#THE MAJESTIC VOICE
"The voice of the Lord is full of majesty."
- Psalm 29:4
ALL God’s works praise Him whether they are magnificent or minute. They all discover the wisdom, the power and the benevolence of their Creator. "All Your works praise You, O God." But there are some of His more majestic works which sing the song of praise louder than others. There are some of His doings upon which there seems to be engraved in larger letters than usual, the name of God! Such are the lofty mountains which worship God with uncovered heads both night and day. Such are the rolling seas, too mighty to be managed by man, but held in check by God. And such, especially, are the thunder and the lightning. The lightning is the glance of the eyes of God and the thunder is the uttering of His voice. The thunder has usually been more especially attributed to God, though philosophers assure us that it is to be accounted for by natural causes. We believe them, but we prefer, ourselves, the first great cause and we are content with that odd and universal belief that the thunder is the voice of God. It is marvelous what effect the thunder has had upon all kinds of men. In reading an ode of Horace the other day, I found him in the first two verses singing like a true Ithurean, that he despised God and intended to live merrily. But, by-and-by, he hears the thunder and acknowledging that there is a Jehovah, who lives on high, he trembles before Him! The most wicked of men have been obliged to acknowledge that there must be a Creator when they have heard that marvelous voice of His sounding through the sky! Men of the stoutest nerve and the boldest blasphemy have become the weakest of all creatures when God has, in some degree, manifested Himself in the mighty whirlwind, or in the storm. "He breaks the cedars of Lebanon," He brings down the stout hearts. He lays down the mighty and He obliges those who never acknowledged Him to reverence Him when they hear His voice! The Christian will acknowledge the thunder to be the voice of God from the fact that if he is in the right frame of mind, it always suggests to him holy thoughts. I do not know how it may be with you, but I scarcely ever hear the rolling thunder but I begin to forget earth and look upwards to my God. I am unconscious of any feeling of terror or pain—it is rather a feeling of delight that I experience, for I like to sing that verse—
"The God that rules on high
And thunders when He pleases,
That rides upon the stormy sky
And manages the seas—
This awful God is ours,
Our Father and our love!
He shall send down His heavenly powers
To carry us above."
He is our God and I like to sing that and think of it. But why is there something so terrible in that voice, when God is speaking—something so terrific to other men and humbling to the Christian? The Christian is obliged to sink very low in his own estimation. Then he looks up to God and cries, "Infinite Jehovah, spare a worm, crush not an unworthy wretch! I know it is Your voice. I reverence You with solemn awe. I prostrate myself before Your throne. You are my God and beside You there is none else." It might well have occurred to a Jewish mind to have called the thunder the voice of God when he considered the loudness of it when all other voices are hushed. Even if they are the loudest voices mortals can utter, or the mightiest sounds—yet are they but indistinct whispers compared with the voice of God in the thunder! Indeed, they are entirely lost when God speaks from His throne and makes even the deaf hear and those who are unwilling to acknowledge Him hear His voice!
But we need not stop to prove that the thunder is the voice of God from any natural feeling of man. We have Scripture to back us up and, therefore, we shall do our best to appeal to that. In the first place, there is a passage in the book of Exodus where I would refer you. There, in the margin, we are told that the thunder is the voice of God. In the 9th chapter and the 28th verse, Pharaoh says, "Entreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunder and hail." The original Hebrew has it, and my margin has it—and the margin of all of you who are wise enough to have marginal Bibles—"voices of God." "Let there be no more voices of God and hail." So you see it is not a mere illusion, but we are really warranted by Scripture in saying that, "the thunder is the voice of God lifted up in the sky." Now, for another proof: to what shall we refer you unless we send you to the Book of Job? Beginning in his 37th chapter at the 3rd verse, he says, "He directs it under the whole heaven and His lightning unto the ends of the earth. After it a voice roars; He thunders with the voice of His excellence: and He will not stay them when His voice is heard. God thunders marvelously with His voice; He does great things, which we cannot comprehend." And so he says in the 40th chapter at the 9th verse, "Have you an arm like God? Or can you thunder with a voice like He?" I am glad, in this age, when men are seeking to forget God and put Him entirely out of the creation—trying to put laws in the place of God, as if laws could govern a universe without Someone to execute those laws and put power and force into them—I am glad, I say, to be able to bear testimony to something which men cannot deny to be caused immediately by God, the mighty One, Himself!
