Testament of the meaning
of this name of the Holy Spirit. It is in the story of a most remarkable
journey from Egypt to the border line of Palestine. The journey was
remarkable for two things. First, for the sort of country it was
through. It is a trackless waste of sand, that spreads over thousands of
square miles. It was infested with venomous serpents and scorpions, and
is described as "all that great and terrible wilderness," "a waste
howling wilderness," and "a land of deserts and pits, of drought and of
the shadow of death, that none passed through, and where no man dwelt."
Think of taking a trip through a country like that! But it was even more
remarkable because of the transformation that took place in the
travelers. For a mob of four millions of people was changed into a
well-organized nation. The explanation given is fully as remarkable as
the trip, and the transformation. It must strike very strangely on the
cold, matter-of-fact ears of this materialistic world we dwell in. It is
this: that the Lord God Himself actually went with them in person, and
lived with them, and took immediate charge of everything. He had
promised Moses, their leader, that He would do this. Just how definite
or indefinite a thing that meant to Moses' mind we cannot know. But it
became very definite and tangible that memorable night of departure from
the iron furnace of Egypt. For there was a real physical evidence of His
presence. There appeared a column or pillar of fleecy-like cloud which
came down close to the ground, and which every one could plainly see. At
night time it shone and flamed as a pillar full of partly concealed
fire. God's voice spake out of it in their hearing. And that
presence-cloud never left them. In spite of complaints, and criticisms,
and rebellions of the most mean and exasperating kind, it never left
them until they had safely arrived at the border line of the promised
Palestine.

Now it is extremely fascinating in tracing that journey to notice just
what that cloud came to mean to them. If you will run rapidly through
the three wilderness books, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, you will find
there twenty distinct incidents[6] which illustrate how God's actual
presence in that cloud was made very real to them in practical affairs.
In those incidents there are ten different ways in which they were made
to feel that powerful Presence.

At the outset it is mentioned that the chief purpose was "to lead them
the