THE GUIDING EYE OR I THE HOLY SPIRIT'S GUIDANCE OF V i THE BELIEVER. "I will guide thee with mine eye." — Psalm xxxii. 8. "When lie, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." —John xvi. 13. BY REV. A. CARMAN, D.D. ^ General Superintendent of the Methodist Church. Hororito : WILLIAM BRIGGS. MONTREAL: C. W. COATES. HALIFAX: S. F. HUESTIS. PEEFAOE. T is a comfortincj thought to some of us that a rill is as much of a fact as a river ; and a river as real a thing as the ocean, and in some regards as useful, even if not so broad, deep, mighty, or sublime. We are saved from despair by the reviving recollection that a grain of vv^heat in a bushel of chaff may be as good wheat as the waving wealth of the prairie or the granary's golden store. But we are by no means justified in the illusion that the rill can bear up argosies and navies, with all their riches and power, or that the grain of wheat can maintain armies and nations. Yet who knows but the rill, gathered as a confluent, might at length sweep grandly past mart and capital to the sea ? Who knows but the one grain falling into the ground may, of nature's kind nurture, shoot forth upward into the light, adding beauty to the valley, holding the gem of the dew in the diadem of the hills, bringing gladness to the reaper and glory to the harvest ? Or if the rill never reach ocean, it may brighten the sweet, quiet flower by 1 V PREFACE. its course, or even strengthen the root and widen the sweep of the noble elm. If the one grain never bursts into the fulness and increase of the harvest, it may nurture the lark that greets the dawn and cheers the morning with his song. What if this little book should quicken the rootlet or nourish the fibre of some majestic tree whose leaf doth not wither, and whose fruit cometh forth in his season ? What if this little book should bring light to some mind and joy to some soul that, on renewed pinion, shall swell the chorus rising with the advancing splendors of the Sun of Righteousness ? Would it not be reward enough ? Would it not be the supreme satisfaction enjoyed by humble souls guided by the Spirit of God onward in truth ? The Author has earnestly sought the guidance of which he writes ; and in faith in God in the comfort of the Spirit through the merit of the Blood, offers an imperfect work to those that are obeying the command, " Be perfect," and are truly " perfecting holiness in the fear of God ; " and to all that are seeking like blessed estate, " forgetting those things which are behind, and teaching forth unto those things which are beforG ; pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Without a disposition to claim lofty relationships, PREFACE. V this aspirant among the books to the study and attention of devout minds and prayerful hearts may affirm a likeness to Paley's " Natural Theology and Evidences of Christianity," in one, and only one, regard ; and to Kant's " Critique of Pure Reason," in another ; namely, that after the pattern of the genesis of the former immortal works, it springs out of external occasion and actually existing circumstances, out of the current thought of the time ; and after the style of the production of the latter, it has been, as to its substance, the subject of observation and study for some time; and then written through interruptions, and in a hurry. No wonder if there are ill-joined parts, crudities and repetitic^s. Some strange, extra- vagant and misleading views on the guidance of the Holy Spirit as the privilege of believers in Christ on the one hand ; and on the other somo denunciations of these views, led to closer examination of the Scriptures on this doctrine ; supplied the germ of a sermon, and the sermon grew into a book. And now the book is sent forth, with the earnest prayer that it may do many people much good. It certainly never will win its way by its lore or its literary excellencies ; nor is this expected or designed. Its matter and marrow must be its passport to the favor of ordinary Christian people who " think on these things." COKTEJS'TS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Statement and Relation of the Doctrine 9 CHAPTER II. Vital Unity in Infinite Diversity 12 CHAPTER III. The Human View 17 CHAPTER IV. The Original Purpose and the Present Plan 23 CHAPTER V. Rule of Seasch 27 CHAPTER VI. The Key-Word, " Guide." 33 CHAPTER VII. Certain Plain Inferences 39 CHAPTER VIII. Qualifications of the Guide 44 CHAPTER IX. The Instrument of Guidance 50 Vni CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PACK The Learnkb, Scholar 60 CHAPTER XI. Relioion Natural in the Kingdom of God 70 CHAPTER XII. The Spirit of Truth 77 CHAPTER XIII. Heart-Guidancf, vs. Head-Guidance 95 CHAPTER XIV. Infallibility and Certainty 104 CHAPTER XV. What IS It? 112 CHAPTER XVI. What is its Extent? 118 CHAPTER XVII. Where Located 129 CHAPTER XVIII. Wherein Applied 149 CHAPTER XIX. How Conveyed 169 CHAPTER XX. Summary Catechism 180 t THE HOLY SPIRIT'S GUIDANCE. CHAI^TER I. STATEMENT AND RELATION OF THE DOCTRINE. " Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." — John xvi. 13. HE doctrine of the text and context is plainly, ' The guidance of humble, teachable, obedient souls by the Holy Spirit. It is a bright beam of the full- orbed doctrine of the Holy Ghost, shining out steadily and clearly from the central Godhead upon all pure, moral beings ; and, in the mercy of God, especially upon the human race in its upward struggle to purity and everlasting light. This doctrine of the Spirit is the radiant and crowning glory of the New Dispensa- tion's ineffable splendors ; and this doctrine of the Spirit's guidance is the brightest, purest ray, the focal ray, the very Shekinah of that Spiritual temple, more costly and brilliant than polished cedar, and precious stones, and gold. It is not the doctrine of 10 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, moral consciousn 3, the basis of all religion ; con- sciousness of conscience and of God ; fundamental and important as that doctrine is, and closely related as it is to it, and springing as it does, like the other doc- trines of the Spirit, out of it. Nor is it the doctrine of the conviction of sin, essential as that divine illumi- nation of the darkened human soul is. Nor is it the doctrine of the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, indispensable as is that doc- trine to Christian life and character, to admission to the kingdom of God, and the fruiiion of heavenly felicity. Nor is it the doctrine of the witness of the Spirit of God with our spirits that we are children and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ ; the divine attestation of our adoption as sons, the seal of our pardon and earnest of our inheritance; assuring and comforting and strengthening ; cheering and em- boldening as is that personal and indubitable visitation of God to the individual man, to every truly and clearly justified soul warring a good warfare and con- tending for the crown of eternal life. Nor is it the doctrine of the perfect love that casteth out fear, of the assurance of the hope that glorieth in tribula- tions also, because the love of God is shed fully abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost given unto us ; lus- trous as is this blessed doctrine, with the light of heaven even on the sin-darkened earth. Neither is it even the great missionary doctrine — the baptism of fire, the pentecostal power, the promise of the Father, and the gift of the Spirit to man, sent forth with a THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 11 new and divine energy to lift up a fallen world ; inti- mately and even inseparably associated and combined as it is with this doctrine and these other higher doc- trines and developments of the Christian faith. But it is the doctrine, inclusive of all these, filled with all and encompassing all, the doctrine of the indwelling Spirit in the hearts of believers : the ever-enlightening Spirit, directing Spirit, prompting Spirit, chastening Spirit, instructing Spirit, revealing, upholding and guiding Spirit, the uniting and helping Spirit that the humble, faithful, teachable soul may advance from knowledge to knowledge, from strength to strength, from joy to joy ; may prove in ever-opening opportu- nity and exercise that eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard what God hath prepared for them that love Him, and what is the exceeding great riches of His grace toward us in Christ Jesus. It 's the doctrine of the divine companionship and leadership of His people ; the aid and fellowship, the light and peace of God in all the paths of truth and duty, those paths in which it is the health and the delight of a rectified soul ever to walk. It is the doctrine of true unity and co-operation in the great enterprises of the