, of course; the

I. Corinthians 9: 27. John 10: 27.

voice of God agrees with itseK. He never speaks contrary to the Book nor to the spirit of it.

Having asked for guidance and reached your decision, never look back and question your guidance. If indeed it be clear that you have not waited quietly enough, and have not heard distinctly, and made a decision unwisely, of course it must be changed. But when you have waited and listened and not hurried, and come to a decision, then refuse to question it. Push quietly on. There is a teasing, nagging indecision that whips back and forth over a matter already disposed of. It often comes from worn-out nerves. Good sound sleep, and plenty of fresh air, and plain food thoroughly chewed, would dispel many of the distracting, confusing thoughts that come racing in like staghounds to bother us. They would help us to hold steady mentally, and to know the thing to do. Sometimes this indecision lies deeperdown than a tired body, and is a mental trait to be chastened and disciplined.

A will bended to God’s, a spirit of obedience to His wishes, the Book kept open, the cultivation of the Spirit’s friendship, time alone with the Book daily, a habit of wide reading of its pages, a quiet, unhurried spirit — these simple, great things lead to the disciplined judgment and sensitive spirit that know what to do and make no slips.

“Thou sweet, beloved will of God,
My anchor-ground, my fortress hill,
My spirit’s silent fair abode:
In thee I hide me and am still.

Upon God’s will I lay me down
As child upon its mother’s breast;

No silken couch, nor softest bed
Could ever give me such sweet rest.

Thy wonderful grand will, my God,
With triumph now I make it mine;

And love shall cry a joyous ‘yes’
To every dear command of thine.

Thy beautiful sweet will, my God,
Holds fast in its sublime embrace

My captive will, a gladsome bird
Prisoned in such a realm of grace.

Within this place of certain good
Love evermore expands her wings;

Or, nestling in thy perfect choice.
Abides content with what it brings;

A sweetest burden, lightest yoke,
It lifts, it bears my happy soul;

It giveth wings to this poor heart;
My freedom is thy grand control.” *

Madame Guyon.

THE PROBLEM OF THE
CHURCH

Some Wrong Ideas.

The Tie of Blood and Spirit.

A Picture of the True Family.

Fellowship and Service.

Great Church-names Sign- posts
OF Man’s Growth.

A New Church Unity.

The True Church Spirit.