. Vers. 7, 8.-0n heai·ing God's voice. "The Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Introduction. The witness of the New Testament to the Divine inspiration of the Old. '"!'he Holy Ghost saith" (Ps. xcv. 7-11). We have in the text- I. A GREAT FACT IMPLIED. That God speaks to man. The "if" does not indicate uncertainty as to the DiviD<J voice, but as tu man's attention to this voice. There is no question as to whether God will speak to man or not, but whether man will heed his communications. Notice: 1. The object for which God speaks to man. This object is that man may be saved. The Divine voice proclaims and proffers a" great salvation," and publishes redemptive truth to man. 2. The organs by which he spealcs to man. (1) lly the sacred Scriptures, and especially in the life and teachings of his Son, Jesus Christ, as recorded therein. "God . . . bath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son." (2) By Christian ministries, especially the preaching of bis gospel. "We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entrenting by us," etc. (2 Cor. v. 20). (3) By the voice of our conscience. In its approbation of the right and its condemnation of the wrong, God speaks to us. (4) By the events of his providence. (5) By the influences of his holy Spirit. He speaks within the soul of man. He imparts emphasis and energy to the other voices by which God addresses us. 3. The frequency with which he speaks to man. Our text implies that he speaks to us daily. And surely by some one or more of these voices, every day he addresses to us some prohibition or persuasion, some caution or encouragement, some precept or promise, some invitation or warning. \Vere our susceptibility to Divine influences greater, we should ever hear the utterances of the Divine voice. 11. A MOMENTOUS DUTY EXPRESSED. Our duty is to hear God's voice. Consider: 1. '17,e signification of hearing God's voice. It is not mere hearing that is meant here, but earnest attention to God's voice, hearty belief in his communications, and willing obedience to bis comraands. 2. The season/or hearing God's voice. "To-day;" i.e. now. (1) Because life is uncertain. "Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life?" etc. (Jas. iv. 14). (2) Because procrastination is perilous. The postponement of our rl._.ty to-day facilitates a further postponement of it to-mor- row. (3) necause it is a present duty, and to defor the performance of it is, therefore, sinful We ought to attend to God's voice now, '£he urgency of this duty is suggested in the text. In the psalm from which it is quoted, our text "is virtually the expression of a wish, • To-day if ye will but hearken to his voics I '" or, " Oh that ye might this day hearken to his voice!" 'l'he pathos and earc.estness which the Holy Ghost puts into this wish suggests the deep importance of the duty; cf. Ps. lxxxi. 13, "Oh that my people bad hearkened unto me I " etc. III. A SOLEMN CAUTION GIVEN, "Harden not your hearts." The sapling is pliant; it may be bent and trained as to the direction and form of its growth. The full-grown tree is fixed in form, firm in texture, and unbending in its resistance; it is hardened, Meu harden· their hearts by disregarding the voice of God, by not recognizing tit authority of their consciences, by postponing the performance of religious duties, by necrlecting the great salvation, and by practically despising or resisting the Holy Spilit of God. St. Paul speaks of men who were " alienated from the life of God, because of the hardening of their heart," and "who being past feeling" had abandoned themselves to persistent and active wickednesR. For such moral insensibility what hope remains? "(Jh that ye might this day hearken to his vuicel"-W.J.
Ver. 12.-.Apostasy. "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you," etc. Our text leads us to consider- I. APOSTASY IN ITS N ATCnJr.. "Departing from the Ii viog God." 1, This departure OH, III, 1-19.] THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS., 97