Freedom of will expressed in volume is that quality of voice which suggests no hindrance, no limitation. The “voice of thunder” is not known by its degree of noise, for it may be so distant as to be only perceptible to the senses, yet it is still recognized as thunder from its illimitable quality, in other words, its volume. Loudness is not a necessary quality of volume, but illimitation is. Listen to the voice of a young martyr, who has been condemned by the Roman emperor to be flung into the amphitheater, there to be devoured by ferocious beasts. Her father, who does not see the truth as she sees it, pleads with her to abjure her faith and worship the old gods. She turns to him and says, “Father, _I_ would, but _Christ in me_ will not.” Light shines in the eyes of the old man as he looks at her and says, “I believe God is in thee.” Her will was absorbed in the divine will, and that divinity spoke through her. Even He who made the world spoke in her voice. The roar of the lion, though terrible, could not drown her tones, though low, devout, and tender. Some who heard the voice from heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” said it thundered. This does not indicate that the voice was loud, but that it had the quality of illimitation, and so impressed the imagination as nature’s voice. It is the Christ, speaking through man’s voice that has turned this world “upside down”; that has lifted up the cross of Christ, before whom all the kings of earth tremble, and become like chaff on the summer threshing floor. FORMING PICTURES. The fourth chapter in Volume II. is Forming Pictures. The picturesque voice is that voice which causes the imagination of the hearers to create pictures of the things described by the language of the speaker. It is the unnoticed voice, the voice which attracts no attention to itself. The picturesque voice is not an end, but a means, and therefore may properly be called the artistic voice, because it so appeals to the imagination of the hearer as to cause images to arise in his mind. This voice may be called the suggestive voice because it suggests what tone cannot literally actualize, but that which can be perceived only by the imagination. The characteristics of this voice are elasticity and shading. In this quality of the voice which I have termed elasticity, the vocal organs do not seem to report themselves, but only the thought and sentiment. By shading, I mean the degree of density in the tone where the thought and not the word seems to be stressed. The vocal organs are held under firm but most delicate control. Here the voice may suggest great noise but make none, and in all ways cause the mind of the hearer to listen to sounds it does not really make.