ON PROFITING FROM THE HEARING OF SERMONS.

From the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine.

On the subject of future and final judgment, although the Scriptures are clear as to the fact, yet do they leave much, which perhaps we might desire to know, enveloped in an obscurity which we cannot penetrate. What is thus placed in the darkness of 'heaven's own shadow,' will continue unknown to us till we are

permitted to behold it in heaven's own light. In all such cases conjecture is as improper and injurious as it will always be vain. We are, however, carefully to distinguish between curious conjecture as to what is unrevealed, and legitimate inference from what is clearly stated. It is true, indeed, that in all these extensions of the line of truth in its own proper direction, great caution, and sobriety, and humbleness of mind are necessary; but still, legitimate inferences from plainly declared truth, preserving the proper analogy of faith, are not only neither injurious nor vain, but positively beneficial. Thus was it that the Saviour confuted the materialism and infidelity of the Sadducees. Moses had recorded that God said, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.' This was the undisputed fact. Then follows the confuting inference, 'God is not the God of the dead, but of the living; ye therefore do greatly err.' It will not, I think, be regarded as a hazardous, unwarrantable conjecture, if we say that, in giving account of ourselves to God, our opportunities of improvement will be very seriously considered. When St. Paul tells us that 'every one of us shall give account of himself to God,' the stress of the statement is evidently to be placed on what may be termed the individual personality of the account, thus to be rendered, when we 'all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.' In the chapter to which I am now referring, (Rom. xiv,) the Apostle speaks of those differences on comparatively minor points by which some parts of the church were then agitated. He requires the persons, thus differing, not to judge one another, because each one should have to account to the Sovereign and Judge, not for his brethren, but for himself. He so speaks as to bring before us a judgment at once general, in that it will proceed on the same great principles, and be April, 1832.-VOL. III.

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governed by the same rules, in reference to all; and individual and particular, in that the peculiar and specific circumstances of each separate person will be carefully noted. Connect what St. Paul here teaches with our Lord's solemn declaration in the parable of the talents, and with other passages in which we see the same principle incorporated; and I think that will appear to be a just conclusion to which Christians often advert, both in their private meditations, and in the communings of religious fellowship, that we shall have to give account of our opportunities and mercies;— that one of the inquiries which will be made in the course of the awful judgment, and prosecuted to its conclusion, will be, whether we have improved our opportunities, and duly profited by our mercies. The thought is exceedingly solemn. Properly pursued and applied, it may well make the stoutest tremble. No one can enter fairly into the examination which it prompts, but he will be conducted to results which will humble him to the very dust, and lead him, in the lowest prostration of his spirit, to exclaim, 'God be merciful to me a sinner!' Nor will the influence rest here. He who thus humbles himself because of past unfaithfulness, and earnestly implores the mercy which shall remove all the guilt of it, will resolve, God being his helper, to live in greater watchfulness; and in the regular exercise of a holy, active, and profiting diligence.

I am not going in the present paper to apply this subject very widely. And yet, it will be well if my readers will do so for themselves to every subject to which it is capable of being applied. To every subject to which it is applicable, it is our duty both in reflection and practice to apply it. To all shall it be said, 'Give account of thy stewardship:' nor can we expect that that account shall be rendered with joy, if we have not had a conscientious reference to it, in the use and employment of whatever may have been entrusted to our keeping. I am going to confine the application of this great principle to a very common, though a most important mercy, to which I confess I have sometimes feared it has not been applied as it ought,-THE hearing of sermons.

I am now writing for Methodists. Let us, then, take a Methodist chapel in any of our circuit towns. There are, at any rate, three sermons preached in it weekly, amounting, with occasional services, to at least one hundred and sixty in the course of the year. Next, take a person who, when about twenty years of age, was brought to God. By the grace of God he continues faithful, and by the providence of God he reaches his 'three score years and ten.' He has now been a Christian hearer of Christian sermons for fifty years, at the rate of one hundred and sixty annually; that is, he has heard eight thousand sermons. Nor must the solemn public reading of Scripture be omitted. This is a species of preaching,-for so it is written, Moses has them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day.' He has therefore heard four or five thousand chapters of the word of God: and all know how important

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an impression is made on the mind by the solemn, deliberate reading of Scripture, in connection with the public worship of Almighty God. Now, if we suppose the preacher to have used the ordinary diligence of a man of God, responsible to God for the way in which he does his work; who is sent to declare the whole counsel of God; and who feels, at the same time, that he loves the sacred burden thus laid upon him :-let all this be supposed, and O what a quantity of truth has thus been presented to the soul! I will not say, passed before it, as the fleecy, sun-lit vapour passes across the deep blue sky, unnoted, perhaps unseen; but presented, earnestly, solemnly, pleadingly presented: presented, too, when the hearer has just returned from speaking to God in prayer, and when he has seated himself in reverential silence that God may speak to him. Yes, at moments when our minds have thus been calmed,when we have said, 'Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth,'--while thus we have sat expectingly, saying, 'I will hear what God the Lord will speak,'-at such moments, and under such circumstances, has the truth of God been presented to us. An aged Christian, who has happily feared the Lord from his youth, has thus heard his seven or eight thousand expositions, and earnestly enforced applications, of the most important portions of divine truth. Truth, the proper element of the soul, has been, in the gracious providence of God, thus largely communicated. How richly stored with it ought to be the understanding! How correct the conscience in all its judgments! How pure and elevated the affections in all their movements! Thus well acquainted with the divinely inspired Scriptures, which are so profitable for teaching, proving, rectifying, and establishing, ought not the man of God to be indeed complete, and to be so 'thoroughly furnished unto every good word and work,' that at all times, and in all things, he may do the will of God? Is it always so?-But I am not going to reprove. I will speak more immediately, though not indeed exclusively, to young converts, who desire to be 'built up in their most holy faith,' and 'standing perfect and complete in all the will of God,' to come 'unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.' See what a rich provision is made for you. Rejoice in it; but 'rejoice with trembling.' Recollect the doctrine of human responsibility in its reference to your privileges. And thus seeing at once your mercies, your obligations, and your accountability, are you not anxiously inquiring, (in common phrase,) how you may make the most of your opportunities? To assist you will be the object of the remainder of this paper.