king- dom of Jesus Christ : in the motives inspired, the dispositions inwrought, the capabilities discovered and developed, the progress achieved and the reward secured ; it is at least something of heaven below, the fulness of the " kingdom of God within you." 12 THE GUIDING EYE ; OR, CHAPTER II. VITAL UNITY [N INFINITE DIVERSITY. fRULY here is a resplendent orb, this doctrine of the Holy Spirit ; His existence, deity, dignity, office, and power ; and focal ray of all its splen- dors is this doctrine of the divine guidance of each willing man, and all obedient men into all truth. To the non-Christian world He is, of course, as though He were not. They know not of Him, speak not of Him, seek not unto Him. And, at the best, we climb gradu- ally, slowly into light. Behold the history of the Church of God. In the Christian world some openly, multitudes practically, deny His very existence. Some admit an existence, but deny His deity. He is but an emanation, an office, an influence. Even where His deity is recognized in the creeds, the dignity and essential equality in the Godhead are virtually dis- owned. And when this is accepted, the offices and power are too often discredited. The ground is fought over inch by inch. Though many say it, how few be- lieve in God the Holy Ghost as brought nigh unto us, and as set forth in the New Testament ? Why say, . " I believe in the Holy Ghost," and then deny the spiritual regeneration of our nature, and the Holy THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. IS Spirit as the sole agent of that regeneration ? Why say, " 1 believe in the Holy Ghost," and then deny that we may know our sin forgiven, and that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God ? Why say, " I believe in the Holy Ghost," and then deny that God's plan of salvation is through sanctitication of the Spirit, and belief of all His saving truth ? Why say, " 1 believe in the Holy Ghost," and then doubt or deny that the Spirit of God may dwell in us, that we may be led of the Spirit, that we may bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, and that He will guide us, obedient, into all truth ? How few appreciate His work, the grandeur of His work, the minuteness of His work, the- definiteness of His work, the luminousness of His work, and the utter indispen- sableness of that work at every stage, in every believer's progress, and in the Church of God. He shows us the terror of our darkness, and then fills us with light. He wounds us with the keen shaft of conviction, a sense of our guilt, and then heals us with the peace of attested pardon. He leads us into the abysses of despair, and then bears us upward to the radiant sum- mits of triumph and hope. He makes us feel our weakness, and pours on us the tides of unconquerable strength. He pierces us with the pangs of an unutter- able grief, and thrills us with the raptures of an inex- pressible joy. He shows us our estate of drought and barrenness, and leads us into a land of plenty and fruitfulness. By Him we feel our ignorance and ruin, and by Him we come to the fountains of knowledge and life. By Him we groan under our disease and 14 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, foulness ; and by Him we sing the new song ; we have the washing of the regeneration, the healing of the balm, and the cleansing of the blood. And all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit. There is only one Holy Ghost, and He is all-suflEicient for every true believer. Just as to the man that can say Jesus is the Lord by the Holy Ghost, there are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit ; and diversities of opera- tions, but the same God working all in all ; so in our spiritual growth, from the elements of natural reli- gion to the highest Christian attainment, it is the same Holy Ghost that awakes us to moral consciousness, stirs our faculties into action, incites us to ask which is right and which wrong ; what is our law, and who is our judge ; guides and helps us to repentance ; in repentance instructs us onward to saving faith ; through faith executes and assures the pardon, accom- plishes the regeneration, attests the adoption," and beckons on to higher, broader knowledges and faiths, to holiness and perfect love; to the abiding, indwelling, enlightening, strengthening, con "orting fellowship ; to the enduement of power and perpetual baptism of lire ? Here surely is a vast variety of exercise, and to us an infinite diversity of experience ; but after all, it is the same ever blessed Holy Spirit. As in the allotment of gifts in the Church of God in countless degrees and measureless combinations and varieties, the unity of the Church, the body of Christ, is perfectly preserved; so in infinite wisdom, in the exercise of functions in adaptation to innumerable diversities of talent and relation, the unity of the life and experience is per- THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 15 i'ectly preserved ; for it is one and the same Holy Spirit. It is one ocean from the topmost shallows to the profoundest caverns, from the minutest protozoon to the hugest whale. One sun illumes the whole hemisphere, and throws out broadly one landscape, from the insect to the eLphant, from the trembling leaf to the immovable mountain. Perfeci unity in in- ftnite diversity. To displace anything is, more or less, to change everything. Why unduly magnify any one part of the immense doctrine of the Holy Ghost ? Why lift up one function to the displacement of others ? Why deal with God in our thought as though He were made of parts disproportionate and ill- adjusted, and His administration of offices ill-adapted, and fancifully and fitfully executed ? Why esteem conviction of sin first and last and everything, as do some that say we can never advance to the knowledge of sin forgiven ? Why hold the regeneration all sufii- cient, as do they who say it is not necessary further to seek a clean heart ? Why rest in the act and estate of entire sanctification, as they do who desire to settle down into a self-gratu^atory quietism, and ignorantly fancy all is done so long as they " feel happy ? " Why not perfect holiness in the fear of God, in the con- current, co-existent and co-efficient purity of heart, righteousness of life, abiding Christ and abiding in Christ, walking in the Spirit and indwelling Holy Ghost; at once guide and strength, comforter and power ? Why force or strain these doctrines out of their natural, necessary, logical, covenanted and eternal order; as though God, in the covenant and 16 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, eternal purpose of grace and righteousness in Jesus Christ, could sanctify an unpardoned man, or abide perpetually and lovingly and luminously in the un- sanctified ? There is the divine order in the blood of the Covenant through th:. Eternal Spirit; and the Great God of truth and righteousness will not, cannot dishonor Christ, or displace or perplex the Holy Ghost by any fitful, irregular or uncertain procedure. '■ First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear." And this doctrine of the guidance of the Spirit is not to be taken out of its proper connection and relation ; but is rooted in all the doctrines of the Spirit that pre- cede it, and throws forth its branches, its energies, into all the doctrines of the Spirit that follow it, and arise out of it and its antecedent doctrines, conditions and relations. Let there be no mistake here. To obtain and retain this divine guidance implies very much fundamental and antecedent, and very much developing and consequent that, perhaps, are little thought of by many that speak very carelessly and presumptuously in these matters. ,c THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 17 CHAPTER III. THE HUMAN VIEW. fHIS glorious full-orbed doctrine of the Spirit has many beams and many rays. There is the life- giving ray of creative energy ; the heat ray of infinite love ; and the impelling, directing ray of inspiration ; the illuminating ray of guidance ; the color ray of maturity, discipline ; and the active, actinic chemical ray of conversion ; and each in all and all in each ; and the one ever-blessed Holy Spirit in His entirety in every one ; these being but phases of His action open to our view, as suited to the dispensation, time, needs, and circumstances, and exercised in all their combinations and diversity with all the attributes of His glorious divine character in infinite wisdom and goodness. First, it is creative power brooding over the abyss, moving upon the face of the waters ; and then associated in the Godhead, making man in the sublime image of the triune Deity; then it is the guiding, instructing power in the same majestic, mysterious, eternal triune association in the Godhead, teaching the new