gave him a certain peace which he did not have when he
thought of remaining at home.

To avoid mistake, with equal care he records the counter-arguments.

1. The new orphan house, No. 4, was about to be opened, and his presence
was desirable if not needful.

2. A few hundred pounds were needed, to be left with his helpers, for
current expenses in his absence.

3. Money was also required for travelling expenses of himself and his
wife, whose health called for a change.

4. Funds would be needful to publish four thousand copies of his
Narrative and avoid too high a market-price.

5. A matron for the new orphan house was not yet found, suitable for the
position.

In this careful _weighing of matters_ many sincere disciples fail, prone
to be impatient of delay in making decisions. Impulse too often sways,
and self-willed plans betray into false and even disastrous mistakes.
Life is too precious to risk one such failure. There is given us a
promise of deep meaning:

"The meek will He guide in judgment;
And the meek will He teach His way."
(Psalm xxv. 9.)

Here is a double emphasis upon _meekness_ as a condition of such
guidance and teaching. _Meekness is a real preference for God's will._
Where this holy habit of mind exists, the whole being becomes so open to
impression that, without any _outward_ sign or token, there is an
_inward_ recognition and choice of the will of God. God guides, not by a
visible sign, but by _swaying the judgment._ To wait before Him,
weighing candidly in the scales every consideration for or against a
proposed course, and in readiness to see which way the preponderance
lies, is a frame of mind and heart in which one is fitted to be guided;
and God touches the scales and makes the balance to sway as He will.
_But our hands must be off the scales,_ otherwise we need expect no
interposition of His, in our favour. To return to the figure with which
this chapter starts, the meek soul simply and humbly waits, and _watches
the moving of the Pillar._

One sure sign of this spirit of meekness is the entire _restfulness_
with which apparent obstacles to any proposed plan or course are
regarded. When waiting and wishing only to know and do God's will,
hindrances will give no anxiety, but a sort of pleasure, as affording a
new opportunity for divine interposition. If it is the Pillar of God we
are following, the Red Sea will not dismay us, for it wi