Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 1.pdf/292

 designed to be a guide to all the human race, and not a part only: hence it describes all things as they are, shewing the effects that faithfully follow the steps of the righteous, and the wanderings of the wicked. Hence the literal sense of Scripture in reference both to the good and evil, assumes language applicable to the life and practice of each. The voice of God, being in itself perfect clemency, falls into the minds of the good as soft and tacit whispers of mercy; while the same voice, falling, as it were, lower into the degraded and sinful lives of the wicked, is heard as thunderings and threatenings, each giving a quality to the voice in agreement with its own state: so thunder, comparatively gentle on mountains, becomes loud and terrific as it rolls among craggy rocks and winding valleys. When Jesus prayed and said, "Father, glorify thy name!" there came a voice from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." (John xii. 28.) Now as this voice came not for the sake of Jesus, but for the people that stood by, so it was heard differently, for some said, "It thundereth," others that "An angel spake to him!" so that what was thunder to some, was angelic speech to others. There is then, in reality, no discordance in scripture; the apparent contradictions of the letter are nothing but real descriptions of the varied states of human minds; and although objectors to Revelation are pleased to say, that in reference to the inscription on the cross, short as it is, "not any two of the four Evangelists agree in reciting it exactly in the same words," yet this is not a true statement. The inscription itself is, "THE KING OF THE JEWS," and this is precisely the same in all—