man the law of the Lord and the glory of life in the peaceful walks and bowers of Eden — His delights were with the sons of men in happy fellowship ; then 2 18 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, it is rebuking, condemning power, preaching unto the spirits in prison and striving with a fallen, sinful race ; then it is inspiring, prophetic power, sweep- ing David's harp of solemn sound, kindling the raptures of Isaiah, darkening Jeremiah's woe and in- toning his dismal wail, lifting the vista of the coming kingdom to Daniel's eye, and thundering with Hosea and Joel and Micah against the apostasies of Israel and the abominations of the heathen, that in their idolatries had forsaken God ; and always and everywhere the recreating, renewing power to the man that had learned of God to send up the cry of the anguished heart, " Create in me a clean heart, O God ; and renew a right spirit within me ! " Then in the beginning of the restitution of all things ; the reconciliation of all things to Himself, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven ; in the promise of the Father and its Pentecostal fultilment ; in the return of the Holy Spirit to the human race at large, as the common, purchased gift for all, we have not merely a ray here and a ray there, as for an exigency ; or a beam pushing its way out into universal darkness to write a book, deliver a message, or save a nation ; but the full-orbed glory and the firmament all aglow ; the Spirit of God, the purchase, pledge and witness of our Divine Redeemer again returning to the redeemed race to fill every office and administer every grace impartially to every man, necessary to restore us ail fully to God ; not simply tc inspire one here and an- other there with an inspiration He knew not of ; not merely to visit a few favored ones in one small nation ; THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 19 but to lift all men of all nations into light, to convince all men everywhere of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment ; that is, to bring every man to a knowledge of himself and of God ; to recreate every repenting soul trusting in Jesus Christ ; to sanctify all the obedient ; to instruct the erring and all those that seek know- ledge ; to strengthen the weak and comfort all that mourn ; to fill every willing soul as a pure and radiant temple, and abide in every humble, teachable spirit a joy, a strength and a guide. " If ye love Me, keep My commandments : and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter that He may abide with you forever : even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, becau.se it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him : but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you." " Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth . . . and He will show you things to come." Is it a wonder that such brightness dazzles our sight in a world of alienation from God ; a world of moral darkness, rebelRon and sin ? Possibly our spiritual dimness of vision is at once our ruin and our hope ; our ruin, if we settle down into blindness and dark- ness ; our hope, if we exercise ourselves to keenness of vision, and struggle up into fulness of light. Possibly the brightness is tempered to every man, an incentive to activity, a ray to lead him up out of prison, a beam of the upper glory to beckon him on to the unfailing splendor ; and not the full blaze of glory to darken and destroy the spiritual eye and dash away all pros- pect and expectancy in defiant indifference or blank despair. What could we do if no light were given us? 20 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, What should we do if God's unveiled glory and heaven's undiminished splendors were poured at once upon us ? Is it a wonder that questionings arise ? Is it a won- der that the ancient prophets searched diligently what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify ^ Is it an anomaly, a misdi- rection, a mistake that he that is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than John the Baptist, the Elias that was to come, than whom a greater had not been born of woman ? Is it a wonder that honest-hearted teachers in the Church of God, learned doctors of the law, should inquire, " How can a man be born when he is old ? " Is it a wonder that the aroused and curi- ous woman at the well of Samaria, utterly blind to spiritual things, should reply to the traveller unknown: " Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with and the well is deep ; whence then hast Thou that living water ? " Is it a wonder, in the glory of the Pentecostal effusion, when they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and begian to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, that the multitude were amazed and were in doubt what it meant, and charged upon them that they were drunken ? Was Paul in error in his pointed test question at Ephesus, " Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed ? " Was he wrong in adminis- tering supplemental baptism when they confessed they had not been baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity — Father, Son and Spirit ? Shall we marvel that whole churches have not believed in the necessity or possibility of spiritual regeneration, in the Holy Spirit's witness to our adoption into the family of God, in the blessed assurance of faith, or in the sancti- THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 21 fying power of the indwelling Holy Ghost ? When we consider man's moral insensibility, dulness and un- belief, is it an astonishment that there are yet churches, and likely yet, in all the churches, that deny that we can be perfected in love or wholly sanctified in this life ? That have no idea of the baptism of power, of the perennial fruits of the Spirit, or of the safe guid- ance of the illuminating Holy Ghost ? Are we surprised, on the other hand, when a devout soul is filled with the Holy Ghost, there should be elated feeling and strong assertion ? \i one of the Lord's dear children, resting on Him, trusting in Him, proving it by the meekness of holy living, full of His spirit, should bring into the social meeting or public assembly, as if it were a family of God, the extravagant language of privacy, even the rhapsody of devotional secrecy, the foolish fondness of filial affection, or the unblushing confidence in the Beulah estate where the soul is married and rejoices in her spouse, shall we stand smitten with consternation and be appalled at the " danger ahead ? " Whatever the little ones may think or say of their liability to mistake, shall we be exercised to uncharitableness, and, perhaps, even un- kindness, by this evident indiscretion aud mistake through excessive zeal of utterance or defective know- ledge, or lack of appreciation of the decency and order of 'public worship ? Is the ark of God in danger be- cause some fervid, impulsive spirit leaps beyond our conceptions of propriety ; or because physical or hys- terical excitement sweeps unguarded and untutored imitators to extremes ? When the divine intimations to Gideon were so precise and decisive, the divine 22 ' THE GUIDING EYE ; OR, guidance of Saul so minute in his search for the asses of Kish, the divine arrangements for the meeting of Peter and Cornelius given so in detail, is it marvellous that God should vouchsafe some minuteness of direc- tion to His children in this age of the Spirit ? Because inconsiderate people may sometimes mix up ill-founded impressions with divine intimations and directions, shall we abate our regard for the doctrine of the Holy Spirit's guidance ? Because there may be some fanati- cism, shall we abandon the solid ground of Scripture, experience and fact ? On which side is the danger after all ; that some will be too earnest, yielding them- selves up to the guidance of the Spirit, or give them- selves over to extravagance in attempting it ? or that the vast, vast, innumerable majority, and even some professing Christians, will still go on after the usual course of this world, leaning to their own understand- ing ; and often, often sitting in cool judgment or swift controversy even upon the plainly declared will of God, and rendering thereto but a reluctant and partial obedience ; little inquiring and little caring whether, under the general provisions of grace, there may not be a closer communion and a special direction, a higher privilege and a clearer light for those that seek them ; just as we have come at length to understand, on the principle of natural religion, if nothing more, that there is a general providence over all, and there are special helps, safeguards and rewards for the virtuous and the good ? God's Bible will as surely, in this regard, be as keen a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, the