THERE is an ancient legend, which tells how there once appeared in a certain church a mysterious stranger in the garb of a preaching friar. No one knew who he was. He preached with wonderful earnestness and natural power, and set forth the truth with marvelous clearness and fullness. The people listened with rapt attention, and were even enthusiastic in their admiration of the preacher’s eloquence.
In the vestry the stranger revealed himself, and it was discovered that the preacher was none other than the Prince of Darkness himself. The monks and friars expostulated, and asked how he could preach the Gospel so faithfully, seeing that his own kingdom was endangered thereby. He answered, “Well, but did you not perceive that whilst I preached the truth―and preached it earnestly―I preached it without the Holy Ghost?” The mere letter of the truth, without the Spirit’s power, even though there be the force of human eloquence and enthusiasm, is powerless to accomplish the blessing of souls. There is no living voice in such preaching.
A little child said to its mother, as they came home from the meeting, “They talk such a lot; but they never seem to tell you how!”
The lack is solemnly apparent today, amid so much Gospel preaching. The doctrine is sound, and the form correct, the address elaborate and telling; as in the case of the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18), there is the altar, the bullock, and everything as it should be outwardly, but verse 20 adds, “But there was no voice,” no impression, nothing to make men and women feel there is a living God there. The voice of the living God is not heard in the souls of people. We have known what it was to come from a meeting, and report that God was there of a truth (1 Cor. 14). Nothing can be more solemn than the thought of the devil having gained the day; God has no satisfaction in a religious performance (Isa. 1:11-1611To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. 12When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? 13Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. 16Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; (Isaiah 1:11‑16)).
How wearisome to all concerned if God be not in it; if His voice be not heard. You say, “You write as if you thought there was something wrong.” I do. “He could do no mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” There is no voice, in the sense that God, while omnipotent, is not working, not manifesting Himself in saving grace, owing to unbelief.
What need, then, to press today the Apostle’s warning in Hebrews 3, “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith), Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the day of provocation, etc.” (vss. 6-19). Yet, blessed to tell it, His living voice can still be heard today, and not without its own remarkable effect: “The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness.” “Unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men” (Prov. 8:44Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. (Proverbs 8:4)). “The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof” (Psa. 1.).
From the moment man fell in the garden, the voice was heard, “Where art thou?” and all along the line of ages has His living voice called man back to Himself. But, alas, as in Israel’s case, history repeats itself, so that when His voice proclaims His holiness and glory, as well as His mercy, the language of the human heart is, as Israel to Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Ex. 20:1919And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die. (Exodus 20:19)).
You would have thought, to read the history of the first man and his fallen family, God will surely abandon him. But no. We find in Isaiah 40, the prophet describing the voice, and what it declares, “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field... the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our Lord shall stand forever” (vss. 3-8). In course of time that voice was heard distinctly in the wilderness, in John the Baptist (Luke 3). He in turn passes off the scene; but the living voice remains to speak yet more definitely. “God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken in His Son” (Heb. 1:1, 21God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:1‑2)). God. Himself is now heard in the Person of His Son.
Will men hear His voice now? Will you, my reader? Listen. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead [morally dead] shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live” (John 5:2525Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25)).
“We in death were lying,
Lost in hopeless gloom,
Jesus, by His dying,
Vanquished e’en the tomb;”
“Burst its iron portal,
Rolled away the stone,
Rose in life immortal
To the Father’s throne.”
He still speaks from heaven, “See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.” As the Good Shepherd He laid down His life; as the Great Shepherd He has taken it again in resurrection glory; and His sheep hear His voice (John 10).
John, banished to the Isle of Patmos for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, heard there the “great voice;” but it was the voice of the same Person; and when things have become so bad in Christendom that it is impossible for them to be worse, He still speaks, “Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:2020Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)). Presently the ears of every believer will hear the assembling shout, as with an archangel’s voice (as seen in 1 Thessalonians 4:1616For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: (1 Thessalonians 4:16) to end), and each be glorified.
That same blessed voice we heard so sweetly in grace, will then evermore be heard by us in heavenly glory. What grace began shall glory end; Jesus is on the Father’s throne, and in the triumph of His story we read the record of our own.
Oh, what need, then, to listen to His voice, and harden not our hearts! Let us, therefore, dear reader, not rest satisfied with mere form or eloquence if the voice of God is not in it. Both power and unction will be lacking. If God should choose you as He did His servant Paul, it will be that thou “shouldest hear the voice of His mouth.” W. N.