1 Kings 19:12

" A still small voice ." The terrors of the Lord awe the soul; His love melts and wins it. What the law could not do, the gospel has done (Rein 1 Kings 8:8 ). Christ draws men unto Him by the sweet attraction of His cross ( John 12:32 ). The lightnings and thunders, the trumpet and the voices of Sinai, do not move the world as do the seven last words of the Crucified. "Not in the wind that parted the Red Sea, or the fire that swept the top of Sinai," was God brought so near to man, "as in the ministrations of Him whose cry was not heard in the streets, as in the still small voice of the child at Bethlehem" (Stanley). This parable may be compared with the familiar fable which tells how storm and sun strove together for the mastery. The former made the traveller wrap his garments more closely about him; the latter made him cast them aside. Love is more powerful than fear, and that because "love is of God." Judgment is His strange work. "God loves to make a way for Himself by terror, but He conveys Himself to us in sweetness" (Bp. Hall)—a truth well brought out in Theodore Monod's exquisite hymn—

"Yet He found me: I beheld Him

Bleeding on the cursed tree;

Heard Him pray, 'Forgive them, Father;'

And my wistful heart said faintly,

'Some of self, and some of Thee.'

"Day by day His tender mercy

Healing, helping, full and free;

Sweet and strong, and, ah I so patient,

Brought me lower, whilst I whispered,

'Less of self, and more of Thee.'

"Higher than the highest heavens,

Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord, Thy love at last hath conquered;

Grant me now my spirit's longing,

'None of self, and all of Thee.'"