mething besides lessons. It has had plenty of teaching. The
trouble is not that we are not instructed, but that we do not take the
lessons that are laid before us. And so my text suggests another thing
besides the wholly inadequate conception, as it would be if it stood
alone, of a mere exhibition of what we ought to be.

'If so be that ye have _heard_ Him.' As I said, these Ephesian
Christians, far away in Asia Minor, with seas and years between them and
the plains of Galilee and the Cross of Calvary, are yet regarded by the
Apostle as having listened to Jesus Christ. We, far away down the ages,
and in another corner of the world, as really, without metaphor, in
plain fact, may have Jesus Christ speaking to us, and may hear His
voice. These Ephesians had heard Him, not only because they had heard
about Him, nor because they had heard Him speaking through His servant
Paul and others, but because, as Paul believed, that Lord, who had
spoken with human lips words which it was possible for a man to utter
when He was here on earth, when caught up into the third heaven was
still speaking to men, even according to His own promise, which He gave
at the very close of His career, 'I have declared Thy name unto My
brethren, and _will_ declare it.' So, though 'He began both to do and to
teach' before He was taken up, after His Ascension He continues both the
doing and the tuition. And, in verity, we all may hear His voice
speaking in the depths of our hearts; speaking through the renewed
conscience; speaking by that Spirit who will guide us into all the truth
that we need; speaking through the ages to all who will listen to His
voice.

The conception of Christ as a Teacher, which is held by many who deny
His redeeming work and dismiss as incredible His divinity, seems to me
altogether inadequate, unless it be supplemented by the belief that He
now has and exercises the power of communicating wisdom and knowledge
and warning and stimulus to waiting hearts; and that when we hear within
the depth of our souls the voice saying to us, 'This is the way, walk ye
in it,' or saying to us, 'Pass not by, enter not into it,' if we have
waited for Him, and studied His example and character, and sought, not
to please ourselves, but to be led by His wisdom, we may be sure that it
is Christ Himself who speaks. Reverence the inward monitor, and when He
within thy heart, by His Spirit, calls thee, do thou answer, 'Speak,
Lord! Thy servant heareth.