necessities of man and the mind of God as God's Providence. THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 23 CHAPTER IV. THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE AND THE PRESENT PL*N. ^N man's orii^inal estate in Eden, the Lord God, the Holy Trinity, that made man in His own image and likeness, was his companion. All truth was spread before him ; he was himself very good, perfect, unimpaired ; and his teacher was the Lord — guide and friend. " In the beginning was the Word : the Word was with God : the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." This Creator under covenant, and Re- deemer by the same covenant ; this Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, announced Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life ; and . in Him it is de- clared are hid all the treasures of wisdom and know- ledge. We speak of the conflict of science and religion, but in the beginning it was not so. It is sin that hath deranged all things and effected the divorce. Religious truth, knowledge of God, know- ledge of man, knowledge of conscience and its functions, knowledge of the Divine Son, the Creator, and. the 24 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, • pathway of truth and light, up which, without death and without blood, He had led unt'allen, obedient man is just as much and as profound philosophy, just as much scientific truth as any other truth. And true astronomy, and true chemistry, true ethnology, and true sociology, and true science of every kind, the shining track up which the creating Son and Guide had led unfallen, improving man, is as much and as grandly religious truth as any other truth. God the Son, the Eternal Wisdom, was leading into all truth. The Eternal Wisdom, set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth was ; brought forth when there were no depths, no fountains abounding with water ; by which the Lord hath founded the earth and established the heaven ; by which He hath set a compass upon the face of the depth and given to the sea His decree ; ever with the Almighty Crea- tor, and rejoicing always before Him, rejoiced especi- ally in the habitable parts of the earth, and His special delights were with the sons of men. His high ere- dentials as a Divine Teacher are thus proclaimed : " I, Wisdom, dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions. Counsel is mine, and sound wis- dom : I am understanding. I have strength. By Me king's reign and princes decree justice. Riches and honor ave with Me, yea, durable riches and righteous- ness. All the words of My mouth are in righteous- ness : they are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge. Whoso find- eth Me findeth life." This Ancient of Days was the guide of the pristine unfallen man, lie led him in THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 25 the paths of righteousness. He was leading, leading him up the slope of the centuries in liglit supernal into all truth. But man revolted, rejected His coun- sel, and wandered in darkness. And, ch, what dark- ness ! for darkness covered the earth, and thick dark- ness the people. The Spirit of the Lord God was taken away from man. Ignorance of God, of him- self, of the world, settled down like a starless night upon the human race. Fallen from light, from right- eousness, from truth, man wandered in the endless mazes of ignorance of all things. The terrible errors of superstition, and the frightful enormities of paganism, became not only possible, but universally actual. True science and true religion, one at the bottom and one at the top, and one at all vital points and in all nor- mal growth all through, were violently rent asunder, so that men were, or could be, neither learned nor pious. Not led into all truth in its ever opening domain, with ever painful effort, they acquired very little truth : but a glimmer of the light through a chink in the wall within which, in their burrowing and toiling, they had entombed themselves. What a contrast this darkness, this darkness that may be felt, this, to human sight and ken, impenetrable darkness, with the bright shining, and the clear light of the New Testament — the brightness of Him that came as the Light of the World, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person ! Here, and here alone, is hope. He that made the worlds, and was the primitive and universal teacher and guide, " in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom 26 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, and knowledge," undertakes, first in unalterable jus- tice and truth, to restore righteousness, obedience, love — the basis of all moral and intellectual life, hence the basis of all knowledge ; and second, in infinite philanthropy. His delights yet with the sons of men, again to lead up this human race along the avenues of light, into the clear and bright domain of truth, peace, happiness, and power. And it is His promise we are studying : " When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come. He will guide you into all truth." This the agent, the order, the end, and the law of the Redemp- tion scheme ; first the central, vital truth ; then the enlargement into all truth. THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 27 CHAPTKR V. RULE OF SEARCH. fN the very threshold of this subject, as if smitten in the face by the flashing heat of an open fur- nace, we are sharply brought to a stand by a very plain, pertinent, practical question : How shall we understand or explain the doctrine of the Spirit, except by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven ? How shall we write or speak of the Spirit ? How shall we preach the indwelling, guiding. Holy Ghost, but by the Holy Ghost ? " What man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him ? " That is sound philosophj?^ ; down firm on the solid rock of consciousness; firmer than which philo- sophers say cannot be, and deeper than which they cannot go. Why is not the rest of the verse just as sound philosophy ? " Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God," Philoso- phically then, to say nothing about scripturally, we need the Holy Ghost. Just over the doorway to our theme is written : Tarry, till ye be endued with the power of discernment from on high. Tarry in prayer, in obedience, in meekness, in activity, in searching, in labor, in suffering, in patience, in faith, in love ; tarry 28 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, as the scholar at the difficult problem, with aim and purpose and perseverance; with effort and toil, and fidelity to principles and standards ; with diligent use of the proper appliances of investigation and acquisi- tion, and of the knowledge, little or much, already secured ; tarry as the merchant at his business, from early morn till late at night, with care, with vigilance, with enterprise and energy, with studious manage- ment and self-restraint, with kindness and economy, with improving knowledge of markets and customers, with candor, honest dealing, and uprightness. " Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." " Wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of Me." What more philosophic than all this ? Where greater fidelity to human life and experience ? Who shall teach the deep things of chemistry, but a skilled chemist ? Who shall teach the higher mathematics, but a practical mathematician ? Who shall show the power of logic, but the well versed lofjician ? Who shall teach us the nature of the Spirit, the work of the Spirit, the mind of the Spirit, the power of the Spirit, but the Holy Spirit Himself come down from heaven ? A man msij preach philosophy, so far as he has gone in it, by natural reason. He may preach theory, speculation, by fancy — imagination. He may preach logic and science out of the progress of knowledge and the processes of the mind. He may preach ethics out of conscience and the intuitions ; and natural religion and providence out of the intellectual and moral nature of man, the course of events, the life of indi- THE HOLY SPIRITS GUIDANCE. 