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SERMON XXVI.

READINESS TO HEAR, AND SLOWNESS TO SPEAK, MARKS OF GODLINESS.

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ST. JAMES, i. 19.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak."

THE Apostle James having declared, in the verse which goes before the text, that those who had really and truly received the Gospel in its power and full efficacy, were new creatures, as it were, -begotten again of the Father,draws in this verse a conclusion as to the manifestation which such persons would make of this blessed state into which they are thus translated -what effects it would work in them-what frame of mind it would throw them into. And this, says he, will be the consequence; this new position of theirs will make them "swift to hear" and "slow to speak." I think the character of true godliness, as we may gather it from the whole tenor of the Bible, is very clearly conveyed in this pithy and pregnant sentence. That man's religion therefore is of the right sort, according to St. James -shows itself after the right fashion-which makes him more desirous of being a hearer than a speaker, more desirous to listen and lay to heart, than to talk and win the ear.

The Gospel of Christ is meant to make us good-quietly

good; and when it produces that effect in us, it does its office, though we should not be able to say three words about it. Indeed the very first glance we take of it suffices to establish this point; for it was meant for the whole world

-to the poor it was to be preached in an especial manner. But how few are the inhabitants of the world, compared with the whole number, who have any pretensions to learning or knowledge or eloquence. Must not the vast majority of mankind be too much engaged in providing against the actual necessities of life, to have any leisure for such things? Yet, to all these the Gospel of Christ addresses itself. It addresses itself therefore to them in their common character as men- as creatures who have all, whatever their condition, sins that want putting down, lusts that want bridling, eyes that want opening to see the things of God. There is no man that has a heart in him, that has not an unclean heart in him; and therefore there is no man to whom the Gospel is not directed, for it is calculated to cleanse the heart. I say this consideration alone is enough to show what the Gospel of Christ aims at that its great object is to purify unto God a peculiar people, zealous of good works -that it is an application to the inner man. Therefore he who conceives it right, regards it in that point of view; takes it to himself as a thing fitted for his own evil statea remedy suitable to his own inward disease; and his labour and pains is to use it as such. This is a very unostentatious end to apply it to, and one which attracts very little notice; but it has God's approval on it, who sees it thus working in secret, transfiguring the soul on which it is thus acting without observation; and He will, by and by, reward it openly.

Let every man, says St. James, be "swift to hear,"—that is, let him be a good listener to the precepts and doctrines of the

Gospel; thinking, whilst he listens, how it speaks to himself

-how this point or that point makes at him—how it says unto him, here and there, I have a word unto thee-and that man will by and by become a living example of what the Gospel is; which will have assumed, as it were, a bodily presence in him. Let such a man, when he comes to the house of God and joins in the prayers of the congregation, make those prayers his own. They are perpetually directed against some sin or other which he knows at the moment besets himself; or in behalf of some blessing or help, of which he knows at the moment he stands in as great need as any man there. Let him then throw his heart into those devotions when he hears them put up by the minister's mouth-let him meet them well on his own part, and take the personal interest in them he should-and though no man, under such circumstances, will be at hand to applaud him as powerful in making prayer, or admire him for his gift, he will have the more satisfactory approval of his own heart, which will feel lightened and relieved and kindled and refined by such an exercise; and God, who is greater than his heart, and knoweth what is going on there, will shed abroad in it His peace-—and that man's religion will not be vain.

So again, when he listens to the preacher, he will listen with a view of drawing thereout what advantage he can― what may benefit his soul—and will not trouble himself about catching him in his words, or detecting what is the exact shade of his doctrine, or how he should have insisted upon this point more, and upon that point less; and here should have talked about faith, and there should have talked about works, and so on; but, as I say, the man who is swift to hear," in the sense recommended by the Apostle, will be content to listen to the preacher, as if he was in earnest about saving his soul, and came to church for that purpose

only; and meant to go away again to put in practice whatever he thought fitted his case. And though, here again, the exercise he will have been discharging will have been as quiet and unpretending a business as it is possible to imagine, insomuch that no man alive shall know what has been going on in him whilst he sat to hear, still that man will have been spending his time exceedingly well in church. And whilst others, who heard in another spirit, may have gone away more knowing, as they think, he will have gone away more wise; and whilst they may be talking of the preacher, he will be pondering himself.

Is not this the frame of mind which our Blessed Lord Himself expected of His hearers when He was the preacher? Was it for critics in godliness that He was talking, or was it for men and women who were listening in an honest and good heart, and with the intent of turning what they heard to the account of their lives-when he preached "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heavenblessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earthblessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy—blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God-blessed are the peace makers, for they shall be called the children of God" -and so on? Surely this was very simple preaching; and if any of the Scribes and Pharisees were present at it—who sat in Moses' chair, and taught to make the people wonder, instead of to make them good-they might have thought it milk for babes; yet if such precepts be listened to with a view to their application, it would be no small matter to follow the sermon out. A blessing is pronounced on the poor in spirit; but if a hearer had determined to possess himself of that blessing by chastening himself into that poverty of spirit—that humbling of himself—that mortifying of his own pride and pretension—he would have found

that he had a good deal to do before he wanted another sermon on another subject, having perfected himself so far in that. A blessing is pronounced on the pure in heart; but if a hearer determined again to possess himself of that blessing by observing the terms—if on hearing the precepts he set himself to work to cleanse his heart, and in that way strove to make the sermon his own-he would find that it was a very pithy sermon, after all, that had been preached to him, and he would not be disposed to cry out against the simplicity of the doctrine. So very different a view will people take of what they hear, according to the spirit in which they hear it. If they hear with a view to apply, to amend their own hearts and lives by what they hear (which is what the Apostle understands by their being swift to hear, and which is the manner of hearing amongst those who are truly godly), then are there few sermons that will not satisfy them, will not serve the purpose of making them better, be they simple as they may. But if they hear with a view to decide upon the merits of the preacher - upon his choice of subjects, or mode of handling them; and, instead of counting themselves as sinners to whom he is crying aloud, regard themselves rather as spectators of his efforts, such persons are not in a frame of mind to be benefited by any sermon whatever, shallow or deep, by any preacher. It will be with them as it was with the Athenians when St. Paul preached amongst them; they would know the new doctrine whereof he spake, because they spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing: but it would no more tell upon them than the wind.

Now this same quality of being "swift to hear," which belongs to those who, according to the Apostle, are begotten of the Father with the word of truth, couples itself naturally with that other quality which he speaks of as