(1) The first step of the Spirit's ordinary work of guidance takes place in that part of man's spiritual being which we know as his understanding. It is a guidance of information. It is expressed by our Lord in these words : " He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you." It is revelation of facts regarding Christ and His work. Let us trace it and observe its laws. It is carried on in appointed association with ordinary means and sources of knowledge. The Spirit of God does not reveal Christ and the things of Christ to a heathen who never has heard of Christ. " How can they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? " is the Apostle's question, even in his own day of miraculous agency. God is pleased then that this part of His work should be subserved and conditioned by the making known to men of the facts of the Gospel. On this His appointment, the duty of preaching, the duty of dispersing the Scriptures, the duty of teaching and informing the young, are founded.
^f Whenever the Spirit is followed, the soul sees. The mark aimed at has been espied. All is not taken fully in at the first, nor ever, but there is sight and a seeing. Could you stand on the highest peak of the highest mountain, you could not see all the world; on the other hand, looking out of your cottage window, you see enough to call you forth to research and labour. It is not a blind going. The way of your steps is discovered. True, the Spirit will often have to lead you " as one who is blind," taking you gently by the hand, holding you up, and guarding you ; but you follow because you have learned to know and hearken to His voice, and because you have found safety, strength, and wisdom in heeding Him, and are sure of the end.1
'W. Hubbard.
ROMANS viii. 14 447
Step softly, under snow or rain,
To find the place where men can pray ;
The way is all so very plain, That we may lose the way.
Oh, we have learnt to peer and pore
On tortured puzzles from our youth. We know all labyrinthine lore, We are the three Wise Men of yore,
And we know all things but the truth.
Go humbly ... it has hailed and snowed , s .
With voices low and lanterns lit, So very simple is the road,
That we may stray from it.
The world grows terrible and white,
And blinding white the breaking day, We walk bewildered in the light, For something is too large for sight,
And something much too plain to say.
The Child that was ere worlds begun
(. . . We need but walk a little way . . . We need but see a latch undone . . .), The Child that played with moon and sun Is playing with a little hay.
The house from which the heavens are fed, The old strange house that is our own,
Where tricks of words are never said,
And Mercy is as plain as bread, And Honour is as hard as stone.
Go humbly; humble are the skies,
And low and large and fierce the Star,
So very near the Manger lies, That we may travel far.
Hark ! Laughter like a lion wakes
To roar to the resounding plain, And the whole heaven shouts and shakes,
For God Himself is born again; And we are little children walking
Through the snow and rain.1
1 G. K. Chesterton.
448 THE LEADING OF THE SPIRIT
(2) From the understanding the guidance of the Spirit goes to the will. The same Spirit which revealed to the eye of the mind the facts of Christ's work in their vital significance now turns that eye inward on its own region of life and responsibility. In our Lord's description of the Spirit's convicting work in the world, namely, the convincing of sin, the action on the conscience is placed first (knowledge of the facts of redemption being pre- supposed), because the very bringing home of these facts to the inner being is necessarily the conviction of sin.
Tf It is by our will that we are to be proved and judged. In the midst of all this growing, overwhelming light, the will may remain stubborn and rebellious. Faults in childhood growing into the sins of boyhood, hardening into the entanglements and obstinacy of manhood, establish a deliberate resistance in the will against the light of the Spirit. We often see the most promising forms of character slowly fading off. For a time there is a kind of negative declension. No marked and active faults appear ; but nothing is advancing towards holiness and the mind of Christ. They seem for awhile to stand still, as we see in an arrow's flight a momentary pause before it begins to descend. So they never go beyond a certain point ; then for awhile they hang in suspense — then slowly falL Then some one sin appears, long nourished in secret, now at last revealed ; some one parasite, which has clung about them, and slowly confirmed its grasp around the whole strength and stature of their character. And this one sin gives the fatal wound to their spiritual life.1