Guidance is such a comprehensive subject, I scarcely know where to begin; I suppose you refer to our movements as servants. Well, I seek to walk with God with my own will set aside, and a single eye for His glory. Then, in general, there are considerations present, which, spiritually discerned and estimated, enable me to go from place to place, and the sequel satisfies me that the step was of the Lord. If exercised before the Lord, and having thus, in entire submission, sought His direction, and not conscious of any special guidance, I go quietly on doing what seems the proper thing to do and it turns out so, insofar as can be judged until the judgment seat is reached. It is well to beware of legality in this and other aspects. The Lord knows I desire and seek to do His will. The matter being thus referred to Him, He will, consciously or unconsciously, guide me.
These remarks, in principle, apply to the choice of subjects to preach from. In great crises, where much is at stake, I have perseveringly sought, waited for, and received His guidance in the way of a clear, firm, abiding inward conviction that His mind and will was so and so; and, acting on this, the sequel has justified the step.
About brothers who so live as to nullify the testimony, there is the Lord to speak to, and the Scriptures to use as guided by the Spirit, the great object being, by the presentation of Christ to the heart and conscience, to reach the state of soul and change it. A correction of the outside only won't do—it is deceptive, and positively mischievous. The consciences of others in the assembly might be reached, and their state elevated, and their prayers enlisted as to any walking disorderly, and one might, upon sufficient grounds, refuse to shake hands.