There is one striking proof I would offer to you that the thunder is the voice of God and that is the fact that when God spoke on Sinai and gave forth His law, His voice is then described, if not in the first passage, yet in the reference to it, as being great thunders. "There were thunders and lightning, exceedingly loud and long." God spoke, then, and He spoke so terribly in thunder that the people requested that they might hear that voice no more! And I must refer you to one passage in the New Testament which will bear me out thoroughly in describing the thunder to be, indeed, the voice of God. Look at John, in the 11th chapter, where Jesus lifted up His voice to heaven at the tomb of Lazarus and asked His Father to answer Him. And then a voice came from heaven and they that stood by said, "that it thundered." It was the voice of God which was then heard and they ascribed it to the thunder. Here is a remarkable proof that the thunder has usually been ascribed to God as being His voice! And when God’s voice has been heard on any remarkable occasion, it has always been accompanied by the sound of thunder, or, rather, has been the sound of thunder itself.
Well, now, leaving these considerations altogether, we come to make some remarks, not upon the voice of God in the thunder, but upon the voice of God as elsewhere heard. It is not only heard there, naturally, but there are spiritual voices and other voices of the Most High. "The voice of the Lord is full of majesty." God has spoken in various ways to man in order that man might not think Him a God so engrossed with Himself that He does not observe His creatures. It has graciously pleased the Divine being to sometimes look upon man, at other times to stretch out His hand to man and, sometimes, to reveal Himself in mortal appearance to man and frequently to speak to man. At sundry times He has spoken absolutely without the use of means—by His own voice—as, for instance, when He spoke from Sinai’s blazing mountaintop. Or when He spoke to Samuel in his bed and said unto him several times, "Samuel, Samuel." Or when He spoke to Elijah and Elijah said, "He heard the whirlwind and he saw the fire." And after that there was "a still small voice." He has spoken immediately from heaven by His own lips on one or two occasions in the life of Christ. He spoke to Him at the waters of Jordan, when He said, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." He spoke to Him on another occasion, to which we have already referred. He spoke—it was God that spoke, though it was Jesus Christ—He spoke to Saul, when on his way to Damascus, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" He has spoken several times by His own voice without the intervention of means at all. At other seasons, God has been pleased to speak to men by angels. He has, as it were, written the message and sent it down by His messenger from on high. He has told to man many wonders and secrets by the lips of those glorious beings who are flaming spirits of His that do His pleasure. As frequently, perhaps, God has spoken to men in dreams, in visions of the night when deep sleep falls upon them. Then, when the natural ear has been closed, He has opened the ear of the Spirit and He has taught truths which, otherwise, men could never have known.
More frequently, still, God has spoken to men by men. From the days of Noah even until now, God has raised up His prophets, by whose lips He has spoken. It was not Jeremiah who uttered that lament which we read—it was Jehovah—God in Jeremiah speaking through the natural organs of his voice! It was not Isaiah who foresaw the future and foretold the doom of millions—it was God in Isaiah thus speaking. And so with every prophet of the Lord now living and every minister whom God has raised up to speak—when we speak with power and efficacy and unction—it is not we, who speak, but it is the Spirit of our Father who dwells in us! God speaks through men and now, also, we know that God speaks through His own written Word of Inspiration. When we turn to the pages of Scripture, we must not look upon these words as being, in any degree, the words of men, but as being the Word of God. And though they are silent, yet do they speak. And though they cause no noise, yet, verily, "Their God has gone forth throughout the entire world and their noise unto the ends of the earth." And again—God even now speaks by the use of means. He does not make man speak, He does not make the Bible speak merely of itself, but He speaks through the Bible and through the man—as really as if He had used no books or employed no man to speak for Him! Yes, and there are times when the Spirit of God speaks in the heart of man without the use of means. I believe there are many secret impulses, many solemn thoughts, and many mysterious directions given to us without a single word having been uttered but by the simple motions of God’s Spirit in the heart. This thing I know, that when I have neither heard nor read, I have yet felt the voice of God within me and the Spirit, Himself, has revealed some dark mystery, opened some secret, guided me into some truth, given me some direction, led me in some path, or in some other way has immediately spoken to me, Himself. And I believe it is so with every man at conversion—with every Christian—as he is carried on through his daily life and especially as he nears the shores of the grave—that God, the Everlasting One, speaks, Himself, to his soul with a voice that he cannot resist, although he may have resisted the mere voice of man. The voice of the Lord is still heard, even as it was heard before. Glory be to His name!
