we get some
understanding of God's will; of God's will about ourselves and about the
world; and so be blessed indeed.

But to do that, it is plain that we must heed the warning which the first
verse of the Psalm gives us--"Blessed is the man that hath not walked in
the counsel of the ungodly." For it is plain that a man will never learn
God's will if he takes counsel from ungodly men who care nothing for
God's will, and do not believe that God's will governs the world. Neither
must he, as the Psalm says, 'stand in the way of sinners'--of profligate
and dishonest men who break God's law. For if he follows their ways, and
breaks God's law himself, it is plain that he will learn little or
nothing about God's law, save in the way of bitter punishment. For let
him but break God's law a little too long, and then--as the 2nd Psalm
says--'God will rule him with a rod of iron, and break him in pieces like
a potter's vessel.' But there is even more hope for him--for he may
repent and amend--than if he sits in the seat of the scorners. The
scorners; the sneering, the frivolous, the unearnest, the unbelieving,
the envious, who laugh down what they call enthusiasm and romance; who
delight in finding fault, and in blackening those who seem purer or
nobler than themselves. These are the men who cannot by any possibility
learn anything of the law of God; for they will not even look for it.
They have cast away the likeness of rational men, and have taken upon
themselves the likeness of the sneering accusing Satan, who asks in the
book of Job--"Doth Job serve God for nought?" When the greatest poet of
our days tried to picture his idea of a fiend tempting a man to his ruin,
he gave his fiend just such a character as this; a very clever,
courteous, agreeable man of the world, and yet a being who could not love
any one, could not believe in any one; who mocked not only at man but at
God and tempted and ruined man, not out of hatred to him, hardly out of
envy; but in mere sport, as a cruel child may torment an insect;--in one
word, a scorner. And so true was his conception felt to be, that men of
that character are now often called by the very name which he gave to his
Satan--Mephistopheles. Beware therefore of the scornful spirit, as well
as of the openly sinful or of the ungodly. If you wish to learn the law
of the Lord, keep your souls pious, pure, reverent, and earnest; for it
is only the pure in heart who shall see God; and o