In seeking profit from an institution like that of preaching, it is essentially necessary that its nature and design be so far at least considered, as they may bear on the question at present before us. The Scriptures make that design too obvious to require long comment. Preaching, indeed, is only available when used by the Divine Spirit as an instrument in carrying on his work; but still it is an

instrument adapted by the Supreme Intelligence for his intelligent creatures it is therefore calculated, as well as designed, to be an instrument in awakening, preserving, and increasing Christian feeling in the heart, and communicating Christian knowledge to the mind. To personal Christianity, an enlightened understanding and a fervent spirit are necessary; and the appointed instrument of bringing the soul into this state, and preserving us in it, is the ministry of the word. The 'sincere milk of the word' is given to us 'that we may grow thereby;' and then do we 'profit by the word preached,' when, by means of it, we grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.'

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How we may thus grow and profit by the ministry of the word, is a question to which I doubt not many valuable answers have been given, and are still given, regularly and constantly, to the members of our societies, by the ministers who labour among them and watch over them; feeling that to him from whom they have received their ministry, they must give account how they have 'fulfilled it.' One or two directions I wish now to give.

I have already said, that while the ministry of the word' is an adapted instrument, it is still an instrument which for its whole. efficacy depends on the PRESENT POWER of 'THE HOLY GHOST, THE LORD, and the LIFE GIVER.' I am not writing for preachers; but I may be allowed to say, that all who minister in holy things should deeply and continually feel,—and with a feeling actually and strongly operating,--that then only are they 'ABLE ministers of the new covenant,' when a Divine power accompanies all their ministrations. That, therefore, in the first place, they should be exceedingly careful as to the nature and character of their ministrations; that these be made the subjects of much and anxious thought; and that they be, as far as possible, made to possess 2 Scriptural fitness for the instrumentality which they are designed to constitute;—and, in the next place, the instrument being thus completely prepared, the bow well strung, the arrow well sharpened;--then, when industry has done all that it can do, let it be felt that all is utterly vain, unless the power of the Lord be present' with the exercise, nerving the arm that draws the string, and directing the arrow that speeds from the bow. That sacred presence, so essentially necessary, and so graciously promised, let prayer solicit, let faith expect. Such is the preacher's duty: let the hearer be careful practically to remember his. I lay it down as a fundamental principle in this inquiry, that the more we possess of the spirit of devotion, the more profit we are likely to receive from the sermon we are about to hear. If this be the case,-and can we hesitate as to its truth ?-let it not only be acknowledged in theory, but carefully remembered in practice. And is it not so? I will not answer the question directly. I will, instead, propose one or two others. Are all the members of our society careful to remember the approach of the hour of public worship, and to retire, either

into their closet, or, at least, into their own heart, for the purpose of self-recollection and prayer? Are they careful to be at the house of prayer exactly at the time? if possible, a little before it? Are they careful to join, with due solemnity and devotion, in what is strictly and properly the worship of God? In the former part of our public service we speak to God; in the latter, he speaks to us. Can we expect that he will speak to us, if we have been negligent in our approaches to him; or have, it may be, through carelessness, omitted them altogether?

And here I must advert to an important difference between the circumstances of earlier and modern Methodism. Originally, the religious services of the Methodists were rather appendages and auxiliaries to worship, than worship itself. It was supposed that the duties of worship had been elsewhere observed. Mr. Wesley himself considered the preaching of himself and coadjutors to be as the sermons before the University, in the University church; at which times the accustomed prayers are not read; as it is presumed that these have been both read and attended in the respective chapels of the different colleges. The people were gathered together to hear preaching. All the service had reference to this. The hymns were ordinarily selected so that their subject might be connected with that of the discourse: and the prayer was a brief address, in which a blessing on the ministry, in the present exercise of it, was earnestly solicited. Mr. Wesley, therefore, always recommended (and set an example of his own recommendation) short prayers. Not that he thought public prayers ought to be so, when they were considered as constituting public worship, but because he acted on the principle, that the Methodists heard preaching in his preaching houses and rooms, and worshipped elsewhere. Hence, a significant reason which he gave on one occasion against leaving the church amounted to this, the Methodists have no regular worship. A very different state of things now exists; we believe, in the order of Divine Providence, and according to the will of God. The Methodists are now become, by the growth and operation of Wesleyan principles and plans, a distinct body, enjoying all the privileges of a Christian church. Of course all the obligations and duties of a church are devolved upon them; and, among the rest, public worship in all its parts. Unhappily, I had almost said, a mode of speaking derived from the former practice still prevails, and sometimes, I fear, influences us. The minister is the preacher. Are we asked where we are going? The reply is, To preaching. Is there no danger in this mode of speaking, I will not say, that too much should be attributed to preaching, but too little to worship? It is both dangerous and wrong to compare duties among themselves, and to ask which is the most important. In the case before us, Christian obligation binds us to both; and I will therefore say to all whom it may concern, Still think highly of preaching, as an invaluable and divinely appointed instrument of spiritual profit and salvation: the work of