And now, my beloved, I come to the doctrine, "The voice of the Lord is full of majesty." First of all, essentially, "The voice of the Lord" must be "full of majesty"; secondly, constantly, "The voice of the Lord is full of majesty"; thirdly, efficaciously, in all it does, "The voice of the Lord is full of majesty."
I. First, then, "The voice OF THE LORD IS FULL OF MAJESTY." Yes, and so it should be. Should not that voice be full of majesty which comes from majesty? Is not God the King of kings and the Ruler of the whole earth? Should He, then, speak with a voice below His own dignity? Should not a king speak with the voice of a king? Should not a mighty monarch speak with a monarch’s tongue? And surely, if God is God, and if He is the Master of all worlds, and the Emperor of the universe, He must, when He speaks, speak with the monarch’s tongue and with a majestic voice! The very nature of God requires that all He does should be Godlike. His looks are divine looks. His thoughts are divine thoughts. Should not His words be divine words, since they come from Him? Verily, from the very essence of God we might infer that His voice would be full of majesty!
But what do we mean by a voice having majesty? I take it that no man’s voice can have majesty in it unless it is true. A lie, if it should he spoken in the noblest language, would never be majestic! A lie, if it is uttered by the most eloquent lips, would be a mean and paltry thing, however it might be spoken! And a lie, wherever uttered and by whomever, is not majestic! A lie can never be truth and truth only can ever have majesty about it. And because God’s words are pure truth, unalloyed with the least degree of error, therefore does it come to pass that His words are full of majesty. Whatever I hear my Father say in Scripture, wherever He speaks to me by the ministry, or by His Spirit—if He speaks it, there is not the slightest alloy of untruth about it! I may receive it just as it is—
"My faith may on His promise live,
May on His promise die."
I need not reason about it, it is enough for me to take it and believe it because He has said it! I need not try to prove it to the worldling. If I were to prove it, he would believe it none the better. If the voice of God’s majesty does not convince him, surely the voice of my reasoning never will. It need not stand and cut and divide between this voice of God and the other, I know it must be true if He has said it and, therefore, I will believe all that I believe God has said, believing that His voice is full of majesty!
Then, again, when we speak of a majestic voice, we mean by it, that it is a commanding voice. A man may speak truth and yet there may be but little majesty in what he says because he speaks it in a tone that never can command attention and catch the ear of his fellow creatures. In fact, there are some men, expounders of the truth of God, who had better hold their tongues, for they do truth an injury. We know full many who affect to preach God’s truth. They go out to battle, they take the lance in their hands to defend the honor of Christ, but they wield the lance so poorly—they have so little of God’s Spirit—that they do but disgrace His holy name! It would have been better had they remained at home. Oh, beloved, God’s voice, when He speaks, is always a commanding voice! Let the monarch arise in the midst of his creatures—they may have been conversing with each other before—but hush, his majesty is about to speak! It is so with the majesty of God—if He should speak in heaven, the angels would hush their hallelujahs and suspend the notes of their golden harps to hear Him! And when He speaks on earth, it is at all times becoming in all His creatures to hush their rebellious passions and make the voice of their reason be silent. When God speaks, either from the pulpit or from His Word, I hold it to be my duty to keep silent! Even while we sing the glories of our God, our soul stands trembling. But when He speaks forth His own glories, who is he that dares to reply? Who is he that shall lift up his voice against the majesty of heaven? There is something so majestic in the voice of God, that when He speaks, it commands silence everywhere, and bids men listen!
But there is something very powerful in the voice of God and that is the reason why it has majesty in it. When God speaks, He speaks not weakly, but with a voice full of power. We poor creatures, at times, are clothed by God with that might and when we speak, grace comes pouring from our lips. But there are oftentimes seasons when we meet with small success. We talk and talk and have not our Master’s feet behind us, or our Master’s Spirit within us. And, therefore, but little is done. It is not so with God— He never wasted a word yet! He never spoke a solitary word in vain. Whatever He intended, He had but to speak and it was accomplished! Once he said, "Let there be light," and instantly light was. So He said in past eternity that Christ should be His first elect, and Christ was His first elect! He decreed our salvation—He spoke the word, and it was done. He sent His Son to redeem and proclaimed to His elect, justification in Him. And His voice was a powerful voice, for it did justify us! Any other man’s voice could not pardon sin—none but the voice of the monarch can speak pardon to the subject. And God’s is a majestic voice, for He has only to speak and our pardon is at once signed, sealed and ratified! God is not pompous in His words. He does not speak big-sounding words without meaning. The simplest word He utters may have little meaning to man, but it has a power and meaning in it equal to the omnipotence of God. There is majesty about the voice of God which might suffice to nerve my soul to fight the dragon. To say, "Where is your boasted victory, death? Where is the monster’s sting?" That one promise has majesty enough in it to make the dwarf a giant and the weakling one of the mightiest of the Most High! It has might enough in it to feed a whole host in the wilderness, to guide a whole company through the mazes of mortal life—majesty enough to divide the Jordan, to open the gates of heaven and admit the ransomed in! Beloved, I cannot tell you how it is that God’s voice is so majestic except from the fact that He is so mighty and that His words are like He!
