II. HEARING THE GOSPEL. "Hear, and your soul shall live. "Isa. lv. 3. A simple duty, is it not? But it may be the beginning of your salvation. Nay, in this duty of hearing, in the Bible sense of both hearing and heeding, there may be wrapt up the fullness of the blessing of Christ. It is, indeed, just this simple: that, first of all, where you sit, coming hither from night to night, you are exhorted to hear the Gospel; and it is just this full of blessing that, if you hear according to the Word of God, your soul shall live. We want to emphasize the old prophet's exhortation this second evening of these evangelistic services. So much depends on hearing. Whatever more of duty is preached to you, must grow out of this note of the Gospel. Whatever further step you take in the Way of salvation, must have before it this first step of hearing. There is the luminous promise "Your soul shall live." To realize it, there is the need of doing what Isaiah exhorts us to do"Hear." It is a continuous and an emphatic note in the Bible. It comes in so many times, and in so many ways now with a warning, now with a promise, then a climax of doctrine, then a picture of danger, often a Scripture of rational argument or precept, always a deep-toned voice in the ear and heart of man for responsibility under God's judgment. "The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God"-there is a sublime stroke of the Gospel's power to wake man up to a sense of his obligation to God; and the simple duty and the rich promise are coupled by the lips of Jesus—“and they that hear shall live." "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do?" It is a scene in real life. The sword of the Spirit was puncturing the consciences of a crowd of sinners; it was done as they heard the Apostle's homethrust proofs of the authority of Christ, the risen Lord. Such a duty of hearing, such a way of doing it, was once a chain of logic under Paul's pen. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have. not believed? and how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear, without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?" And the Apostle draws a conclusion that stands forever as a shining proof-text of the origin of faith, against all revival mysticisms of doctrine: "So belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." Such a duty of hearing, the tremendous consequences of hearing, were once vividly pictured by the Master: "Every one therefore which heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock. And every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, shall |