29 viduals, the growth and decay of society, the records of the nations and the history of the human race. There can be religious teaching enough for some pur- poses, and preaching enough without any Holy Ghost. There has been such teaching in all religions, and in all systems of ethics, and in nearly all ages of the world ; and it is just possible there is j-^et some very fine preaching, without any Holy Ghost. But whatever else may be done, how shall we preach the Holy Ghost without the Holy Ghost ? What need have we now for enlightenment, for guidance ? For how shall we instruct or guide others on so subtle and stupendous a theme except we be ourselves guided and instructed from on high ? If the single eye, the pure heart, the obedient will, the meek, submissive spirit, the earnest, consecrated soul and the holy life will at once secure this guidance ; and prove, increase, and fructify its possession better than the rhapsody of an hour, the excitement of an assembly, the impulse of impressions and fancies, our own or of others, or the persuasion of illumination and direction outside of the orderly procedure of our Teacher and Lord in His Church, His work, and His Word ; we better seek, through the single eye, the devout and prayerful spirit, and the constantly consecrated, obedient and enlarg- ing life, the fulness of this indwelling — the brightness, safety, power and joy of this glorious guidance. If the Spirit of God is at war with genuine philosophy, sound reason, true logic, safe a,nd solid science and utterly irreconcilable to them, we had better find it out — preach the Spirit by the Spirit, and fling reason, logic, 30 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, knowledge and science to the winds ; for who but the Spirit shall know the mind of the Spirit ? But reason gone, and logic gone, and knowledge and the principles of all science and knowledge gone, how shall we know we have the Spirit of God or a devil ? Hov/ shall wg know there is a Spirit ? How shall we know anything of His way and work ? Shall we just trust impressions, notions, fancies ? Shall we run after the speculations of a vain philosophy, or rest in the dogmas of proud, earthborn science, whose thoughts and teachings are only of the earth, earthy ? Or shall we use human reason in a holy life, combining, as doth the Apostle Paul, the grasp of godliness with the grip of logic ; holding fast the form of sound words in faith and love in Christ Jesus ; obedient to the law, rejecting anything and everything contrary to sound doctrine ; holding fast the faithful word, that we may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to con- vince the gainsayers ; for God hath given us the Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind ^ Sound words, sound doctrine, a sound mind ; right principles, right expression and apprehension, right judgment ; truth, holiness and common sense ; godliness and righteousness; correct teaching, logic and reason — truth's trinity under the Holy Ghost for holy living and the salvation of the world. In the next place, we must bear in mind the doc- trine of the Holy Spirit's guidance is purely and simply a doctrine of divine revelation. It is not of man's discovery, or the result of his best investigations. Our ignorance might well zt'isA for something, but it THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 31 is not in ignorance to rise even so high as to the desire of knowledjje. Our wretchedness might well sigh for relief, but it is not in a sightless wretchedness to even think to look up. Our guilt might well flee punish- ment, but it is in sin only to multiply sin, and guilt to accumulate guilt, heaping up wrath against the day of wrath. How shall the blind, guilty, wretched soul ever dream of pardon and peace ? How should the wicked, rebellious soul ever think of the new heart, much less of the clean heart and the indwelling God ? Whence should hope of heirship of God and eternal glory ever come, if not from God Himself ? Who would have ever thought that the infinitely holy and all- wise God Avill make His abode with men — yea, in man — and lead him into all truth, if God Himself had not told him ? No wonder it is called the Gospel — the good news ! What man could not have imagined, or had the faintest gleam of, God declares with open voice and reveals in clearest light. He that made the earth out of nothing, from deepest degradation and ignor- ance, calls His sons and exalts them to His glory. What man would not have believed, and even now that it is declared does not believe, God hath set before us in the open day and under the full blaze of the meridian sun. Therefore we may well wait upon God, learn His law, and own His power. We may expect doctrines not contradictory to right reason and a sound mind, but above human reason and transcending human thought. Will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth ? Yea, more, will He walk with us and abide with us, and dwell in us, and lead us into 32 The guiding eye; or, all truth ? So verily say the Scriptures of God, our first and last and perpetual and only authority in the case. What this doctrine of the guidance of the Spirit is, what it means, for whom it is designed, how it manifests the wisdom and goodness of God, and what it can accomplish in us and for us, we must learn out of the Holy Scriptures — the sure and steady light of God from heaven — and not from the clouded ray of human reason or the uncertain lights and flitting shadows of human feeling and experience. With the Bible in hand, and guided of the Spirit of Truth, let us see what we may learn of this high doctrine enun- ciated by our adorable Lord. " When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 33 CHAPTKR VI. THE KEY- WORD, "GUIDE." QIND in the first place, it is to be noticed that what (4\ He, the Spirit of Truth, undertakes to do is to guide ns into truth, yea, into all truth. The word " guide " is the key- word of the text. It is not '" drive " us into truth ; or push or thrust us into truth ; or throw or hurl us into truth ; or draw or drag us into truth ; or in any way compel or coerce us into truth ; or lift or shoot, or dash us into truth, as by some sudden ex- plosion ; or frighten or astonish us into truth ; or flatter or coax or buy us into truth ; but guide, guide us into truth. Guide, lead, teach are the Scripture words ; they are as well the words of God and of the human mind. They are the words of the rational process and of the laws of thought, as well as the words of inspiration. These two books of God herein perfectly agree, and we make a fearful mistake if we attempt their disagreement, or strain one in the undue use of the other. Each has its place, and does the other no violence. " Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish." See that it is God in His work, and God in His Word. Ho ! ye that scorn reason and true learning; and see thpj it is the same God in the 3 34 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, volume of inspiration and in the processes and prin- ciples of the spirit of man in quest of all truth. That we may be the more deeply impressed with the thought and utterances of Scripture in this point of view, and their fidelity to the rational process and the laws of the human mind, let us gather out of the Word of God a few of the indications of the divine plan of our acquaintance with the truth of God ; the purpose of the divine mind and declarations of the Holy Spirit as to our instruction therein, and as to the enlightenment and salvation of the world through the truth ; and at the same time the views and experiences of God's people through all time as to their sanctifi- cation and progress in the way of knowledge, duty, usefulness and power. One thing is certain ; God the Father, the Father of lights ; God the Son, the light of the world ; God the Holy Ghost, the guide of His people and leader of faithful souls, is no friend of ignorance, of moral or intellectual darkness, or the prejudices, misconceptions, misdirections and errors that arise out of that darkness and ignorance. He does not build His kingdom on ignorance, nor does He expect to do His work by ignorance, or any of its vile progeny. Our God and His religion are not the champions of half ideas or the confusion of ideas ; or of dim, partial and unsettled ideas ; or of the envy and strife to which they lead. " God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of His saints." " God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." " I am the light of tl e world. He that fol- loweth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 35 the light of life," is the claim of our Lord. " Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness," is the asserted Christian character, " My people aro de- stroyed for lack of knowledge," crieth the judgment- pronouncing Hosea. " Wisdom and knowledge shall he the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation," replieth the farther-seeing and more hopeful Isaiah. " Awake thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead ; and Christ shall give thee light," is for every willing soul. "Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people ; but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising ; " is a promise specially for the Church of God. " For the earth shall bo tilled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea," is our God's grand purpose for this whole human race. Light, light ; truth, truth ; knowledge, knowledge ; glory, glory. As in the beginning, so now and ever- more, " Let there be light." How all this shall be fulfilled; what God under- takes in the economy of grace and expects in the hearts and life of men, is evident from these utter- ances of His Word: "The meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His way." " For Thy name's sake lead me and guide me." " I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go ; I will guide thee with Mine eye. Be 86 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, ye not as the horse or the mule, which have no under- standing, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee." " Nevertheless I am continually with thee; thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." " The integrity of the upright shall guide them.' " If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noon-day. And the Lord shall guide thee con- tinually ; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not." " Doth not wisdom cry, and understanding put forth her voice ? . . . . Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is unto the sons of man Hear in- struction and be wise and refuse it not The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. . . . Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser ; teach a just man and he will increase in learn- ing." " Lead me in thy truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day." ' Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies." " O send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me, let them bring me into thy Holy hill." " Thus saith the Lord : They have turned unto Me the bac and not the face, though I taught them rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruc- tion." " Jesus went into the temple and taught ; He taught them as one having authority, and not as the THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 37 acribes." "Then said Jesus to those Jews who be- lieved on Him, If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make yon free." " Ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another." " And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said. Is not Aaron the Levite thj brother ? I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do." " And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates and powers, take no thought how or what thing ye shall ansv/er or what ye shall say, for the Holy Ghost will teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you ; but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." " So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." " What man is he that feareth the Lord ? him shall He teach in the way that he shall choose The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." " And now the Lord God and His Spirit hath sent me. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel : I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." " If thy children shall keep my covenant and my testimony that I shall teach them, 38 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, their children also shall sit upon my throne for ever- more." " Give me understandino^ according to thy word." " My lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes." " Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." " Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God." "Jesus answered and said unco him ; Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things ? Verily, verily, I say unto you, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen." " He that coineth from heaven is above all, and what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth." " When He was set. His disciples came unto Him, and He opened His mouth and taught them, saying : Ye are the light of the world." " Let your light so shine before men." " Think not that I am come to destroy the law and the prophets." " I have given them thy word Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word, that they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee ; that they also may be one in us." And a second time : " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you." THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 39 CHAPTBR VII. CERTAIN PLAIN INFERENCELv fROM these citations from the Holy Scriptures, and the numerous others that may, clearly to the same effect, be readily made, these several things are very plain, and these propositions manifestly justifiable : 1. The salvation of the world, in all that is embraced in that very comprehensive term, as affecting indi- viduals, nations or the race, is to be accomplished by the truth, the truth of God, in one form or another, of one kind or another, in its legitimate effects upon the inteJligence, the reason, the conscience ; upon the private, social and public sense and life of mankind. The doctrine is : No knowledge, no salvation ! 2. This truth of God, of one kind or another, is the light, and the only hope of the world ; and must be brought to bear upon the minds and consciences of men ; each kind by its proper means and under its own law and the corresponding law of the mind. We no more make the truth of God than we create the mind of man ; but we are permitted to have something to do with their relation and connections. 3. These proper means, at all events as concerning 40 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, moral and religious truth, are clearly set forth in the Scriptures to be guiding, teaching, leading, learning, instruction ; obtaining knowledge, wisdom, under- standing. 4. The Scriptures do not disparage, despise or decry- any true knowledge, but recognize all genuine truth, scientific as well as moral and religious, as embraced in the elevating, saving wisdom. At the same time they hold that the central and indispensable truth, the truth on which all other truth grows, the knowledge of knowledges and science of sciences, is the truth of the Gospel, the truth lost by rebellious man, restored by the merciful God, the knowledge of ourselves and the savinor knowledge of God. The Church of God is declared in this sense to be the pillar and ground of the truth. 5. The Scriptures recognize no truth as super- rational, but broaden and heighten the rational to the moral nature, the religious obligation, the infinite reason of God, as well as the finite mind of man. The reason of God, is rational as well as our poor thought. A billion trillions is as mathematical as twice three. The track of the planet Neptune is as open and direct as the pathway of the moon. The difference is in the seeing eye, the sweeping sight, the enabling light and the penetrating, comprehending glance. What right has any man to shut in metals, mammals and me- chanics, and say, these are of the domain rational ; and to shut out God, duty and religion, and say these are extra-rational, hyper-rational or anti-rational ? 6. Guiding, teaching and leading in their relation to THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 41 knowledge and salvation are in the Bible used very nearly as universally interchangeable terms. It is the same prayer, " Guide me by Thy counsel ; " lead me in a plain path ; teach me Thy statutes. 7. The great teachers ot* the human race have been God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost. In different dispensations, by all the power of instruc- tion, the truth has been applied to lead the world back to God. Whether we have faith in the truth of God or not, God Himself has faith in it, and waits for it to conquer. It is the last resort, the only resort, the sure resort to reason and conscience, the intelli- gent soul and moral freedom of man, and the right- eous, eternal sovereignty of the great God. It is the only basis of the universal and everlasting empire of peace, purity, light and life. The truth of God in its free acceptance and exercise a failure, and all is ruin and despair ! In the mighty conflict with darkness and error, God has limited Himself in the nature of the case to the use of light and truth ; and it is not likely that human teachers and guides have anything more promising or potent. Truth, truth is the hope of the world. 