Sermon 1847. Before Sermon, At Sermon and After Sermon

(No. 1847)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, JUNE 28, 1885,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which isable to save your souls. But be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." James 1:21,22.

BRETHREN, it is a good thing to be under the sound of the Word of God. Even if the very lowest motive should induce personsto come to hear the Gospel, it is, nevertheless, a good thing that they should come. We have heard of some who have even cometo steal-and yet the Word of God has stolen into their hearts. In many cases, in olden times, spies were sent to hear theProtestant divines who preached the Gospel-and these took notes of all that was said, with a view to accuse them of falsedoctrine that they might be punished-yet in several cases, the spies, themselves, were converted! Such is the power of theGospel of Christ, that it woos and wins, even, its greatest enemies. He that comes near to its fire, even with the intentto quench it, may find himself overcome by its heat.

Master Hugh Latimer, in his quaint manner, when exhorting people to go to church, tells of a woman who could not sleep formany nights, notwithstanding that drugs had been given to her. She said that if they would take her to her parish church shecould sleep, there, for she had often enjoyed a quiet slumber under the sermon. And he goes the length of saying that if peopleeven come to the sermon to sleep, it is better than not to come at all for, he adds, in his fine old Saxon, "they may be caughtnapping." It is even so. A sick man does well to live where there are physicians, for one day he may be healed. If men arein the heat of a battle, they may be wounded-if they come where Gospel arrows are shot, they may fall under them. Plants thatgrow in the open are likely to be watered when the shower falls. We dare not say to any man who wills to enter the House ofPrayer, "You must not come because your motive is gross and low." No, you are welcome, anyway! Who knows but that, being inthe way, God may meet with you. Being where His Truth is preached, you may hear it-and "faith comes by hearing, and hearingby the Word of God."

Yet it will strike you at once that though it is well to come to the hearing of the Word of God in any case, yet it is betterto come in a better way. We should endeavor to gather the most we can from the means of Grace and not pluck at them at random.A farmer may feel that there will be sure to be some crop upon his land if he does but seed it, but, if he is a wise man,he is not satisfied with a bare crop-he fertilizes his land heavily and tills it well so that it may bring forth a large returnto him-for in these times, the largest harvest is no more than he needs. So, my Brothers, let us so use the holy ordinanceof preaching that we may extract the largest possible amount of gold from the ore. Let us so come into the solemn assemblythat we may hope to meet with God, there, for this is the chief end of our gathering together. And let us so behave ourselvesbefore the coming, in the coming and after the coming, to the sanctuary, that we may gain the greatest possible profit byour coming together. To hear the Word of the Lord is often made, of the Spirit of God, to be life to dead souls and the mosteminent means of further quickening to those who are already alive unto God. Let us not lose a grain of the blessing throughour own fault. The Word of the Lord is precious in these days-let us not trifle with it.

This morning I shall handle my text with the earnest design of teaching you how to hear. Oh, that the Spirit of God may graciouslyhelp me! First, let us note what to do before the sermon-"Lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness." Secondly,let us learn how to behave during the sermon-"Receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls."And thirdly, here is the instruction for after the sermon-"Be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves."

I. Let us consider the fit and proper preparation for listening to the Gospel, or what is to be done BEFORE HEARING. It willstrike every man who thinks about it, that there should be some preparation of the heart in coming to the worship of God andto the hearing of the Gospel. Consider who He is, in whose name we gather, and surely we cannot rush together without thought!Consider whom we profess to worship and we shall not hurry into His Presence as men run to a fire. Moses, the man of God,was warned to take off his shoes when God only revealed Himself in a bush-how should we prepare ourselves when we come toHim who reveals Himself in Christ Jesus, His dear Son? There should be no stumbling into the place of worship half-asleep;no roaming there as if it were no more than going to the theater. We cannot expect to profit much if we bring with us a swarmof idle thoughts and a heart crammed with vanity. If we are full of folly, we may shut out the Truth of God from our minds.We should make ready to receive what God is so ready to bestow. If he was condemned, who came to the wedding feast not havingon a wedding garment, what shall we say of those who habitually come into the festivals of our Lord and never think of beingmeet to be partakers of His royal dainties? What shall we say of those who defile the temple of God by never seeking to havetheir souls washed from the filthiness of their sin? Certainly there should be a serious preparation when a sinful creaturedraws near to the most holy God!

