Here is a double emphasis upon _meekness_ as a condition of such guidance and teaching. _Meekness is a real preference for God's will._ Where this holy habit of mind exists, the whole being becomes so open to impression that, without any _outward_ sign or token, there is an _inward_ recognition and choice of the will of God. God guides, not by a visible sign, but by _swaying the judgment._ To wait before Him, weighing candidly in the scales every consideration for or against a proposed course, and in readiness to see which way the preponderance lies, is a frame of mind and heart in which one is fitted to be guided; and God touches the scales and makes the balance to sway as He will. _But our hands must be off the scales,_ otherwise we need expect no interposition of His, in our favour. To return to the figure with which this chapter starts, the meek soul simply and humbly waits, and _watches the moving of the Pillar._ One sure sign of this spirit of meekness is the entire _restfulness_ with which apparent obstacles to any proposed plan or course are regarded. When waiting and wishing only to know and do God's will, hindrances will give no anxiety, but a sort of pleasure, as affording a new opportunity for divine interposition. If it is the Pillar of God we are following, the Red Sea will not dismay us, for it will furnish but another scene for the display of the power of Him who can make the waters to stand up as an heap, and to become a wall about us as we go through the sea on dry ground. Mr. Muller had learned this rare lesson, and in this case he says: _"I had a secret satisfaction in the greatness of the difficulties which were in the way._ So far from being cast down on account of them, they delighted my soul; for I only desired to do the will of the Lord in this matter." Here is revealed another secret of holy serving. To him who sets the Lord always before him, and to whom the will of God is his delight, there pertains a habit of soul which, in advance settles a thousand difficult and perplexing questions.