8. Our Scripture citations show clearly enough that our Divine Teacher — Father, Son, and Spirit — pro- vides for a crisis, meets an emergency as readily as the parental care of the home or the prudent fore- sight of the training school. He certainly were less than God, aye, less than man, were He to fail under such a demand. The great crises and emergencies of the moral world, of the conflict of the ages, are cer- 42 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, tainly not less important than the emergencies of the home, the school, and the state. It would be strange enough, when the eternal God gave a man a work to do like that He gave Moses, if He would not help him just when he needed it, and as he needed it. But Moses, in the meantime, works all the time up to his best measure. The crises are brought on by the sins or the mistakes of man, or the direct orderings and combinations of the disciplinary providence of God. It would be a strange thing, indeed, if the youthful David should be led out into a course of training for the throne of God's kingdom, actual and typical, and then should be abandoned when Saul hurls his javelin, or Nabal locks up his stores. Pass- ing strange would it be if an apostle of Jesus Christ, liable to a sudden arrest, like those of Peter and Paul, should be left in the lurch because he had no time in the confusion of the throng, the rush of the mob, to study up a speech, to order an effective defence ! Why should not the great Teacher say, " Do not be anxious ! Go on with your work ! Take the consequences ! I will tell you what to say ! " 9. On the other hand, it just as clearly appears that while there are special provisions for special emer- gencies, it is not special emergency, tremendous crisis all the time ; but that the ordinary course and pro- cess of Christian life is calm instruction, patient learn- ing. The great crises come to comparatively few people, and even to those possibly only a few times in life. And, as a rule, there is a long course of training preparatory to great crises. It was so with Moses, THE lOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 43 David, and Paul. God does not govern or conduct the world on emergencies, surprises, and irregularities ; but by the steady ongoing of things, the power of principle, the stability of truth, the energy of disci- pline, the excellency of intelligence, the reward of virtue, and the worth of happiness. Sin makes short turns and sharp surprises, and the arrest of wicked- ness sometimes makes the earth tremble, and shakes the very pillars of heaven. And there are people that somehow or other think they are nearer God when they are the champions of crises and the heroes of emergencies. It is under ground that mines are laid to blow up Parliament Houses and Courts of Justice ; it is in the darkness that conspiracies and assassina- tions are hatched — a brood of hell — and strengthen to mount into the upper air to blacken the firmament and hide away the very sun ; and the quicker the per- petrators are seized, the plots exposed, and the ruin averted or repaired, the better. This is a crisis ; but you cannot make good citizens, loyal subjects, grand commonwealths out of such crises. This is an emer- gency ; but it is not God's plan. The school system does more for the country than wanton rebellion ; the colleges are better for the nation than conspiracies. The Divine intent and order for the wisdom and weal of mankind are declared in the text : " When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." 44 THE GUIDING EYE ; OR, CHAPTER VIII. QUALIFICATIONS OF THE GUIDE. illUR next consideration, as is seemly, shall be, What ^ is implied in this guidance ? What does it mean ? For whom is it intended ? What does it do for us ? How far does it go ? These and similar questions will be answered by a proper examination of three things here closely re- lated, yea, vitally and inseparably connected, viz. : the Guide, the means of guidance, and the follower ; the Teacher, the character of the truth to be learned, and the disciple ; the Master, the scholar, and the les- son. The shepherd guides the sheep with the crook ; some he can guide with his voice. The driver guides the horse with the rein and bit ; some can be guided with a word. The pilot directs the vessel with the rudder. The hunter trains his dog with a piece of meat. The swineherd leads his squealing, wallowing litter with a low chuckle and the rattle ot peas in a pan. The devil lures his dupes and blinds his victims with glitter of error and flashes of perverted truth. The tricky politician leads his crowd with a cry and a bribe. The partisan gathers, holds and hurls his ver- min vote with palaver, promises, shouts, bands, and THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 45 boodle. The patriot statesman draws true men to him- self with an intelligent and beneficent policy ; and with sound principles, scorning the mere success of the hour, beckons and guides the nation up the highway of lib- erty, righteousness, and lasting prosperity. The mathe- matician opens the youth's mind with truth, and in the powers of mathematical analysis leads the soul through the grandeur of the universe up the pathway of the stars and out on the broad range of the infinities. The chemist takes his scholar into the intricacies of organ- ism, and in his urgent research knocks persistently at the very gateway of the royal palace of life. The ex- pounder of ethics threads his way through the mys- teries of conscience and reason of man and God, and according to his going brings forth his disciples into labyrinths of darkness, or into the broad light. And genuine science and real truth in these things so found are by no means of but little worth. They are well- nigh as far removed in their nature, energy and eflfects from the darkness and abominations of barbarism as heaven is from hell. But above the best of all these, and beyond the safest and brightest of them all, and beyond all combined, the Spirit of God guides the humble believer with the truth of God. Yea, we insist, with the truth of God, and by truth to higher truth, as surely as the mathematician and the chemist in their departments of the truth of God. The father guides the child by his example, his spirit, his felt presence, his hand, his finger, his look. But the pru- dent father ever so guides the child on recognized principles and for his good. So doth the Spirit of God 46 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, guide by His presence, His mind. His example, His word, His very look. The calm, clear eye of the Infi- nite Reason, the indwelling Holy Ghost, looks lovingly into the opening eye of the infinite intelligence, the obedient human soul. " The meek will He guide in judgment." " I will guide thee with Mine eye." But again on recognized, unalterable principles, the Word of God, truth and candor must be there, or there is no guidance to good. The guidance, the teaching, the leading with which we have to do is not the coaxing of the dog, or the driving of the horse, or the goading of the ox, or the buying of the traitor to his country for voting day, or the bouncing of a ball, or the rush of the torpedo, or the graceful curve of the sky-rocket ; or the leap of feeling, or the bound of sentiment and desire, or the sudden burst of passion's varying flame ; but it is the work of mind on mind, intelligence on intelligence, thought on thought, person on person, by sound know- ledge and pure truth. The Spirit of God undertakes to guide the willing disciple into all truth. And to the breadth of the " all truth " to the enlarging soul He, on His side, sets no limit on earth or in heaven ; the earth " all truth " for earth, and the heaven " all truth " for heaven. It is the leadership of capability, docility and obedience by intelligence, light and love. It is guidance on the one hand ; willing following on the other. It is teaching on the one hand ; learning on the other. It is instruction on the one hand ; ready discipleship on the other. ^ - - In the teacher, instructor, guide, in such a case, it is necessary that these things be found: — THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 47 1. Authority to teach. — " Who made thee a ruler or a guide over me," is the quick, instinctive demand of every soul. Teaching is a high and sacred function, and must be attended with ruling and commandment, with government and order. This is recognized in all public systems of instruction, in all institutions of learning, in well-ordered homes, and in the Church of God ; in the economy of grace and in the kingdom of heaven. Conscience, sense of right, respect of order and law are vital elements in imparting and receiving knowledge. There can be no extensive or useful attainments in knowledge without them. Truth's intrinsic authority must hold sway over the moral nature of both teacher and scholar. 2. Knowledge. — Subject matter to communicate. It goes for the saying, the teacher must know before he can teach. And he should know, not only the fact, process, or principle taught, but also its bearing, rela- tion, or connections and power. The more he knows of these things, of causes and effect, of occasions and consequences, the better will he understand the central fact or principle in view, and the more luminously and satisfactorily will he explain it. 3. Ability to teach. — This is the power of the commu- nication of knowledge, which is an instinctive, inventive and sympathetic power ; entering into thought, capa- bility, inclination and temperament of the learner on the one hand ; and into the activities of mind and the broadness, beauty, variety and unity of truth on the other. 