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METHODIST MAGAZINE,

AND

Quarterly Keview.

VOL. XIV, No. 2.

APRIL, 1832. NEW SERIES-VOL. III, No. 2.

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

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

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