ng needed
more than another it is that the old wells at which our fathers drank
and were refreshed and which, alas! in these modern times have been
filled in, at least to a certain extent, should be opened and men be
summoned once again to drink of their living waters.

Another said, "Use Jeremiah 6:16, 'Ask for the old paths;'" for as a
matter of fact we cannot improve upon the ways in which our fathers
walked, so far as the revelation of God is concerned or the doing of
his will.

Still another suggested that I should use Isaiah 62:10, "Gather out the
stones, lift up a standard for the people," in which the description is
of a great prince coming and all hindrances should be removed that the
journey might be robbed of its difficulties and dangers.

You will notice if you have watched the suggestions of these Christian
workers that the texts are practically all the same, and then when I
tell you that the line of thought they have indicated was the very line
which God suggested to me weeks and months before the conference you
will be impressed as I have been that this subject is not of my own
choosing, and therefore must be a message from God. Neither is the
text one of my own choosing, for God pressed it in upon me again and
again and from it I was afraid to turn away.

I like the text because it is in the book of Proverbs. This book is
not simply a collection of wise sayings and affectionate exhortations,
for you will remember that the Proverbs were put down after the event
and not before its occurrence. This being true, Proverbs presents an
established fact: here we find what the wise men in all the ages have
learned to be truth. If they speak of sin and its penalty they do it
in the light of their own experience; if they say the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of knowledge they mean that they have tried other
sources of wisdom and all have failed but this. All this makes the
text exceedingly valuable, for the wise men of other days must have
tried to walk without the vision and not only failed themselves but
have set the people astray.

By a vision we do not mean simply an imagination or dream which might
come to some person who had little practical understanding of the ways
of life, but we mean an appreciation of God's thought and approximate
understanding of his plan and a desire to know his will.

The word "perish," does not mean destruction, but rather the idea is to
"run wild"; so the literal rend