But just one more thought concerning the voice of God being essentially majestic and I must trouble you to remember this even if you forget everything else that I have said! In some sense, Jesus Christ may be called the voice of God. You know He is called the Word of God frequently in Scripture—and I am sure this Word of God "is full of majesty." The voice and the word are very much the same thing. God speaks—it is His Son. His Son is the Word, the Word is His Son and the voice is His Son. Ah, truly the voice, the Word of God, "is full of majesty." Angels! You can tell what sublime majesty invested His blessed person when He reigned at His Father’s right hand. You can tell what was the brightness which He laid aside to become Incarnate. You can tell how sparkling was that crown, how mighty was that scepter, how glorious were those robes bedecked with stars! Spirits, you who saw Him when He stripped Himself of all His glories—you can tell what His majesty was, and oh, you glorified, you who saw him ascend up on high, leading captivity captive—you beloved songsters who bow before Him and unceasingly sing His love—you can tell how full of majesty He is! High above all principalities and powers you see Him sit—angels are but servants at His feet and the mightiest monarchs like creeping worms beneath His throne! High up there, where God, alone, reigns, beyond the sight of angels or the gaze of immortal spirits—there He sits, not merely Majestic, but full of majesty. Christian, adore your Savior! Adore the Son of God! Reverence Him, and remember at all seasons and times how little you may be, your Savior, with whom you are allied—the Word of God—is essentially full of majesty!
II. Now the second point. IT IS CONSTANTLY FULL OF MAJESTY. God’s voice, like man’s voice, has its various tones and degrees of loudness. But it is constantly full of majesty—whatever tone He uses—it is always full of majesty! Sometimes God speaks to man with a harsh voice, threatening him for sin—and then there is majesty in that harshness. When man is angry with his fellows and he speaks harshly and severely, there is little majesty in that. But when the just God is angry with sinful mortals and He says, "I will by no means spare the guilty," "I, the Lord, am a jealous God." When He declares Himself to be exceedingly angry and asks who can stand before the fury of His countenance—when the rocks are cast down by Him—there is a majesty in that terrific voice of His! Then He adopts another voice. Sometimes it is a gentle instructive voice, teaching us what He would have us learn. And then how full of majesty it is! He explains, He expounds, He declares. He tells us what we are to believe— and what majesty there is in His voice then! Men may explain God’s Word and have no majesty in what they say. But when God teaches what His people are to hold to be truth, what majesty there is in it! So much majesty, that if any man takes away from the Words that are written in this Book, God shall take away his name out of the Book of Life and out of the holy city—so much majesty, that to seek to mend the Bible is a proof of a blasphemous heart—that to seek to alter one Word of Scripture is a proof of alienation from the God of Israel! At another time God uses another voice—a sweet consoling voice. And oh, you mourners who have ever heard God’s comforting voice—is not that full of majesty? There is nothing of the mere trifling that sometimes we employ to comfort poor sick souls. Mothers will often talk to those who are sick in some gentle strain—but somehow it appears to be affected and is, therefore, not full of majesty. But when God speaks to comfort, He uses His majestic words. "The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but My kindness shall not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed," says the Lord who has mercy on you! Oh, is there not majesty in this sweet voice? "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet will I never forget you." How sweet, but yet how majestic! We cannot avoid being comforted by it if God speaks it to our souls. Sometimes God’s voice is a reproving voice— and then, too, it is full of majesty. "The ox knows his owner," He says, "and the ass his master’s crib, but Israel does not know, My people do not consider." And He speaks reprovingly, as if He had a controversy with them and calls the mountains and the hills to hear His reproof of them on account of sin. "I have nourished and brought up children, but they have rebelled against Me." But God’s reproving voice is always full of majesty! At other times it is a voice of command to His children, when He appears to them and says, "Speak to the children of Israel that they go forward."
