Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-04-23

IT is very desirable that people shall
hear just this kind and no other. Bad
sermons are a crime, and poor ones are
unsatisfactory, and may be hindrance.
No one has right to be in the ministry
without exerting himself to the utmost
to preach what will be edifying and use
full to the Church. But there is diver
sity of view as to what constitutes pull
pit excellence. Looked at from the
point of view of professor of theology,
right structure and the observance of
certain rules of art may be the main
consideration. A literary expert will
require good language and a finished
style. A logical mind will want logic;
a poetical taste will demand pictures
and poetry. And so through all the
variety of profession, training, DISPOSE
ton and taste, and the whole diversity
in men and women, there will be differ
ent Judgment and criticism.
1t ought to be remembered, there
fore, that as much depends upon the
hearing as the preaching. There is as
much said in the Bible about hearing
well as preaching well. The soay to
hear is told more frequently and more
plainly. Ears are to hear with; men
are to take heed how they hear, and
if preacher is necessary to make
known the truth, he must be properly
heard if his teaching will do any
good. He who spake as never man
spake had but few results in CONVEX
sion by His ministry, not, certainly,
because there was aught wanting in
His utterances, but because men
would not appropriately hear Him.
And so always, in saving sinners and
edifying saints, it is just as necessary
that there shall be good attention and
a right use of that which is preached
rs that there shall be conscientious
and unexceptionable declaration of the
truth. 1t is not the preachers alone
who are responsible; every man who
hears, or who, having the opportuni-
ty, does not hear, must answer for his
conduct, and privileges in the day of
account.
Among Christians who consider what
is addressed to them with becoming
reverence there will be a difference OF
judgment as to what is good and profit
able. A man of advanced holiness,
who knows the deeper things of the
Spirit of God, may not be edited by
what, to some more youthful saint, will
be precisely what he feeds upon. On
the other hand, what is as honey to the
taste of the former will be but insipid-
ity to that of the latter. The pictures
that delight the child and warm his
soul in attraction toward the Gospel
may almost offend the inconsiderate
man of profound thought, who has for
gotten that he was once q child and
delighted more in the story of Joseph
than the Epistle to the Romans. The
one will hear sermon and say it was
gOod-the best he ever listened to; the
other will speak Of it as so much trash,
that ought not to be addressed to peo-
pie of Intelligence.
In other ways this difference ap-
pears. There are different conditions
of experience in the same person. To-
day he is in tranquil joy; tomorrow he
is fretted and perturbed. The lapse of
week has changed him from a state
of triumph to one of dependency. Life
is not a dead-level with him; il is un-
dulating, and sometimes broken and
motted with its lights and shades.
The instruction, therefore, that re-
! joices him one day may only try him
another one. The good sermon be-
comes poor one, the change being in
himself. 1t is not the same heart that
is receiving, though they are the same
lips that are speaking And thus it often
happens that Christian will 90 to
church for season liking all, for all is
/ good to him. Psalms, prayers and
preaching are all good; there is nothing
wrong, nothing Indifferent. The soul
abounding in grace receives and assim-
ilates everything, and grows strong on
meat that to the last scrap and fragment
is palatable and nutritious. The season
passes and all enjoyment is gone. Day
after day there is no real enthusiasm in
the soul, and, going through all the
forms as before, there is no real re.
sponse, The sermons are to them good
no longer; they have lost their eager
ness, their unction, their spiritual pow
er And yet at that very time the
preacher may be laboring and yearning
with hunger for souls that he knew
nothing about before. The spirit Of hi:
hearers has changed and cannot appre
ciate what it once received andrejoieeC
in as portion direct from God.
All this suggests that the best preach
ing requires the best hearing. While i
is the duty of the preacher to try tC
overcome inattention, to win men t.
sedateness and reverence and consider