I venture to think we might illustrate the matter by an example from modern science. We know now that the most important and universal force in nature is that of which one of the most familiar forms is electricity. We know that its influence in the form of light and magnetism pervades the whole of nature; we know that the very movements of our limbs, of our hands and fingers, are dependent upon it, that this is the force which animates our nerves and through them controls our whole bodies. We know that the element in which it works--the ether--pervades the whole universe, and that the light which flashes from stars hundreds of millions of miles away is due to this subtle force. And yet until less than a hundred years ago men hardly realized its existence. It was an unseen force, which worked behind all other forces, and even men of science had but a dim appreciation of it. So it was with this supreme force of righteousness, until it was brought into full light by the revelation of the prophets and of our Lord and His Apostles. What they revealed to us, what the Bible is teaching in every page, what our Lord, above all, impresses on us with supreme force, is that God’s righteousness is like the ethereal fluid, which is at once the illuminating agent and the motive force of all human life. It is quiet for the most part, and men hardly observe it; but on a sudden it bursts out into some great storm, like that which startled the author of Psalm xxix. “The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.” We see the flash of the lightning of righteousness, and hear the crash of its thunder. “The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness.” That is the meaning, no doubt, of a great war like the present. Some evil had been accumulating, some passions of ambition and greed, some failures in duty, some defections from truth, faults of one kind in one nation, and sad failures of duty in another, and, on a sudden, some spark lights an explosion, and the whole world is ablaze with flames of fire. So it is also in our private lives. We may go on for a long time yielding to weaknesses, or even sins, and righteousness may seem to be silent, the voice of conscience may seem to be a mere voice and not to be asserting its supremacy; but, on a sudden, or after a long and gradual accumulation of wrong-doing, God asserts His law, our neglect of righteousness finds us out, and God’s justice is vindicated upon us.