And how majestic are God’s commands, how mighty is His voice when He tells us what to do! Some of you have a very poor estimation of what God’s voice is. God tells you to be baptized in honor of your Lord and Master. He speaks to you and He tells you to come round His Table and to remember His dying sufferings. But you do not think much of it. It seems to be lost upon you. But let me tell you that God’s voice of command is as full of majesty and ought to be as much regarded by His people as His word of promise or His word of doctrine! Whenever He speaks, there is majesty about His voice. Whatever tone He may adopt, there is majesty. Ah, beloved and there are times coming when God will speak words which will be evidently full of majesty—then He will speak and say, "Arise, you dead and come to judgment." There will be majesty in that voice for hell shall then be unlocked and the gates of the grave sawn in two. The spirits of the dead shall again be clothed with flesh and the dry bones shall be made alive once more. And He will speak, by-and-by, and summon all men to stand before His bar. And there will be majesty in His voice, then, when He shall say, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you." And oh, dread thought, there will be tremendous majesty in His voice when He shall exclaim, "Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
Again—God’s voice is full of majesty in all the different degrees of its loudness. Even in calling, there is a difference in the loudness of God’s voice. Many of you were called gently to Christ and you did not seem to hear the thunders of Sinai, like many of God’s people. But whether the voice is loud or soft, it is always full of majesty!
And in all its mediums it is full of majesty. God has, sometimes, chosen the poor to speak His wisdom. If I go and hear a countryman or an untaught man, preach—who makes many mistakes in grammar—yet if it is God’s Word that He preaches, it "is full of majesty." And sometimes when a little child has repeated a text, we have not noticed the child by reason of the majesty of the voice! In fact, the meaner the instrument employed, the greater the majesty in the voice, itself. I have noticed a tendency in many to despise their poorer brothers and sisters, members of smaller churches, where there is a more humble minister than one they are in the habit of hearing. This is all wrong, for God’s voice is full of majesty and He can speak as well by one as the other!
III. In the last place, I must briefly refer to the majesty of God’s voice WHEN IT IS REVEALED IN ITS EFFECT—when it is spoken home to the heart of man. Just look at the psalm and let me briefly refer to the facts here mentioned. I shall not understand them naturally, though, doubtless, they were so intended by David, but I shall understand them spiritually. As Dr. Hawker remarks, "Doubtless, they were intended to set out gracious operations, as well as natural ones."
First, the voice of the Lord is a breaking voice. "The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars." The most proud and most stubborn sinner is broken before Him when He speaks! I believe that even the spirit of Voltaire, stubborn as that spirit was, and hard as a millstone, would have been broken in a single instant if God had but spoken to him. The hardest heart I have here needs only one syllable from God to break it in a moment! I might hammer away to all eternity, but I could not do it. Only "the voice of the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon."
In the next place it is a moving voice, an overcoming voice. "He makes them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and sir ion like a young unicorn." Who would ever think of a mountain moving? It stands so fast and firm. But God’s voice, like His voice in Zerubbabel, speaks to the mountain, and says, "Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain." There is not a mountain standing in this world that God cannot move away by His voice, whether it is the mountains of Rome, or the mountains of the false prophet, or the mountains of colossal systems of heresy, or infidelity, or idolatry! God has only to speak the word and the idols shall fall from their thrones and the firm mountains shall skip like a calf!
In the next place, the voice of God is a dividing voice. "The voice of the Lord divides the flames of fire" or, as it should be, "The voice of the Lord puts out with flames of fire." You saw the lightning on Friday and you remarked, then, when God’s voice was heard, that the flash seemed to part the cloud and divide the sky. Just so with God’s word. Where God’s word is faithfully preached and His voice is spiritually heard, it is always a dividing voice. You bring all kinds of different characters into a Chapel and God’s word splits them all in two. It is in this place God divides you. The Son of God holds His throne and sits in judgment here. It divides men from men. It divides sinners from their sins. It divides sinners from their righteousness. It splits through clouds and darkness. It divides our troubles, breaks a way for us to heaven. In fact, there is nothing that the voice of God cannot divide! It is a dividing voice.
