How Is the Word to Be Read and Heard, That It May Become Effectual to Salvation?

A. That the word may become effectual to salvation, we must
attend thereunto with diligence,7 preparation,2 and prayer ;a
receive it with faith and love,b lay it up in our hearts,0 and
practise it in our lives.d

y Prov. viii. 34: Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.

z i Pet. ii. i: Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, Ver. 2: As new-born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.

a Ps. cxix. 18: Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.

b Heb. iv. 2: The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 2 Thess. ii. 10: And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

c Ps. cxix. ii: Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

d Luke viii. 15: But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience. Jas. i. 25: But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

We must attend with diligence — Trench, in his seventh lecture on 7 he Sttidy of Words, as if he had had this very answer in his eye, says: “But ’ attentive ’ and ’ assiduous ’ are words which it is worth our while to realize what they mean. He then is ’ assiduous ’ who sits close to his work; he is ’ attentive ’ who stretches out his neck so that he may bring the organ of his hearing nearer to the speaker, and lose none of his words. And then what a lesson the word ’ diligence ’ contains! How good for all of us to be reminded, as we are reminded when we make ourselves aware of its derivation from diligo, to love, that the only secret of true industry in our work is love of that work!” And what is true of work is true of hearing and reading. Luke tells us that the Lord opened Lydia’s heart so that she attended to the things which Paul spoke. And in the same way Luther recommends us to pause at every verse of Scripture, and shake it as we shake the boughs of a tree when we wish to enjoy the fruit. “The name familiarly given by the people of New England to revivals of religion — ’ a religious attention,’ ‘a general attention to religion’ — indicates their nature. ... A revival of religion is nothing but the immediate result of an uncommon attention.” — Jonathan Edwards’ Memoirs.

preparation, and prayer — The Jews had such reverence for their holy Sabbath that they held the Friday afternoon sacred for its sake, and called the Friday afternoon the Preparation. Josephus tells us in his Antiquities that his fellow-countrymen refused to do any business after the ninth hour, three o’clock on Friday. To this day in many parts of the East the Friday bears the additional designation of the Preparation. And in many well-ordered households among ourselves, the Saturday evening has a special quietness and repose in preparation for the approaching Lord’s day. And the Catechism here teaches that before reading the word of God, and especially before going to the house of God to hear His word preached, the mind should be studiously and habitually put into a state of preparation befitting the solemnity and importance of the occasion. Q. Must a man neglect his duty, if his heart be not duly prepared for it? — A. No; for that would be to add a new sin to the former, and aggravate it the more. Q. Doth unpreparedness for the word always hinder its efficacy on the heart? — A. No; God sometimes is found of them that seek Him not. But it is a sin to neglect it, and needs pardon of God (Flavel).

receive it with faith and love — “The heritage of Scepticism is rather the settled spirit of doubt than the accumulated store of arguments” (Westcott). (See a noble passage in Stones of Venice, II. ii. 13, 14.)

lay it up in our hearts — “According to a man’s thoughts so are his affections inflamed. Multiplied thoughts inflame affections, and inflamed affections increase the number of thoughts concerning them” (Owen).

“Eye of God’s word, where’er we turn,
Ever upon us! Thy keen gaze
Can all the depths of sin discern,
Unravel every bosom’s maze:

Who that has felt thy glance of dread

Thrill through his heart’s remotest cells,

About his path, about his bed,

Can doubt what spirit in thee dwells?” — KEBLK.

practise it in our lives. From the heart’are the issues of life, and unless the truth be lodged in the heart, it is impossible it can be practised in the life. Practice is the end of all reading and preaching (Matt. vii. 24-27).

USE. — “A wise man will make better use of an idle pamphlet than a fool will do of Sacred Scripture” (Milton).

QUESTIONS.

1. Enumerate the four steps here set forth in reading or hearing the word unto salvation, and take note how each successive step is characterized.

2. Explain Shakespeare’s words, and apply them to the subject of preaching:

A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear

Of him that hears it, never in the tongue

Of him that makes it. (Cf. Matt. xiii. 9, 236;.

3. Flavel says that there are three duties that belong to the due manner of hearing, — some antecedent, some concomitant, and some subsequent. What are they?

4. Explain the rabbinical saying: A precept is the reward of a precept.