"HE THAT IS SPIRITUAL JUDGETH ALL THINGS"

“HE THAT IS SPIRITUAL JUDGETH ALL THINGS”

One may be godly and devoted, and yet not spiritual. I am godly when I have the sense of God’s presence and am influenced by it - devoted, as I surrender what I have. The one is as it were on me, the other from me. The spiritual sees things as they are seen of God; everything in his circle or circumstances is discerned as it really is in God’s sight. It is not that things at a ^[p. 169] distance are made plainer to you as if seen through a telescope, for instance as you get light on Scripture through a teacher. The spiritual man sees not only accurately, but he sees each thing in its true relation one to another. His power is like that of the microscope, and he has a ready adeptness in distinguishing between things which outwardly are alike, but which differ as to size and importance.

If I am spiritual I see the machinery by which certain well-known sounds or acts are produced. Many a one hears the clock announcing the hours of the day who knows nothing of the wheels and springs which produce the sound. In the same way an event comes to maturity. Every one may hear of the event, but every one does not see the course and influence by which it was produced. The spiritual man knows that like produces like, and therefore he sees the things that are natural which must end naturally, while he is discerned of no man. He can distinguish between two things in which there is the least difference; he can choose his own time and the best opportunity for everything. He is both godly and devoted. He would not cast pearls before swine, he would not unnecessarily provoke opposition. The spiritual man does not seek for bad but for good. All that is not good he rejects, but he seeks only what suits God. It is not that he studies the various activities around him, he has affinity with all that is of God, and from everything else he separates with a distinct judgment; hence he is insulated from everything around him.

The creature, that is, the creature as set there of God, he always respects, but the way it is perverted and diverted from God he repudiates and avoids. As the value of the fox-hound depends on its power and quick-scentedness to discover and follow the game, so is the power of the spiritual man to pursue that which is of Christ, and Christ only, and he acquires growth and power as he proceeds.