The Great Voice from Heaven.
This is a world in which there is no standing still. Ceaseless progress is the law of nature. Everything is going on, and in our lives we feel it often, and sometimes we feel it sadly; there is no pause nor cease. Here in truth we have no continuing city; our feet are not set upon solid land; from birth to death we are carried on by a rapid current against which there is no striving. Now there are just two ways by which men can advance: the one leads upward, and its end is heaven; the other leads downward, and its end is perdition.
I. The voice of God comes to us from heaven and says to us, "Come up hither." The new voice of God speaks not to the ear, but to the heart. The whole Bible is a great voice from heaven. Revelation furnishes us with a continuous proof that it is the upward path which God would have us choose from the two that are before us.
II. A second voice that invites us up to heaven is that of our blessed Saviour. What was the Redeemer's whole appearance on earth but one earnest, unceasing, lifelong entreaty that men would turn to God? And the Saviour even yet appears to remind us of His earthly travail and sorrow, and to whisper to us, "As ye would not that all that should prove in vain, come up hither."
III. The blessed Spirit, too, adds His voice to that which invites us towards heaven. The whole scope and object of His working is to make us fit for heaven, is an indication of His design and His wish that we should go up thither. The Spirit, the Purifier, as He makes us holier and better, thus fitting us for a clearer atmosphere and a nobler company, is ever whispering within us that it must be a higher life in which virtue will be perfect, and another world in which hearts will be pure.
IV. The voice of our dear friends who have fallen asleep in Jesus invites us to "come up hither." Let us plant our feet on the rock, and take not one step further in the evil way, for tomorrow may end our path, and today is the accepted time.
A. K. H. B., Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson,p. 283.
Reference: Revelation 11:12. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. ix., No. 488; W. Gledden, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvi., p. 136.