Brothers and Sisters, when I think of our engagements throughout the week, who of us can feel fit to come into the holy placeof the tabernacles of the Most High? I mean not into these tabernacles made with hands, but into the inner spiritual templeof communion with God. How shall we come unto God until we are washed? After traveling so miry a road as that which runs throughthis foul world, can we come unto God without shaking the dust from off our feet? Can we be busy with earthly cares all thesix days of the week and be ready for the holy Sabbath without a thought? I think not! Even in the heathen temples beforethe solemn mysteries began, the herald cried, "Far hence, you profane! Far hence, you profane!" And should not some heraldcry to our wandering thoughts, "Far hence, vain thoughts, for God is

here!"

When the hour is come for drawing near unto the glorious Lord before whom angels veil their faces as they cry, "Holy, holy,holy," it becomes us to be devout and humble, holy and earnest. Yes, Brothers and Sisters, if we were always occupied withDivine worship; if we never knew thought or care except for His Glory; if we were altogether dissociated from the entanglementsand defilements of the world, I should not be so earnest to speak of preparation before hearing the Word of God! But, alas,it is not so! We are men of unclean lips and we dwell among a people of unclean lips! We have not yet come into the holy countrywhere everyone that salutes us is either saint or angel. We have not yet cut off all the Canaanites-we still have need towatch against them daily. Because of the sin which dwells in us and around us, we have need to wash ourselves in the laverat the tabernacle door before we may come near unto the Most High.

There is a common consent among mankind that there should be some preparation for worship. I see the visible signs of it here,today. Before the Sabbath dawned, you began to prepare clean linen and brighter garments than those of common days. It isbut an outward and common matter, but still, within the shell there lies a kernel. Man puts off his ordinary weekday garmentsand puts on his best apparel for the Sabbath because, by instinct, he feels that he should pay some reverence to his God.I fear this change of clothing full often degenerates into a wish to look good before your fellows, but the underlying meaningshould be this-"I am going up, this day, to the worship of my God. I will not go, therefore, either in uncleanness of bodyor of apparel, but will put on the best raiment, that I may show respect to my God and to the assemblies of His house."

My counsel to you is cleanse your hearts rather than your garments! Go before God in newness of spirit rather than in newnessof clothing. If of old the Prophet said, "Rend your heart, and not your garments," so may I say, today, Put on the garmentsof righteousness and holiness by the Grace of Christ Jesus our Lord, rather than external garments which do but adorn theflesh. Yet, I say, even in that change of raiment there is an admission that there should be God and to worship His holy name.God grant that we may not be forgetful of some kind of special preparation when we go up to hear the Word.

In making this preparation, our text tells us that there are some things to be laid aside. What does it say? "Therefore layaside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness." Some things must be removed before the Word of God can be received.And what are these things? The text mentions all filthiness. Now sin of every kind is filthiness. It does not strike the mostof men so-they call it pleasure! I have even known them to think it an ornament. But in the judgment of the Spirit of God,who speaks here by His servant, James, every sin is filthiness. In the sight of every renewed man, all sin is

filthiness and nothing better. Ever since the day when the Spirit of God took the scales from his eyes, the godly man seessin to be a foul thing-abominable in the sight of a holy God. Sin in the thoughts is filthiness of the thoughts! Sin in wordsis filthiness of speech! Sin in action is filthiness in life! Everywhere, the transgression of the Law is a foul and pollutingthing, which neither God nor good men can bear.

Now, Brothers and Sisters, in coming before God, by the help of His Spirit, every sin must be confessed, forsaken, and hated.By faith in the precious blood of Jesus, it must be washed out, for we cannot come before God with acceptance while iniquityis indulged. We must remain apart from God till we are apart from filthiness. Filth, you know, is a debasing thing, meet onlyfor beggars and thieves-and such is sin. Filth is offensive to all clean persons. We cannot bear close contact with a personwho neglects the washing of his body or of his clothes, so as to become a living dunghill. However poor a man is, he mightbe clean. And when he is not, he becomes a common nuisance to those who speak with him, or sit near him. If bodily filthinessis horrible to us, what must the filthiness of sin be to the pure and holy God?! I cannot attempt to express the abominationof sin to God! He hates it with all His soul. If we are to be acceptable before God, there must be no keeping of favoritesins, no sparing of darling lusts, no providing for secret iniquities-our service will be filthiness before God if our heartsgo after our sins. He says, "Be you clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord." He would not have the vessels of His sanctuarytouched with filthy fingers.

