Recollect Samuel:  how when he was young the Word of the Lord was precious—­that is, uncommon, and almost unknown in those days; and how the Lord came and called Samuel, Samuel; and put a word into his mouth against Eli.  And so the Lord appeared again in Shiloh; for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by The Word of the Lord.  In Samuel’s case, there was, it seems, an actual voice, which fell on Samuel’s ears.  In the case of the later prophets, we do not read that they usually heard any actual voice, or saw any actual appearance.  It seems that the Word of the Lord who came to them inspired their minds with true thoughts, and inspired their lips to speak those thoughts in noble words, often in regular poetry.  But He was The Word of the Lord, nevertheless.  Again and again, we read in those grand old prophets, “The Word of the Lord came unto me, saying,”—­or again, “The Word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying.”  It is not the Bible which is meant by such words as these—­I am sorry to have to remind a nineteenth century congregation of this fact—­but a living being, putting thoughts into the prophets’ minds, and words into their mouths, and a divine passion too, into their hearts, which they could not resist; like poor Jeremiah of old, when he was reproached and derided about The Word of the Lord, and said, “I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name.  But He was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not hold my peace.”

But now, what words are these which we read of this same Word of the Lord, in the first chapter of St John’s Gospel?  “In the beginning was The Word:  and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.  By Him all things were made, and without Him was not anything made that was made.  And in Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

Thus—­as always—­the Old Testament and the New, the Psalmist and St John, agree together.

This is the gospel and good news, which the Psalmist saw in part, but which St John saw fully and perfectly.  But because the Psalmist saw it even in part, he saw that The Word of the Lord endured for ever in heaven; and that therefore his only hope of safety was to listen eagerly and reverently for what that Word might choose to say to him.

But why does the Psalmist seemingly go out of his way, as it were, to say, “Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and it abideth.  They continue this day according to Thine ordinance, for all things serve Thee”?

For the very same reason that St John goes, seemingly, out of his way to say, “All things were made by The Word, and without Him was not anything made that was made.”

Why is this?

Look at it thus:  What an important question it is, whether This Word of God is a being of order; a regular being; a law-abiding being; a being on whose actions men can count; who can be trusted, and depended on, not to alter His own ways, not to deceive us poor mortal men.