ses are more than fulfilled in his
experience, and that he has a present Christ, an indwelling Christ, who
will be his Shepherd, and lead him by green pastures and still waters
sometimes and through valleys of darkness and rough defiles sometimes,
but always with the purpose of bringing him nearer and nearer to the
full possession of the love of God and the patience of Christ.

The vision which shone before the eyes of the father of the forerunner,
was that 'the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to guide our feet
into the way of peace.' It is fulfilled in Jesus who directs our hearts
into love and patience, which are the way of peace.

We are not to look for impressions and impulses distinguishable from the
operations of our own inward man. We are not to fall into the error of
supposing that a conviction of duty or a conception of truth is of
divine origin because it is strong. But the true test of their divine
origin is their correspondence with the written word, the standard of
truth and life. Jesus guides us to a fuller apprehension of the great
facts of the infinite love of God in the Cross. Shedding abroad a
Saviour's love does kindle ours.

III. Lastly, notice the heart's yielding to its guide.

If this was Paul's prayer for his converts, it should be our aim for
ourselves. Christ is ready to direct our hearts, if we will let Him. All
depends on our yielding to that sweet direction, loving as that of a
mother's hand on her child's shoulder.

What is our duty and wisdom in view of these truths? The answer may be
thrown into the shape of one or two brief counsels.

First, desire it. Do you Christian people want to be led to love God
more? Are you ready to love the world less, which you will have to do if
you love God more? Do you wish Christ to lay His hand upon you, and
withdraw you from much, that He may draw you into the sanctities and
sublimities of His own experienced love? I do not think the lives of
some of us look very like as if we should welcome that direction. And it
is a sharp test, and a hard commandment to say to a Christian professor,
'Desire to be led into the love of God.'

Again, expect it. Do not dismiss all that I have been saying about a
present Christ leading men by their own impulses, which are His
monitions, as fanatical and mystical and far away from daily experience.
Ah! it is not only the boy Samuel whose infancy was an excuse for his
ignorance, who takes God's voice to be onl