Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-09-19
THE VOICES OF GOD.

1 WAND Va UOD3
St. Paul, in his first epistle to the
Corinthians, utters a broad truth when
he tells us that there are many kinds
of voices in the world, and none of them
is without Specification" All nature
has an Ineligible significant voice to
him who has ears to hear it. 1t is not
to be supposed that the Infinite Creator
of man and nature has left Himself
without a voice of wisdom and of love
to His intelligent offspring. In many
cases nature itself is that voice. But
God has other voices, distinct, clear and
Ineligible to him who will recognize
and heed them. DR.. Allan, an English
author, in a recent volume, has a fine
discourse on the 'Vision of Cod" and
another on the tVoices of God" in
which he points out with much force the
several methods by which the Almighty
has manifested Himself to man, and
made His voice heard. ''Our lives,''
he says, ''are full OF voices of God if we
would but listen to them. They come
in many ways, not now audibly ad-
dressed to the ear of sense, but not,
therefore, the less distinct. Sometimes
it is an outward call of circumstance,
sometimes it is an inward call of the
spirit. He who made mans ear made
also his reason, his conscience and his
heart, and to each He can appeal with
equal distinctness." The responsibility
OF life," he adds, with admirable dis
elimination, lilies in listening for Divine
voices, and in the responses to them that
we give. We may cultivate the spirit
ual faculty that hears Gods call. or we
may make it obtuse. We may cherish
Gods call, or we may silence it; obey
it, or rebel against it. With spiritual
intelligence we may recognize it as
really Gods voice, or, with unspiritual
repugnance, question it, explain it
away, reduce it to q mere suggestion of
human prudence"
Since the close of the age of miracles
and of the Scripture revelation, we are
no longer privileged to hear the voice
of God, as the holy men of old heard it
who wrote the inspired word of God.
God does not speak to men now as He
spoke to Moses on the mount of vision,
or to Samuel in the tabernacle. Never
theless He does still speak to intelligent
men. and to devout childhood, as really
and truly now as when the leader Of
Israel said: ''show me Thy glory" and
the child Samuel in response to His call
said: ''Speak, Lord, for Thy servant
heareth.' Not in visions, not in dreams
Of the night, not by audible voices from
Heaven, does He utter His call and re-
veal His will. But there are four distinct
methods or channels of communication
still open between Heaven and earth,
through which men may hear the voice
OF God, and give back their responses
of approval or of disobedience. In these
and by these He is ever saying, even as
He did of old: ''Unto you, o men, I
call, and My voice is to the sons of
men," These are the inward voice of
conscience, the voice of His Divine
Spirit in our hearts, and the voice of
the sacred Scriptures. These all to-
gether constitute Gods abiding testi-
mony and guide to His church on earth,
and to all the son of men. In these
they can hear His voice, and in these
they can find, if they will, the rule of
all moral duty. the standingtof all re-
ligious truth, the clear, certain and in
fallible guide to eternal life. In each of
these God has spoken, and He still
speaks.
Our spiritual nature, with its death
less yearnings after Immortality and its
inetfaceable sense of right and wrong,
is but the voice of God within us, ever
%exhorting us to that which is good, ever
warning us against that which is
wrong. How could it be otherwise
when we know hat this spiritual moral
nature was originally created in Gods
W image? Though in apostate ruin
now, all sadly married bysin-its gold
become dim and its fine gold changed
yet this moral nature is Gods own
testimony in the soul-God's voice to
the soul of every man, calling him up
ward to Immortality and onward to
duty. Conscience, at times misleading,
and scared as with a hot iron, has still
a voice even in wicked men, and that
voice often speaks for God to the last.
Even in death, when heart and flesh are
failing, and all other monitors are gone,
conscience will reassert its functions
and cry out for the living God. "Out of
The very constitution of our nature"
says DR.. Allan, "a still small voice of
God testities to our spiritual and i'm
1ortal being. This voice of God with
IL ellS us That we are more than the
orutes that perish, that we are o
'han mere intellectual machines"
And there is another voice of God
above us night and day, and if we would
'ut heed it, (which is perpetually calling
20 us, directing u paths, opening our
7ay, shaping our ends, and ever bring
ng good out Of evil in our lives. It Is
he voice of His wise, experimenting
providence, saying to us at times: This
S the way; walk ye in it;'' and at 9th
rs: Thus far shalt thou 90, and ofar-
her" For is it not written in the sa-
red book, and illustrated in the
ives of thousands of the saints. chat
40 good thing will He withhold from
hem that walk upright" The steps
II a good man are ordered by the Lord;
houggh he fall he shall not be utterly
tst down" 'Surely, goodness and
aercy shall follow me all the DAYS of
ay life, and I will dwell in the house of
he Lord forever" 81 will instruct
Aee and teach thee in the way which
hou shalt go. Twill guide thee with
zine eye Nevertheless 1 am con
annually with Thee; Thou hast holden