This Work of God is indeed precious. It may take a shape and character little expected. But it is the property of life to put on at times some exuberant, redundant features, to work itself beyond its ordinary measures. It is more like itself, when it acts thus-for life is a living thing, and has inbred force in it.
We are, however, to judge every expression of it. “He that is spiritual judgeth all things.”
There was revival in the day of Josiah, and Josiah was acting under it for a time, without the Word of God, save what the national knowledge of Jehovah and His ways gave him. His word, the Book of God, was afterward discovered. He used it. And thus, though he still acted as a freshly awakened man, in the life and vigor of the revival, the Word regulated and directed his action, and put it now in somewhat of a new force. (2 Chron. 34)
Many who are acting under the present revival or fresh current of life have, I believe, after this pattern, still to find the Book of God. They are acting under a blessed wakening of the Spirit, but need in very much, the light and guidance of the Word.