The Spirit's Gift of Counsel

To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom,” — 1 Cor. xii. 8,

“HE word of wisdom” is equivalent to “the wise word”” — the word spoken at the right time. Paul says that the power to do this can only come through the Spirit of Christ, in other words, through the sacrifice of my thought of self. How true this is! How many of the most splendid advices have failed in their effect just because before giving them I forgot to bury myself’ Perhaps I was angry; perhaps I was indignant; perhaps I was supercilious; perhaps I was secretly gratified with the glory of being a mentor. And so I failed to be a mentor — failed for want of the Spirit. My word was not wise, because it was spoken at the wrong time, and it was spoken at the wrong time because I did not put myself in the place of my brother. I was thinking of myself — not of him; therefore I lost the blessedness of the man who “bringeth forth his fruit 2 tts season.” 1 brought out my fruit of correction in winter when my brother was cold; it added to his bitterness and he rejected it with scorn. The Spirit would have taught me to create the springtime first around him, and to speak my word of wisdom when the singing of birds had come.

Spirit of Christ, help me to speak to my brother the word of wise counsel. It will never be wise until it is tender, and it will never be tender until it is prompted by Thee. Teach me that if a man be overtaken in a fault I must. restore him “in the spirit of meekness,” considering my own temptation. Enable me before I speak to clothe myself in his circumstances. Grant me the power to place myself in his surroundings, in his difficulties, in his struggles. Give me the strength to empty myself into his life, to say to myself, “Would I have done much better if I had been born under the same star?” Instead of marvelling that he is so bad, help me to see how much worse he might have been. Let me begin by bearing his burden before I ask him to bear my counsel. Then shall my counsel be tender because it shall be timely. It shall be as Thy vaice was of old to the victims of their own sin. It shall keep back the reproof until the ravages of the past be healed; it shall say, ‘‘Thy sins be forgiven thee” ere it shall consent to say, ‘‘Go and sin no more.” My word of counsel shall be wise when, all-atoning Love, it is dictated by Thee.