LED BY THE SPIRIT.
BY CARRIE F. JUDD
For as many as are
led by the Spirit of god, they are the Sons of God. – Rom viii:14.
The searching of the
intellect into the “deep things of God,” results often in such a clear
intellectual exposition of the truth that we are amazed to find that in spire
of the apparently thorough knowledge which
we have thus obtained we are still as hungry and unsatisfied as though we had
been feeding on husks. Like some of whom we are told in the Bible, we realize
that though we seem to be “ ever learning ” yet we “ never come to a knowledge
of the truth,” and at last, in utter despair, we drop all our systematic trains
of thought and orderly conclusions, to receive, like a simple, helpless child,
the revelations of God’s Spirit. And the reason for this is summed up in these
words of the apostle: “ That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of God.“-(I Cor. ii: 5.)
In His infinite mercy to us, lest we should rest in anything short of
Himself, God has purposed to “destroy the wisdom of the wise,” and “bring to
nothing the understanding of the prudent.” Over and over again, on so many
different lines of religious truth, we find ourselves trying to discern the
spiritual by the natural, forgetting that it is not “the spirit of the g world
but the spirit which is of God,” by which we “km the things that are freely
given us of God.”
And then when we have laid down
the searchings of our intellect, have left behind us the tree of knowledge, to
eat of the tree of life opened to us through our Saviour Christ, when God has
revealed to us His “hidden wisdom,” sometimes we have to learn our own weakness
again by our vain endeavors to utter
these “deep things” through mere excellency of human speech. But listen again
to the apostle: “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.” Are we willing, dear ones, to become fools that we may
be wise? It is the only way, and as soon as we cease to “ lean unto our own
understanding,” as soon as we give these proud, self-reliant intellects into
the control of the Spirit who searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of
God, so soon shall we “ have the mind of Christ.” Then shall we know what it is
to “enter into rest,” to live, not on the painfully-hoarded stores of human
knowledge, but receiving Divine wisdom for each momentary need, fresh from the
Source of all truth and knowledge. Then can we sing joyfully, “ He leadeth me,”
watching not our own erring judgment, but His precious, never failing counsels;
and committing all to Him, our paths will be ordered and our thoughts
established, as we watch the unfoldings of His mind toward us, not losing Him
in the meaning of a single moment.
Then shall we cease all useless regrets and vain references to either the past
or the future, for we &I1 sweetly leave both past and future with our
Beloved, trusting Him, if He should see a need, to unfold to LIS any meanings
which have gone before, or reveal any coming after, while we simply feed upon
His life and love and trust Him for the present need and praise Him for the
present grace. We shall not then.be reeking to rest in the unsatisfying
knowledge of a God afar off to our consciousness, but His life shall be our
life, His presence shall go with us and He will give us rest.
