learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." How many are there now who hear God's voice, calling to them as it called to Samuel in the watches of the night, and giving to them his solemn message to the Elis of the church and to the unfaithful people of God? Have not the material progress of our time, the riches, the luxury, the science falsely so called, almost quenched the fires of devotion, so that the days of great revivals, of family prayer, of secret communion with God, are largely things of the past-things that we read about, and wonder at, and sometimes-God help us!-smile at, as antiquated and narrow and superstitious? Are we not a great company of Laodiceans, and does not Christ's word come to us: "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see." Must not we preachers confess that too much of our preaching has been the repetition of forms of words, words that once meant something, but from which the spirit and life and power have departed? Are we not too often

66

prophets who find no vision from the Lord," and are content to have it so? May not we too, say to the Lord: "None stirreth up himself to take hold

on thee"? Have not the days come or "famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah"? And is not the result of this lack of witness that the worldly man "will not seek God, and God is not in all his thoughts"? And because we withhold our witness, will not the wicked man die in his iniquity, and will not God require his blood at our hand?

There is one question more: Who of us wills to have the open vision, and wills then to declare it? Who of us sets himself to be a messenger of God to this generation? Who of us will take the vision, with its burden and its suffering, with its exaltation and its joy? Who will listen to the still small voice that silences ambition, rejects wealth, crushes the flesh with its affections and lusts, discloses the secrets of eternity, whispers a message

So gotten of the immediate soul,

So instant from the vital Fount of things
Which is our Source and Goal,

that whosoever hears it repeated doubts not that through the words of the human preacher or teacher he has heard the words of the living God to his soul, that word which shall judge him at the last day? Who wills to be a prophet of God? As in wireless telegraphy, the whole atmosphere may be throbbing with vibrations which only one attuned receiver can understand, so the universe is pulsating with God's communications of his love and grace, but only the heart in harmony with him can receive them. Is God silent to us? Ah, the silence is not in God, but in

our inability to hear. have heard the voice.

We have had the vision,—we
But we have treated the voice
We have been dis-

as if it were the voice of man.

obedient to the heavenly vision. become blind to the vision

And so we have and deaf to the voice.

Let this be so no longer! When the vision comes to us, as it came to Saul, may we ask in all submission: "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" When we hear the voice that Isaiah heard from above the cherubim, saying: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" let us reply: "Here am I; send me." When spiritual darkness covers the land and gross darkness the people, the call of God even to a little child may be one of the momentous facts of history, the signal of a new epoch in the kingdom of God, the beginning of open vision for all God's people, the trumpet-call to Zion: "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee." My halting, stammering, weak, and unhappy brother in the ministry, half deaf and half blind as you feel yourself to be, God calls to you to-night, as he called of old: "Samuel! Samuel!" Submit yourself to God in childlike simplicity and faith; say to him, as Samuel did, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth!" and you too shall have the open vision, and shall be established to be a prophet of the Lord. Christ is the great prophet, and the man who joins himself to Christ shall be not only a prophet, but also a priest and a king.

XXXVII

OBEDIENCE BEFORE KNOWLEDGE 1

If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. (John 7:17.)

THERE are many perplexed and doubting persons to-day who require this same prescription for their difficulties that Jesus gave to the Jews. Obedience before knowledge, that is the divine order. Do the mysteries of religion confound your reason? Submit yourself to God and follow his precepts; you shall learn all that you need to know. Is the path of duty hard to find? Let your will be set to do the will of God and the path of duty shall be made plain to you. Only an obedient spirit-that is the teaching of Christ -only an obedient spirit can ever become possessed of spiritual truth. Obey and you shall know. Now. this is not a demand of unreasoning obedience; this is not a swallowing down of things incomprehensible; this is not a taking for granted of the questions in dispute; it is only saying in other words that none but a heart humble, reverent, submissive, loving toward God can ever understand God or the ways of God. Two or three simple considerations will make this plain.

A baccalaureate sermon, preached at Denison University, Granville, Ohio, June 23, 1873.

First, the obedient spirit is the only spirit that is willing to learn. There is a certain knowledge of God's existence which we possess by nature. But the most of our knowledge about God's attributes and dealings is an acquired knowledge. And in the acquisition of that knowledge nothing hinders us so much as the assumption that we know already. In coming to know of God there is nothing we need so much as a humble confession of our ignorance and a willingness to put ourselves in the place of learners. We never can know, so long as we assume that we know already, and refuse to put ourselves under a teacher.

He who would know anything of God's truth, then, must cease from being a teacher and be content to learn. He must humble his pride of opinion and put away his prejudices. He must confess God to be his Master and not fancy that he is God's master. He must acknowledge himself to be a child for ignorance and weakness, and so must take many things at first at his Father's word, in hope that by and by he may come to understand them for himself. There is an alphabet in every science which must be learned first; there are things at the beginning which must be taken on faith; somewhere we must believe before we can know; the trustworthiness of our faculties, the truthfulness of parents and teachers, these we must take for granted at the start. And it is not different in religion. If we would know anything of religion we must put ourselves under the direction of God. The very alphabet of religion is obedience to God, as he is revealed in conscience, in providence, in his word. Obey God's plain directions, those which