this first command of Solomon, “Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.”
A distant rumbling and quivering of the earth foretell the internal action of pent-up gas. To avoid danger from this source people have to escape from their houses to the open space. A conical cloud, hanging like a horoscope in the air, foreshadows a cyclone. To escape from this calamity people prepare shelter in caves of the earth.
They who discern the face of the skies cannot always discern the mental signs of these times, and peer through the opaque error. Where my vision begins and is clear, theirs grows indistinct and ends.
There are diversities of operation by the same spirit. Two individuals, with all the goodness of generous natures, advise me. One says, Go this way; the other says, Take the opposite direction! Between the two I stand still; or, accepting the premonition of one of them, I follow his counsel, take a few steps, then halt. A true sense not unfamiliar has been awakened. I see the way now. The guardians of His presence go before me. I enter the path. It may be smooth, or it may be rugged; but it is always straight and narrow; and if it be uphill all the way, the ascent is easy and the summit can be gained.
God is responsible for the mission of those whom He has anointed. Those who know no will but His take His hand, and from the night He leads to light. None can say unto Him, What doest Thou?
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