Luke 8:18 Take heed therefore how you hear: for whoever has, to him shall be given; and whoever has not… I. DIRECTIONS FOR HEARING. 1. Hear the Word from right motives and for right ends. Multitudes go to church because their fathers went, their neighbours go, and they do not love to be singular. Many go, not to hear, but to see or to be seen. Some hear sermons to furnish their heads with knowledge, not to enrich their hearts with grace. 2. Our hearing should be preceded, accompanied, and followed by earnest prayers for the Divine blessing. 3. Hear the Word of God with pleasure and gratitude. Compare your circumstances with those of your forefathers, who had no other instructor than nature's light; and with those of the many dark places of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty. 4. Cultivate an honest, impartial love to truth, and a meek, humble, candid, and teachable spirit. Nothing ought to be admitted as an article of faith, or a rule of life, which is not either expressly contained in, or, by just consequence, inferred from the sacred oracles. Meekness is the fruit of the Spirit. Apply, therefore, to Him to form in you, by His grace, that humble, teachable disposition, which is so necessary to render outward instruction truly profitable. 5. Hear the Word with understanding and judgment. 6. Hear with attention, seriousness, and solemnity of spirit. Men are renewed and sanctified by the truth. But truth, not heard with serious attention, has no such salutary energy. 7. Let such a lively faith mix itself with your hearing as will produce affections suited to the truths you hear. A report, however interesting in its own nature, if not credited, can neither engage our affections nor influence our practice. 8. Wisely apply what you hear to your own case; and for that end, endeavour to be well acquainted with the true state of your souls. II. DIRECTIONS AFTER HEARING. 1. Endeavour to remember what you have heard. A transient glance discovered some blemish on his face; but the faint impression it made on his imagination quickly vanishes, and, not observing it distinctly, he is at no pains to wipe it off. 2. Meditate, and expostulate with your hearts, upon what you have heard. Think not, when the minister has done preaching, that your work is over. 3. Converse with your fellow-Christians about what you have heard. 4. Reduce what you have heard to practice. 5. Often examine how you have heard and improved the Word. 6. If you have received any benefit by the Word, ascribe to God all the glory. (J. Erskine, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Take heed therefore how ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. |
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