Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils. 1 Tim.4:1.

Important as it is to hear the voice of God and follow it, other voices not of God can intrude upon our minds. Men most deeply interested in the spiritual world may, at the same time, be drawn by other powers in high places not of God.

Many people seem to have great difficulty today understanding the voice of God. The plight becomes very serious where people become unbalanced on the side of the sensational, without a rational understanding of the Word of God.

Fellowship with Christ is intelligible. God always seeks to reach us through the faculties with which He endowed us at Creation. Passionate excitement in religion can be very deceptive. The danger is that high, fantastical moods drown out thinking. We need to distinguish between extremes in emotionalism and in mere intellectualism.

Our response to God involves the highest and noblest expression of the whole man of which we are capable. How sorely do men need the scriptural admonition, "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word. . . . Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee" (Ps. 119:9-11). We are to bring our mind, heart, and soul to bear on the voice of God in His Word. The best thinking and the deepest loving are the indispensable conditions of spiritual soundness and Christian growth.

The moment we permit our emotions to outweigh the spiritual illumination of the mind by the Word of God, we are in danger of all manner of delusions. We come to attach more importance to our feelings than to the truth itself. The truth of God is clearer to us than any excitement we may feel over it. God's Word is God's voice to us whether we feel anything or not.

We are to let God's voice in His Word through the Holy Spirit be our divine teacher. Then we will be kept in the truth. Our peril in religion today is not that we will suddenly apostatize, but that voices not of God will step by step lead us to depart from God's Word.