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T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
June 1924
The Voice of Deit$ Canon G. Osborne Troop, M. A., Rector-Em eritus St. M artin’s Church, Montreal
F a th e r H imself th u s cries in m ortal hearing-gV'This is ,My beloved .S o n .. . . h ear H im .” Nor should we forget th e carefully considered words of St. P eter in his Second Epistle, where he says, as if in anticipation bf Modern C riticism :— “We did not follow cunningly-devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; bu t we were eye-witnesses of His majesty. F o r He received from God th e F a th e r honour and glory, when th ere came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory—This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And th is voice we ourselves heard come out of heaven, when we were w ith Him on th e holy Mount.” No modern theory of th e Kenosis can do away w ith this solemn and binding im prim atur of the Living God— “This is My Beloved Son , . . h ear ye H im .” I, for one, loyally accepting th a t Voice, feel under Divine obligation to re ceive w ith reverence and awe every utterance of th e In carnate Son as au tho ritativ e and final. Moreover, th e Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, when standing before P ilate— “To th is end was I born, and for th is end came I into the world, th a t I m ight bear w itness unto the tru th . Every one th a t is of the tru th heareth My Voice.” And again, speaking th is time from heaven afte r His Resurrection and Ascension, Christ says seven times over w ith peculiar solemnity— “He th a t h ath an ear, let him hear what th e Spirit saith unto th e churches.” , (See Revelation, chapters 2 and 3). So the Voice of the F ath e r, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is revealed as one and th e same Voice in its binding au tho rity over mankind. Nothing can exceed the solemnity of th e charge given in the Epistle to the Hebrews in Chapter 12: “See th a t ye refuse n o t H im th a t speaketh, F o r if they escaped not, when they refused H im th a t w arned them on earth , much more shall n o t we escape, who tu rn away from Him th a t w arneth from heaven: Whose Voice th en shook th e ea rth : b u t now He h a th prom ised, saying, ‘Yet once more will I m ake to trem ble n o t th e e a rth only, h u t also th e heaven.’ And th is word, ‘Yet once more,’ signi- fleth th e removing of those things th a t are shaken, as of things th a t have been made, th a t those things which art no t shaken may remain. W herefore receiving a Kingdom th a t cannot be shaken, le t us have grace, whereby we may offer service well pleasing to God w ith reverence and awe: for our God is a consum ing fire.” When we honestly face th e sure and certain Coming and Kingdom of our Saviour and our Judge, it is of infinite com fo rt to recall th e testimony of St. John in the tw elfth chap ter of his Gospel. He th ere records th a t on a memorable occasion our Lord suddenly c rie d ,y‘F ath er, glorify Thy N am e!’ And in stan tly the Voice of the F ath e r rep lied -S ‘1 have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.’ We see in this rem arkable incident th a t our Lord was w ithin speaking distance of His F ath e r all th e tim e; and so are we, if we are only w illing to ta k e the comfort of it. Think of it! W ithin speaking distance always of th a t won drous Voice! T h at holy E ar open indeed to our faintest whisper. Let us speak freely and w ith holy boldness. Let us listen to th a t Voice in th e Spirit and in th e w rftten Word w ith reverence and awe, and w ith lowly obedience. “Low a t His Cross I view the Day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, And thu s prepare to m eet H im .” (Continued on page 400)
object in th is article is to give some reasons for ly own unreserved 'conviction, th at, in th e periec- ion of both natures, Jesus Christ is God and Man, a one unchanging and unchanegable D ivine-Per sonality. X am w riting as a Christian to my fellow Chris tian s; and in spite of the supposed conclusions of Modern Criticism , I venture to assume the absolute in teg rity of all the Sacred Scriptures of both Testaments, as a unique revelation from th e Living God. F o r some sixty years I have given myself increasingly to the study of th e in ternal evidence of the Scriptures, and I find th e w itness of the Bible to itself peculiar and overwhelming. Above all, my own h ea rt and life and conscience are absolutely searched out and convicted by th e unsparing ligh t thrown upon them by the sacred w ritings. Self is revealed as not only ruined and impotent, bu t as an incorrigible tra ito r and enemy to God. F allen and devolving I find myself in th e white ligh t of the Divine Countenance a lost sinner, in u tte r and in expressible need of a Saviour. Such a Saviour I find re vealed in the very Garden of Eden, where Jehovah appears in the character of th e Good Shepherd, coming forth in search of His two lost sheep. T hat vision in th e Garden grows in glory, until in unparalleled sublim ity it shines from the Manger, the Cross, th e empty Tomb, and the Throne of th e Infinite Redeemer. T ruly we behold “ the ligh t of the knowledge of the glory of God in th e face of Jesus Christ.” I find it impossible to elim inate the sup ern atu ral from the Bible, for, as it is clearly the Revelation of God, it must of necessity be inseparably interwoven w ith th e super n atural. W hat, for example, can be more astounding than the fact, witnessed by both Testaments, th a t men and women of like passions w ith ourselves actually heard the Voice of the Living God, u ttering from th e m idst of the fire-crowned Sinai th e actual words of th^ Decalogue? Let us ponder, seriously and w ithout prejudice, the searching question of Moses in Deut. 4 :32 ; “F o r ask now,’? he says, “ of the days th a t are past, which were before thee, since the day th a t God created man upon the earth , and from th e one end of heaven to th e other, whether th ere h ath been any such thing as th is g reat thing is, or h ath been heard like it? Did ever people h ear th e Voice of God speaking out of the m idst of the fire, as thou h ast heard, and live?” F o r myself, assurance of th is amazing fact is streng th ened by th e reflection th a t such a man as Moses could never have been so foolish a3 to give to the people of Israel th e Tenth Commandment. No hum an lawgiver could d are to forbid people to covet; for by so doing he would make himself a laughingstock. It is obvious th a t God alone can call men to account for breaking the Tenth Command ment, for coveting lies hidden in the human h eart, beyond th e reach of any human eye. The Tenth Commandment deals .with the secrets of th e h eart, and thu s becomes in itself the key to the Decalogue, a key applied to the lock long afterw ards by our Lord Himself in the matchless Sermon on the Mount. This voice from heaven was also heard a t th e Saviour’s Baptism in the Jo rdan ; and it is of strik ing import th a t th e same Voice is heard again a t the Transfiguration, as recorded by all th ree Evangelists, w ith the weighty and most significant addition—-“H ear ye Him ” The eternal
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