Actes 9:7

And the men who Journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man (text, and Actes 22:9):

The sights and sounds of life

Here is a record of the supernatural in the life of Paul and his companions.

The fact that these phenomena were at midday, and that the apostle’s fellow travellers were also sensible of them demonstrates that both the voice and the light were objective realities. The slight discrepancy between the two accounts confirms their authenticity. Identity of statement by two different persons after an interval of twenty-five years would excite suspicion. But it may fairly be supposed that all that Paul means is that they heard not articulate voice but mere sound. The same sound that communicated no idea in the one case, conveyed a message from Christ in the other. And the same light which revealed nothing to “the men” revealed the Son of God to Paul. This extraordinary circumstance indicates what is common in human life. A voice fraught with deep meaning to some, is a mere empty sound to others; a light revealing the grandest realities to some, discloses nothing to others.

I. Men’s lives in relation to material nature show this.

1. The lights of nature reveal--

(1) To the thoughtless multitude nothing but mere sensuous forms--just what they reveal to the brute.

(2) To the superstitious, unearthly existences--dreaded as demons or worshipped as gods.

(3) To the sceptical philosopher, nothing but a grand system of well-organised forces working by its own inherent impulse resistless as fate.

(4) To the enlightened Christian, a wise and loving Father.

2. The voices of nature, too, which are boundlessly varied, and set in every key, convey different impressions to different minds.

(1) Nothing but mere sensation.

(2) Superstitious awe.

(3) Scientific intelligence.

(4) Thoughts from God.

II. Men’s lives in relation to human history show this. The lights and voices of history reveal varied and almost opposite things.

1. To some it is without any governing law. Its social, mercantile, political movements are ascribable only to blind impulse and capricious passions.

2. To others it has only the governing law of human might. Some explain all on the principle that the strong preys on the weak. The progress and decline of commerce, the rise and fall of empires, the fate of battles are all ascribable to superior might.

3. To others it is governed exclusively by evil. The devil is in the schemes of the trader, the thunders of the orator, the craft of the priest, and shapes the destiny of the race.

4. To others it is governed by the mediatorial plan of God. The restorative purpose of heaven is seen running through the ages. Even the bitterest sufferings are regarded as parturition throes giving birth to a higher order of things.

III. Men’s lives in relation to the inspired oracle show this. The Bible has wonderful lights and sounds, but nothing is more true than that they differently affect different men. Ecclesiastical history, theological polemics, as well as the religious life of our own age, are fraught with illustrations of this. The sceptic and the believer, the Papist and the Protestant, the Socinian and the Trinitarian, the Churchman and the Nonconformist are striking examples.

IV. Men’s lives in relation to the gospel ministry show this. How differently the same sermon is regarded by various members of the congregation. The sermon which as a Divine voice speaks to the conscience of some, has no meaning to others; or which, as a Divine light, flashes moral conviction and reveals Christ to some, is either not seen at all, or regarded as a mere glare of human genius or enthusiasm. Conclusion: This subject--

1. Reveals a distinguishing attribute of human nature. Men have the power of hearing and seeing with the soul. All that the brutes see and hear terminates in the region of sensation. Ezekiel, Isaiah, John, our own Milton show what men can see and hear with the organs of their soul. The pure in heart see God. Man, in one word, has the power or receiving, modifying, and interpreting the impression the outward makes upon him.

2. Explains the great difference between spiritually and carnally minded men. Men are divided into two classes, those who live to and for the flesh, and those who live to and for the Spirit. Why is this? The one hears and sees in the sounds and sights of life what the other does not. The spiritual realises the spiritual even here.

3. Presents an object in life after which all should strive--viz., to get the eyes and ears of his soul so quickened as to see and hear the Divine everywhere, as the Lord did for Elisha’s servant. (D. Thomas, D. D.)