Article March 19, 1932 Issue

"If ye will hear his voice"

IRENE LOUISE OPPENHEIM

"To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart." Who would not hear God's voice? Yet, in spite of the Psalmist's injunction, how many really listen? God is always speaking. Mind is forever revealing itself through ideas which express the divine nature. How, then, can we hear this voice more clearly, and demonstrate divine guidance in our lives? This was the yearning desire of a student who had been asked to reflect the healing Truth to one whose trouble was deafness.

A sense of discouragement had crept into thought; for, although the work had been going on for some little time, there had apparently been no response. At this point the student was asked to handle the subject of acoustics for her church, which was then in process of building; and straightway the tempter said, What is the use of attempting this work for the church when you cannot even heal a case of deafness! But the suggestion was put out, and the work begun.

The meaning of the word "acoustics," as defined in part by Webster, was found to be "the sum of the qualities that determine the value of an auditorium as to distinct hearing." While the student was pondering the qualities requisite for distinct hearing, the words of the Psalmist came, almost as if they had been spoken: "To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart." God's voice, then, is not heard with the material ear. Nonintelligent matter cannot hear, nor can material thought discern spiritual ideas. The material sense of hearing receives only the impressions of mortal belief, which reveal nothing real. Then followed a close study of those qualities which make for receptivity, as revealed in the Bible and the writings of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy; and with new light thought was again lifted in prayer for the one in need. It seemed the most natural thing shortly afterward to receive a message that the hearing had been completely restored.

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