4. Love. — Love of the knowledge itself ; love of the 48 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, very activity and exercise of teachinor; of dealing with the knowledge and holding it up in its various lights ; love of the learner as a companion and a disciple, a kindred spirit of glorious opportunity and abounding and far-reaching promise ; and love of the fruits of knowledge in the happy learner, in the ever-brighten- ing intelligence and ever-increasing power, in the up- ward flights of the soul, into broader, clearer light. 5. Patience. — Begotten of love and faith, faith in the omnipotence of truth set shining upon a ready mind ; patience to wait the unfolding of the untaught powers ; adapting the lessons to dulness, to inattention, even to stupidity; expecting hesitancy, stumbling, failure, and by them possibly even better pointing out the road ; bearing even with indifference and insensibility till the day of awakening comes; then kindling the incipient desire into a strong passion, and fanning it into a consuming flame ; nurturing the feeble thought into robust intelligence and all-conquering knowledge. 6. Trustworthiness. — Accuracy, truthfulness and honesty ; so that so far as it was intended to go, the ipse dixit may be conclusive, " The teacher said so ; that is enough." The facts, the principles, well known and truthfully delivered, the spirit of the learner rests with satisfaction, and bounds from height to height with vigor and joy. 7. Inspiration. — Selfhood, individuality, personal earnestness, a moral and intellectual magnetism, streaming forth from the very presence, the speech, the tone, the question, the eye, the burning soul within ; that it may enter into the learner and possess him, and THE HOLV spirit's GUIDAJfCE. 49 restrain and incite him ; and instruct, impel, correct and edify him ; till his own spirit catches the flame, and he feels his own manhood, selfhood, worth, power, and responsibility, and rises in a moral dignity, self- reliance on truth, and vital connection with truth and righteousness, in finer fibre and nobler stature, a man — a wise and good man, after the pattern of the model Man of all the ages. On the side of the instructor, when the Holy Ghost is the teacher, we certainly have all these ([ualifica- tions in a pre-eminent degree ; yea, to the very perfec- tion of every qualification ; and the full perfection of the right and proper adjustment and combination of all perfections. The Holy Spirit, blessed be His name forever ! is unquestionably an infallible guide and omniscient teacher. Does this insure, however, what some understand by infallible guidance — no possibility of sin, no sin ; no liability to mistake, no mistakes ; the fruits of infinite knowledge, unerring rectitude and absolute holiness ? 60 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, CHAPTER IX. THE INSTRUMENT OF GUIDANCE. O much for the agent, the teacher. Our next in- quiry shall be as to the instrumentality of this guidance ; whether that instrumentality be the doctrine, the law, the covenant, the institutes and the established principles of government as revealed in the Holy Scriptures ; or the Divine Person Himself by His acts, touches, inducements, encouragements, intimations, or series of impression.s, or lines of thought as He may choose to convey His lessons of grace, love, peace, and power to the human mind. There have been teachers who have put their doc- trines down in books, and let us learn what they taught from the books. There have been others that never wrote a word to leave behind them ; yet we are moved by their power through their declarations, their scholars, their traditions and institutions. There are others, again, who wrote books, inculcated prin- ciples, founded societies, ordained government ; and we interpret their doctrine by their deeds. And some have lived in the midst of their schools, and explained their written theses by word of mouth ; and in per- son have led their disciples in the way of their doc- THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 51 trine as by the hand ; and with the kindling eye, the uplift countenance or the gathering frown have cheered even the blundering attempt, smiling their pleasure, or refusing their assent. In the ever blessed Spirit we have a teacher, a guide that conveys an J confirms His doctrines by all these means and in all these ways. He has a written Word ; and it is final and decisive when we can say, as said our Lord, "It is written," He has His govern- ment and ordinances. His institutes and traditions. He lives not only in the midst of His school (the Church), but He lives in His doctrines and in the hearts of His scholars, His learners ; on the one hand to explain and enforce His doctrine, and on the other to aid in receiving and applying it. Was there ever beside so intimate and effective instruction ? Was there ever other such need of it ? Is man otherwise so stricken, blinded, wrecked, as in his moral nature and in his relation to God ? Is there to any man another so great a Avork as the salvation of his soul ? Has any school a work approaching in importance the work of the Church, the salvation of the world ? Surely there is need of guidance. 1. For this instruction, so utterly indispensable, we have, as the instrument of the Spirit, the Holy Scrip- tures, the Bible. We set it above everything else. We allow nothing for a moment to come into com- parison with it. It is decisive of all controversies, settling all doubts, the final court of appeal. Once fixed, the Sible is of God ; there we are on the rock. " But the Bible raises doubts and controversies." Yes, 52 THE GUIDING EYE; OR, and when we go to the Guide, the Teacher, it settles them, and settles them forever. The multiplication table is the instrument of the mathematician ; and the mathematician must keep to his multiplication table, the lotjician to his orcjanon, the grammarian to his rules, and the Spirit of God (we speak it rever- ently) must keep to the Bible. And we must keep to the inspired Word. " The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." The apostles themselves held its perpetual validity, its self-evidencing power above the evidence of testimony and the evidence of sense. They were the last men in the world to let intima- tions or impressions for a moment becloud the bright shining of the established Word of God. " For we have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ; but were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when there came to Him such a voice from the excellent glorj^ This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which ctirae from heaven we heard when we were with Him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of pro- phecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth on a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." Oh, that our people bad learned more the study of the Word, that they might better understand the mind of the Spirit ! This is, indeed, the only way, under the Spirit's guidance, to learn the mind of the Spirit. No wonder our candidates for the ministry in our solemn THE HOLY spirit's GUIDANCE. 53 ordination service are required to enter into the vows to be " diliorent in reading the Holy Scriptures," " to be ready with all faithful diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange doctrines con- trary to God's Word," and " to be determined out of the said Scriptures to instruct the people committed to their charfje." 2. It is very positive and plain that what the in- fallible Teacher, the Holy Ghost, teacheth, He will teach within the compass of the Word of God, and the principles therein immutably and indestructibly laid dov/n. We saw off the limb on which we are resting, betwixt ourselves and the tree, when we de- grade the Bible to exalt the Holy ( Jhost ; when we disparage or neglect the written Word to magnify what we would like to call the voices, suggestions, intimations or teachings of the Spirit. " To the law and the testimony ; if tl.ey speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." The Bible gives us, reveals to us, the Holy Ghost, and is given us by the Holy Ghost. Shall the King of heaven violate His own constitution, dishonor His own charter, and mar His own royal seal ? Shall the teacher of order, fidelity, truth, and righteousness, coming down to us from the skies, disgrace sacred, supreme authority before our eyes, and disregard and disown His own credentials ? The Holy Ghost Him- self in the Word makes known His existence, which otherwise we ha