The Illumination of the Spirit

Behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you, I will make. knows my words unto you.” — PROV. i. 23.

“) HE words of a man are no revela.ica te gy thee until thou hast received his spirit. It is not the words that speak to thee; it is the common experience between thyself and the speaker. In vain will he talk to thee of sorrow if thou hast not known sorrow; in vain will he discourse to thee of beauty if thou hast not felt beauty. All thy revelations come from the spirit within thee. If thy spirit ts not on the same mental height with him whe walks by thy side his words will to thee be the accents of a foreign tongue. Even so is it with the words of God. The reading of all the chapers in the Bible will not reveal God to thee until they bear witness with thy spirit. Creation must precede revelation. Before God can speak to thee He must raise thee up to His own level. The divine alone can understand the divine. There are words lying in thy memory which are not yet revealed to thee — holy words, sacred words, words learned at a mother’s knee, but whose beauty is by thee as yet unfelt, unseen. When the Spirit comes the old words will come to thee as something new. Thou shalt marvel at what thou hast passed by unnoticed on the way. Thou shalt wonder at the richness of the Lord’s Prayer, at the power of the Sermon on the Mount, at the tenderness of the story of a prodigal son. Thou shalt be surprised at the melody of old psalms, thrilled by the novelty of familiar incidents, stirred by the freshness of well-known passages. To him who is a new creature old things are all made new; the mine that was empty to the eye of sense, to the spirit reveals gold. Thou divine Spirit illuminate to me the words of the Lord. Show me the wealth of glory that lies beneath the old familiar stories. Teach me the depth of meaning that is hid in the songs of Zion. Raise me to the height of aspiration that is compassed by the wings of the prophet. Lift me to the summit of faith that is trod by the feet of the Apostle. ‘Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.” The wonders are in Thy law already; they do not need to be put there. But until Thou comest my eyes are in want of a lens by which to see them. They are like the well of water which Hagar did not behold, like the ram caught in the thicket which Abraham did not discern, like the cake prepared on the fire which Elijah did not recognise. We need angels to tell us these things though they lie on our daily path. Shine in our hearts, Thou better Sun, and glorify the ancient message. Light up the old texts, irradiate the time-worn phrases, deepen thebygone meanings, revise the inadequate readings, reveal the latent applications, unlock the hidden doors. I shall find the treasures in my earthen vessels when Thou hast made known the words of the Lord.