The Retrospective Revelation

“Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.” — Isaiah xxx. 21.

Imagine you were told that a revelation from God was about to be given you, and that you must keep your eyes alert for its coming, you would begin to look in different directions. You would first look above to see if there was any sign of an opened heaven. Then you would look in front in search of a premonition of the future. Then you would “turn to the right hand, and to the left — to read the traces of a present Providence. But there would be one direction in which you would never dream of turning; you would never think of looking “behind you.” You would say “I have been over all that road already, and have no heard a voice from God.*’ yet the prophet says that this rejected quarter is to be the favoured spot of revelation. Not from the sky, not from the future, not from the passing scene, is the revelation to come. It is to come from the past — from the road you have already traversed. At the very moment when you are looking to the right hand and to the left you will hear a voice” behind you,’’ and its message will be: “This is the way, walk ye in it.” What is this voice that comes from so unexpected a quarter? It is conscience. Conscience is ever the voice “behind you.” It does not accompany your deed of sin; it comes when 3’’Ou have left your sin in the background. You only hear it when you are half-way up the hill. You do not meet it in your valley — in your actual badness. It reaches your ear when you have begun to climb. It does not echo your strain of blasphemy, but your song of purity. The memories of conscience are only stirred under the shadow of the hill of God.

My soul, whither art thou climbing? Is it to tracks unknown, to lands untrodden? No; it is to thine own yesterday. Never canst thou know what thou art to-day until thou hast reached to-morrow. In the hours of thy sin there is a voice of thy God speaking; but it reaches not thine ear. It is saying to thee, “Thou art wrong!” — “Thou art erring!” — “Thou art wandering from the way! “— but in that hour it is not heard by thee. Thou shalt hear it when the hour is past. Thou shalt hear it when thou hast bid thy sin good-bye. Thou shalt hear it when thou hast left the valley behind and art climbing the mount of holiness. In that higher moment the thunder will roll and the lightning gleam and the terrors of Sinai be revealed. To-day will speak to thee when it has become yesterday. When thou hearest that voice, be not dismayed by its roughness 1 Remember, it is thy purified ear that hears it. It speaks to thy new self, to thy better self. It is a thunder which says, “This is my beloved son.” It is a noise that is audible because of thy calm. It is a speck that is visible because of thy clearness. It. is a pain that is experienced because of thy quickened body. The remorse of conscience is a voice behind thee.”