---

Reverence is at the root of all religion! When the libertines of the French Revolution crowned the Goddess of Reason with garlands, they worked hard to eradicate the old reverence for God out of the hearts of men! Reverence is not superstitious fear; it is not a degrading and debasing affright at the Great Power above us, who rules the world as with an iron sceptre: it is a reverence for God as He is, the embodiment of all holiness, justice, righteousness and truth. Who, in this sense, shall not fear Thee, O God?

I. THE FIRST ARGUMENT IS PHYSICAL, AND FOUNDED ON THE SENSES. Use has deadened our sense of wonder. The ear is the most wonderful harpsichord in the universe. It is exactly related to the constitution of things around us, working with ease, with pleasure, and with perpetuity, so that year after year it never requires returning, is unaffected by variations of temperature, and is not worn out with use — all this is very, very wonderful! It has opened up to us already a most wonderful world. Myriad are the voices of creation, the whispering of the breeze, the purling of the brook, the songs of birds, the rustling of the corn, the deep bass of the breaking waves of the sea, and all the varied tones of human voices. These sensations of hearing which might have been painful, are all full of pleasure. And so wonderful is the variety of sound, that we know the tones of our own children's voices in an assembly. The prisoner knew the voice of the musician singing outside his cell. Mary knew her Master's voice after the resurrection. The sheep on Israel's mountains may hear the familiar call of Jesse's shepherd son, but God's sheep must not hear His voice! We are often told of the marvels of faith: of what men will believe. I have often longed to prepare a paper on the marvels of unbelief! With these facts of observation before us, with this present constitution of things, with man himself the great marvel of workmanship, well may we once more ponder the words, "He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?" Then think of the eye; on its soft and delicate mirror, what pictures have been reflected: they have required no porters to carry them into the picture gallery within you, and memory, with little effort and no noise, re-touches them as they hang upon the wall. And is God, who created the eye, the only Being that is not to see? Is the finite being to watch, to behold, to observe, and the Infinite One to be sightless? What a marvel of unbelief is this! We have indeed reached the ultima thule of folly's argument if we can believe this.

II. THE SECOND ARGUMENT IS HISTORICAL, AND FOUNDED ON GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS. "He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct?" God not only hears and sees, He acts. When the ungodly were exclaiming, as the psalmist says, "The Lord shall not see, the Lord shall not regard it," the Lord was seeing, regarding, judging! Had they forgotten how Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea? Had they forgotten the heathen priests (1 Samuel 5:4-6)? Had they forgotten the judgments on the priests of the house of Ahab (2 Kings 23)? We have a larger and broader background of history than they had! We have seen "joy and gladness taken away from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab" (Jeremiah 44:32, 33), and now pastures, vineyards, villages, cities, all are waste. Yes! "Moab is spoiled and gone up out of her cities" (Jeremiah 44:15-24). We can see from ruined ramparts Bozrah desolate as Isaiah says (Isaiah 33:10), "without man, without inhabitant, without beast." We can look upon the high places of Eastern Judea, and remember the words of Jeremiah, "I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness," etc. Yes, and far away from Judea we can walk amid the ruins of the idolatrous Egyptians, we can visit their pyramids and the remains of their stupendous temples, and we can turn to the words, "I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, it shall be the lowest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more upon the nations." We can visit Nineveh, and Babylon, and find the truth of our text written there. We can go to Hebron and Kerioth, and read the words of the old Hebrew prophets (Isaiah 27:10; Isaiah 22:4). "He that chastiseth the heathen, shall," etc. In the light of these facts we need no voice from the heavens to give us the audible yea! And conscience and Scripture say the same. Is it wise, then, to live the frivolous, indevout lives that so many do? to risk our high estate as immortal beings?

III. THE THIRD ARGUMENT IS MENTAL, AND FOUNDED ON THE MIND OF MAN. "He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know?" Few study their own minds! I cannot think that they would indulge in such empty conceits about the future if they did! Any one mind is more wonderful even than a material universe! How noiselessly it works; how vast its store. Some minds, of course, illustrate this wonderfulness more than others. Historians like Hume, Macintosh, Macaulay, Lecky, must have the rich gatherings of years of study stored in their mental treasury. Let a man ponder himself, and then he will cease to be deluded by the sophistries of materialism! Two facts will be self-evident, one is personal consciousness — man is! He mingles with no other! If he is certain of anything, he can say, "I think, therefore I am." The other fact is, a receptive power, man is constantly receiving, growing alike in the extent of his knowledge and in the capacity to know. Now whilst man has this consciousness himself, it is strange that the tendency of modern science should be to do away with the idea of a personal God, and to lose Him in some generalization of force or law. The psalmist anticipates this beautifully in these words: You know, you think! How came you to do it? "He that teacheth man knowledge," etc. Yes, the teacher of knowledge knows. Let that thought comfort our hearts in all the bitter experience of grief. He knows. Many of our inner histories may be as difficult for others to interpret as Egyptian hieroglyphics. But He knows. Verily, then, there is a God that judgeth in the earth. Verily, then, there is a God that comforteth His people. Verily, then, there is a God that is able to help and willing to cast His shield over us in every time of battle and trouble. His eye is upon us, His ear is open to our cry, His judgment is not according to outward appearance, but His judgment is just and His thoughts are to us-ward: and once more the Saviour stands before us with open arms, saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."

(W. M. Statham.)

---

---

KJV: He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?

WEB: He who implanted the ear, won't he hear? He who formed the eye, won't he see?