The Path of Duty

"...there will come occasions... when the path of duty will not be perfectly clear... and you will be apt to exclaim, as I myself have done, Would that there were a Urim and Thummim or an Ephod now, as in the days of David, that I might enquire of the Lord in plain words 'Shall I go up or shall I not go up?' and 'Wilt thou deliver them into my hands?' and receive a distinct categoric 'Thou shalt go up,'... to save you from the responsibility of a personal decision. And you will find... that tho' there will be occasions on which you will be shut up as it were to one course, when you will feel, 'I have no choice -- circumstances compel me to do this or that,' it will not always be so. Pray for help to decide, and then decide, on your own judgement, and with an eye to God's glory, and you will find that God's spirit has been just as really present... altho' you have not been able to distinguish his promptings and guidings from your own thoughts... reason and judgement. And looking back in after times, you will say, 'If ever I was divinely guided, surely it was then."

-- James Murray, quoted in E. Murray, Caught in a Web of Words.