p. 6 | OUR GUIDING SHEPHERD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Jan 6, 1904

OUR GUIDING SHEPHERD.

It is an impressive, helpful, comforting thought which Ex. 13:21, 22 presents before the child of God. "And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them in the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; that they might go by day and by night; the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, departed not from before the people."

This covers forty years of Israel's journeying in the wilderness from Egypt to the promised land. The manifest token of God's presence was ever before them. Whenever they desired they could behold the visible evidence of God's goodness.

The blessedness of that presence had been with them from the beginning. When Egypt's host pursued, it passed over the children of Israel, and became an impenetrable wall to separate the pursuer from his prey. It selected the best camping places as it led the host by the safest way.

And yet, notwithstanding this visible, living token of Jehovah's presence, it came to be regarded as a sort of camp paraphernalia, so to speak. In the light of its splendor men murmured and cursed. In the grateful shade of its coolness in the desert heat, men despised and turned from the God who had wrought all His wonders in Egypt and worked mighty miracles for the deliverance of His people.

Are we better than they—we, Christians of the twentieth century? God's guiding hand and manifest presence have been with His church through all the ages. The light of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the deliverance and leading of Israel are ours to-day. The voices of the prophets, recorded in prediction, instruction, and fulfilment are with us now as never before. To us also the Son of God came, and lived, and died, and lives again. And all the after apostasies of the church and her suffering are known to us. In these last days God in His providence has kindled anew the light of His Word, and the clear shining of prophecy gleams in no uncertain light out over the great world. All that we need to do to be convinced is to look with open, heavenward gaze to see the glorious intensity of its guiding rays. Or, like the rebellious among Israel of old, we may choose Egypt and turn from the leading of our God.

Here are two of His many promises: "The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way." "Jehovah is my Shepherd. . . . He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. . . . He guideth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake."

God wishes to guide us, reader, at all times. The pillar of fire and cloud led always, "that they might go by day and by night." It may seem dark to you, but trust the guiding of our God and leave all with Him.

God wishes to guide us through all places. Never were the desert sands so drear, the mountains so steep, the way so rugged, the heat so pitiless, the steps so small and feeble, but that God guided. "He knoweth the way that I take," said one of old, because God in His Son had been over the way. Every step that He calls us to take is marked by the blessed footprints, often blood-stained, of the Christ of God. He will lead us all the way. Let the constant prayer of this year be:—

"Guide me O Thou great Jehovah, Pilgrim through this barren land; I am weak, but Thou art mighty, Hold me with Thy powerful hand." "Open wide the crystal fountains Whence the healing waters flow; Let the fiery, cloudy pillar, Lead me all my journey through."

"And Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in dry places, and make strong thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not."