PSALM XXXII. 8 91
unkindness of other people, and they are very hard to bear because I know they are not God's will. Unkmdness cannot be His will." Her complaint well-nigh covers all the dreary cata- logue of human suffering. Nearly always it is " somebody's fault." The cotton corner which spreads want over an English county, the opened lamp in the coal-mine which darkens a hundred homes, the careless workmanship at the drain W'hich slays the darling of the household, the heartbreak of a fruitless search for employ- ment— these surely are not the will of your Heavenly Father. Now it is quite true that Atlantic storms may be beyond control. But nothing hinders men from building ships strong enough to weather them. There may be limits which we know not to the miraculous betterment of circumstances outside, but there is no limit to God's power'^to build up His saints inwardly in strength. He may be barred out of a thousand hearts, but He need not be barred out of mine. And this gospel is ennobling because it is educative. It may be doubted if " God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," but it is not at all doubtful that He expects men to invent warmer clothing. The blessings of Providence are not for idlers, but for those who are willing to learn wisdom.^
2. God guides His own not by force, but by love. The eye is the indicator of the desire ; the lips command ; the hand compels. The lips can plead, but there is an inner plea which the eye alone urges. Those who know the language of the eye have mastered the language of the soul. It implies tljat a sympathy is already established. When the glance is understood and obeyed, there is perfect concert of mind and heart. A heart tuned to sympathy with the Divine purposes and hopes, leaps forth in glad obedience. It sees no meanings anywhere so joyfully as those which it reads in the eye of God.
^ What is it that makes thy life an intenser note than the music of the stars ? Is it not just the fact that thou art free, just the circumstance that there is no iron belt around thee ? What is this marvellous thing thou callest thy will ? Wherein does its glory differ from the glory which the heavens declare ? Is it not just in this, that thou art not compelled to come in ? There is a guidance for thee, but it is not a star's guidance ; it is a guidance of the eye. It is the only guiding which a will can get without dying. Wouldst thou be driven like a star ? then must thou cease to be free. The heavens declare God's glory;
1 W. S. Hackett.
92 THE GUIDING EYE
l)ut it is the glory of His hands. Who shall declare the glory of His Spirit? Not a star however bright, not a pulseless thing liowever fair ; only something that can throb and strive and choose. He will not guide thee by aught but His eye. He will not compel thee to bear His cross. He will not sacrifice the joy of being loved to the pride of being obeyed. He will draw thee, but He will never drive thee ; He shall guide thee only with His eye.i
^ Is God your leader ? — or does He only rein you in ? Are you personally conscious of the vast difference between these two experiences ? It is well to be held back from sin, no doubt, but the joy of tlie God-directed, sanctified man is certainly beyond that of the horse and mule which have no understanding, and whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle. There is no holiness of a radical sort without Divine, positive, everyday guidance. This differs not only in degree but in kind from negative restraint. The latter may be no more than the rebuke or cry of our own alarmed conscience. Conscience is born with us, born with every man. We possess it witliout choice of our own. It is liable to error like other human faculties, even though of inestimable value. But God intends us to know Him of our own free choice, and much more intimately than by laws written involuntarily upon our heart. Those latter we have in connnon with the heathen. They operate upon our fears. Guidance appeals to our faith. " I will guide thee with mine eye," is a promise to God's people which goes far ahead of conscience, and so universally is it intended to be enjoyed that it was given even long before the coming of our Lord. But there is no guidance of this highest kind without the eager and abiding desire for it — a desire strong enough in its faith and intensity to survive during the severest trial and suffering.^
3. God guides us, not by showing us at tlie outset the whole road that lies before us, and instructing us beforehand which turn to take, and what to do in each difficult place ; but, step by step, as we go along, He reveals the path to us, and shows us how to walk. We should be appalled were we to see at a glance all that He sees. He does not guide us so. He Himself sees all ; but He shows it to us, bit by bit, as we can bear the sight, and as it is needful for us to know. When we accept God's guidance, we