How often in the midst of the sublimities of nature, a spectator, gazing upon some high mountain-range, has been fain to cry out, " What an aid to devotion ! what a ladder up to Heaven ! " Who has not exclaimed, when the thunder-cloud has
» F. B. Macnutt.
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rolled its awful peal, " Surely this is the voice of God ! " And yet it is to be questioned whether any man was ever drawn to God by the contemplation of the glory of creation alone : or, whether any man ever received, indeed, his call to grace, in the summons of the storm. Men have lived their threescore years and ten in all the intimacy of nature's most eloquent works, and from the cradle to the grave, they have not found God, for He is not in the wind ; and He is not in the earthquake ; and He is not in the fire ; but He is in the still small voice.
1. " The Lord was not in the wind." Strong religious impulse may be more than half physical, — a matter of temperament, of constitution. Earthly passion, in some natures, may take this form ; the language, the intended and professed objects, may be of heaven, and the spirit of earth. Even though mountains of opposition are rent by it, and rocks of prejudice are broken in pieces, and changes are brought about which fill the thoughts of men and live in history, it may yet be that the agency which effects all this is itself destitute of anything properly Divine; " the Lord was not in the wind."
2. " The Lord was not in the earthquake." Spasmodic terror may be only terror. The thought, or sight, or immediate appre- hension of death, may convulse, to its very depths, the human soul. But mere agitation may be only desperate ; " the fear of the Lord," as distinct from the fear of anything else, "is the beginning of wisdom," Whether the Lord is or is not in the great earthquakes of the soul depends, generally speaking, upon the soul's previous relations with Him.
3. " The Lord was not in the fire." He was in the burning bush ; He was in the fiery tongues of Pentecost ; but He was not in the fire which played around Elijah on Horeb. Eeligious passion carried to the highest pitch of enthusiasm is a great agency in human life; but it may be too inconsiderate, too truculent, too entirely lacking in tenderness and charity, to be in any sense Divine. Christendom has been the scene of the most Divine enthusiasm of which the soul of man has ever had experi- ence; but it has also been ablaze with fires (and they are not
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altogether extinct in our day and country) of which it may certainly be said that the Lord is not in them.
^ In our religious experience we are too apt to rely upon carnal force and energy. We are hopeful if we can make a noise, and create excitement, stir, and agitation. The heaving of the masses under newly invented excitements we are too apt to identify with the power of God. "At least we must have an eloquent preacher," we say, — "one who can plead with choice picked words, a master of the art of oratory." Yet God does not always choose this form of power, for still He will not have our faith to stand in the wisdom of words, but He will have us to learn this lesson, " Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Crash after crash the orator's passages succeed each other. What a tremendous passage ! The hearers must surely be impressed. Wind ! And the Lord is not in it. And now everything seems to shake, while, like a second John the Baptist, the minister proclaims woe and terror, and pronounces the curse of God upon a generation of vipers ! Will not this break hard hearts ? No. Nothing is accomplished. It is an earthquake ; but the Lord is not in the earthquake. Another form of force remains. Here comes one who pleads with vehemence; all on fire, he flashes and flames. Look at the coruscations of his sensational metaphors and anecdotes. Yes, fire (might we not say fireworks ?) ; and yet the Lord does not work by such fire. The Lord is not in the fire. The furious energy of unbridled fanaticism the Lord does not use. God is not there. The hallowed mind — the prayerful frame — the Spirit — they are all absent there. There was the wind, but " the Lord was not in the wind " ; there was the earthquake, but " the Lord was not in the earthquake " ; there was the fire, but " the Lord was not in the fire." "The still small voice" did not speak. Souls go away admiring — excited — agitated; but there has been no intercourse with God.
^ Some great and overwhelming catastrophe has occurred, some judgment has broken over our heads, the sudden stroke of death has made its awful appeal ; and one with whom we have long been familiar has been hurried, in a moment, to his grave ; and the wisdom of man begins to argue — "Surely, now, there will be a revival. The Lord will be recognized here. Surely, in so loud a sign, hearts that never prayed before, will hear their Maker's bidding, and will lift up to Him a repentant cry." While we look for it, the solemn event passes by, and it is all forgotten. " The still small voice " has not been heard. The wind and the