And then, again, the voice of the Lord is such a loud voice, that it is said to shake the wilderness. "The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh." Stand in the middle of a wilderness or a desert and conceive if you could make anything hear. But when God speaks, His voice rings through the wilderness and startles the desert, itself! Minister of God, you have only to speak God’s voice and you will be heard! If you have only half-a-dozen to hear you, you will be heard further than you know of! None of us can preach a gospel sermon, but it is heard and talked of more than we imagine. Yes, there is not a pious conversation with a poor woman but may be carried all over the world and produce the most wonderful effects! Nobody can tell how loud God’s voice is, or how far it may be heard. "Lift up your voice; lift it up; be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God." And your voice may be ever so weak and your ability ever so little—only lift it up and God Almighty, by His grace, may make the very wilderness to shake—yes, He may make the very wilderness of Kadesh to tremble!
And then in the 9th verse there is another idea which I must not pass over, although I might have preferred to do so. "The voice of the Lord makes the cattle to calve." By this I understand what the ancients believed—that so frightened were the cattle by the noise of the thunder, that the period of calving was often hastened on and frequently premature. It is just so with God’s voice. If a man has in him a desire towards Christ, the voice of God makes him bring forth that desire to the joy and rejoicing of his soul. And very frequently, when a man has a bad design towards God, God has only to speak and his design becomes abortive. It is brought forth, as it were, before its time and falls like an untimely fruit to the ground! Whatever man has within him, God can make it come out of him in a single moment. If he has a desire towards God—God can bring forth that desire and He can bring forth the soul and make it live. And if it is a desire against God, God can frustrate that desire, kill it, overwhelm it and overthrow it— "for the voice of the Lord makes the cattle to calve."
And in the next place, the voice of God is a discovering voice. It "discovers the forests." The trees were your former hiding place—but in the forest, however thick it may be, there does the lightning gleam. Under the mighty trees, however thick their covering, the voice of the Lord is heard. God’s voice is a discovering voice. You hypocrites! You get to hiding yourselves under the trees of the forest—but God’s voice thunders after you when it speaks! Some of you hide under ceremonies, good lives, resolutions and hopes. But God’s voice will discover the forests. And remember, there will be a day with some of you when you will hide yourselves, or seek to do it, under rocks and mountains, or in the deepest parts of the forests—but when He sits upon His throne, the voice of the Lord will discover the forests! You may stand under the old oak, or creep within its trunk and feel that there you are hidden—but His eyes, like balls of fire, shall see you through and through—and His voice, like a voice of thunder, shall say, "Come forth, culprit; come forth, man! I can see you—
‘My eyes can pierce the shades, and find your soul as easily
In midnight’s darkness, as in blazing noon.’
Come forth, come forth!" And vain, then, will be your disguises, vain your subterfuges—"The voice of the Lord discovers the forests." Oh, I would to God that He would speak to some of you this morning and reveal your souls! I wish He would reveal to you, your lost and hopeless condition—that you are damned without Christ—every one of you! Oh that He would show you how horrible your position is considered apart from the Savior! Show to you the fallacy of all your legal hope and of all your experiences, if they are not experiences allied to Christ! I pray that He would reveal to you that all your good works will come tumbling on your head, at last, if you build them for a house and that you must stand surrounded by no covering, but unveiled before the God who discovers the forests!
I would have preached to you this morning, but I cannot. Yet, perhaps, amidst the multitude of my words there may be some still small voice of God which shall reach your heart, and if the rest of you should despise it, what of that? The voice of God will be as full of majesty in the reprobate as in the elect! If you are cast away into hell, God shall get as much glory from the voice which you heard and which you despised, as He does from His voice which the elect heard and at which they trembled and fled to God! Do not think that your damnation will rob God of any of His honor! Why, sir s, He can be as much glorified in your destruction as in your salvation! You are but little creatures in the account of His glory. He can magnify Himself anyhow! Oh, humble yourselves, therefore, before God! Bow down before His love and His mercy and hear, now, what the plan of salvation is, whereby God brings out His elect. It is this—"He who believes," in that voice, that Word, that Son of His, "He who believes,"—not he who hears—"He who _believes"_—not he who talks—"He who _believes"_—not he who reads—"He who _believes"_—not merely he that hopes—"He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; he who believes not shall be damned."
Ah, hearers, if I could leap out of my body and could lay aside the infirmities of my spirit, I think that then I might preach to you! But I know right well that even then it must be God who speaks—and therefore I leave the words—My God! My God! Save these, my people, for Jesus’ precious name’s sake. Amen and Amen.