us not to do. The Holy Spirit
never leads men contrary to the Book of which He Himself is the Author.
And if there is some spirit which is leading us to do something that is
contrary to the explicit teachings of Jesus, or the Apostles, we may be
perfectly sure that this spirit who is leading us is not the Holy Spirit.
This point needs to be emphasized in our day, for there are not a few who
give themselves over to the leading of some spirit, whom they say is the
Holy Spirit, but who is leading them to do things explicitly forbidden in
the Word. We must always remember that many false spirits and false
prophets are gone out into the world (1 John iv. 1). There are many who
are so anxious to be led by some unseen power that they are ready to
surrender the conduct of their lives to any spiritual influence or unseen
person. In this way, they open their lives to the conduct and malevolent
influence of evil spirits to the utter wreck and ruin of their lives.

A man who made great professions of piety once came to me and said that
the Holy Spirit was leading him and "a sweet Christian woman," whom he had
met, to contemplate marriage. "Why," I said, in astonishment, "you already
have one wife." "Yes," he said, "but you know we are not congenial, and we
have not lived together for years." "Yes," I replied, "I know you have not
lived together for years, and I have looked into the matter, and I believe
that the blame for that lies largely at your door. In any event, she is
your wife. You have no reason to suppose she has been untrue to you, and
Jesus Christ explicitly teaches that if you marry another while she lives
you commit adultery" (Luke xvi. 18). "Oh, but," the man said, "the Spirit
of God is leading us to love one another and to see that we ought to marry
one another." "You lie, and you blaspheme," I replied. "Any spirit that is
leading you to disobey the plain teaching of Jesus Christ is not the
Spirit of God but some spirit of the devil." This perhaps was an extreme
case, but cases of essentially the same character are not rare. Many
professed Christians seek to justify themselves in doing things which are
explicitly forbidden in the Word by saying that they are led by the Spirit
of God. Not long ago, I protested to the leaders in a Christian assembly
where at each meeting many professed to speak with tongues in distinct
violation of the teaching of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in 1
Cor. xiv. 27, 28 (that not