_NO QUEST OF GOD_
"_He inquired not of the Lord._"
--1 CHRONICLES x. 6-14.
That was where Saul began to go wrong. When quest ceases, conquests cease.
"He inquired not"; and this meant loss of light. God will be inquired
after. He insists that we draw up the blinds if we would receive the
light. If we board up our windows He will not drive the gentle rays
through our hindrance. We must ask if we would have. The discipline of
inquiry fits us for the counsel of the Lord.
"He inquired not"; and this meant loss of sight. When light fails, sight
fails. The ponies in our pits become blind. When a spiritual power is not
exercised in the heavenly, it is deprived of its appointed functions. And
the tragedy is this, that the blind are deceived into thinking that they
still retain their sight. "Ye say, we see!"
"He inquired not"; and this meant loss of might. For "the light of life"
is not only illumination; it is inspiration too. It is both light and
heat; it confers guidance and dynamic. When a man, therefore, refuses the
light he becomes a weakling, and he will meet with disaster in the first
tempestuous day.