ering of the text is, "Where there is no
revelation the people run wild"--that is to say, if God is put out of
thought every man is a law unto himself and therefore is dangerous to
the community in which he lives. He is like a ship sailing for a
harbor without chart or compass and with utter indifference to the pole
star. Whatever your impressions, convictions or purposes, they should
always be squared by reverent, careful and profound study of God's will
and word.

The first sentence of the Bible is this, "In the beginning God," and it
must be the first sentence of every plan and of every purpose of the
individual and the community or there is danger ahead.

I

There ought never to be an age without a vision, indeed without
repeated visions. If there should be such a time it might be a time of
prosperity, but inevitably souls would be neglected. There ought not
to be an individual without a vision. If there should be such an one
he is missing the best of his life. If there be no vision the horizon
of man may be bounded by his office, his store, his home, his own city
or his native land, while as a matter of fact this is only a part of
what God meant him to do and to be. God's plans are from everlasting
to everlasting. The wonderful work he is doing in this world is only a
part of the plan, for in the ages to come he expects to show forth the
manysidedness of his grace and reveal to us the depth of his love to us
in Christ.

John McNeill's friend had an eagle which he had reared in the farm yard
with the ordinary fowl that lived there. This friend sold his property
and determined to move to another part of Scotland. He could dispose
of his horses and sell his chickens but no one wanted the eagle. What
should he do with it? He determined to teach it to fly, and threw it
up in the air only to have it come down with a thud upon the ground.
Then he lifted it and placed it upon the barn yard fence and was
holding it for a moment when suddenly the eagle lifted its eyes and
caught a glimpse of the sun. It stretched forth its head as far as it
could, threw out one wing, then another, and with a scream and a bound
was away flying upward until it was lost in the face of the sun. This
is what we are needing to-day--namely, to lift up our eyes and see
God's plan and try to understand his purposes. The eagle so long had
held its head down that it had lost the vision of the sun; the first
glimpse of it set him f