One sometimes wonders that a good part of the life of a devoted and spiritual person should be passed in mistakes and wanderings. One asks oneself how the presence of the Spirit of God, necessary to produce this life, comports with these mistakes. I say, on the contrary, that, in the government of God, it is a necessary consequence. Can God place His stamp upon that which is contrary to His thoughts? Will He refuse blessing as the answer to real devotedness, because there is error? He cannot sanction the former, nor deny Himself to the latter? What is the consequence? Blessing is found as well as tender care. He keeps the foundation even through all the wanderings; but He abandons to their natural consequences the evil and the false confidence which accompany it; otherwise He would justify evil.
J. N. D.