Have we well considered this? Lay aside, then, all filthiness unless you wish to arouse the wrath of God. If we are offensiveto God, all we do becomes offensive to Him. Remember how it is written that, "the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering:but unto Cain and to his offering, He had not respect." The Lord's acceptance is, first, to the person and, then, to the sacrifice-toAbel, first, and to his offering afterwards. If God has no delight in a man's person, then has He no delight in his services.Think not, you unclean, that your hymns and praises, however sweetly they are sung, can be music in His ears! Think not thatyour forms of prayer can ever ascend like sweet perfume before Him-they are a stench to Him-and an abomination, so long asyou, yourselves, are not washed from your filthiness! The filthiness of sin is to be put aside if we would hear the Word aright.

Moreover, sin is not only offensive, but it is dangerous. We have learned at last, I hope, though some are still ignorantof the fact, that filthiness means disease. Men begin to see that unless we are clean we cannot be healthy. He who harborsfilth is making a hot-bed for the germs of disease and thus he is the enemy of his family and of his neighborhood. The filthyman is a public poisoner, a suicide and a murderer! Sin is the greatest conceivable danger to a man's own soul-it makes aman to be dead while he lives-yes, corrupt before he is dead. Sin is a mortal disease and he that bears it about him is notfar from Hell-while he continues to love it, he can never enter Heaven. Will you come before God and tread His courts withthis leprosy upon your foreheads? Will you bring your infectious diseases into His Temple? They must be laid aside. Oh, forGrace to do this!

There are at least three sins that are intended, here, and one is covetousness. Hence the desire of unholy gain is calledfilthy lucre because it leads men to do dirty deeds which otherwise they would not think of. If the lust of wealth entersinto the heart, it rots it to the core! The Apostle cries, "Your gold and your silver are cankered!" Truly, the man becomesfull of cancer and cankered, too. Now, when a man's heart is full of filth, when the desire to get gain and to get it anywayhe can is strong on a man, he is in a very unfit condition to profit by hearing the Gospel. You cannot get the Gospel intohim-a golden bolt fastens the door. He is somewhat in the condition of the sea captain I have heard of who went out afterwhales and when he landed and heard the Gospel preached, he said to the man of God, "Sir, it was of no use your preachingto me, for all the while I was thinking about where I should find a whale. There is no room for anything else in my mind butwhales. I must have whales and, for the time, I can think of nothing else but whales." So it must be with the man who is hotfor gain-his farm and his merchandise are in his heart -crowding out everything else. He who has a stall in Vanity Fair isin an unfit state to buy the Truth of God since his merchandise is vanity. A covetous man is an idolater and cannot receivethe gift of God till he has mastered his bosom sin. He is too foul to draw near to the Lord! God help him to escape from theidolatry of riches.

Then, with peculiar correctness, lustfulness may be spoken of as filthiness. I need not enlarge. Does not Nature, itself,teach us that the indulgence of our animal passions, whatever form that indulgence may take, whether of drunkenness or lewdness,is a condition that makes a man unfit for the reception of the pure Word of God? How should spotless purity come and dwellwith that man whose life is brutish indulgence? How should the thrice Holy Spirit come and dwell

in that heart which is a den of unclean desires? Did the men of Sodom profit by the teaching of Lot? Shall a man come fromthe chamber of lust to the house of the Lord? No, Brothers and Sisters. We must lay apart all filthiness if we are to worshipGod in spirit and in truth.

But in the connection of my text, the filthiness meant is especially anger. Read it and you will see. "The wrath of man worksnot the righteousness of God; therefore lay aside all filthiness." Some persons, when they are angry, will say things thatnever ought to be repeated, or even said for the first time. It was so, no doubt, in James's day even more than in our own-thenangry men let fly horrible epithets and abominable insinuations which were, indeed, a superfluity of naughtiness. Now, thechild of God is to subdue his anger, wrath and malice. How can you accept the Word of Peace while you are at enmity with yourbrother? How can you hope to find forgiveness under the hearing of the Word of God when you forgive not those who have trespassedagainst you? We would have you pray before you come into this house on the Sabbath morning or evening-and see to it that youcome in the spirit of gentleness and meekness! Only thus will you receive the engrafted Word. The wrath of man is so filthya thing that it cannot work the righteousness of God! Nor is it likely that the righteousness of God will be worked in theheart that is hot like an oven with passion and malice. A revengeful, bitter and malicious spirit is little likely to imbibethe sweet forgiving spirit of the Gospel. God help us, then, to lay aside all filthiness and especially all enmity.

But it is added, "and superfluity of naughtiness." What does that mean? Any kind of naughtiness in a child of God is superfluous-iniquityought not to be within him! "Superfluity of naughtiness," or the outpouring of evil, is unnecessary. It is an excrescenceupon a child of God. The phrase here used differs not in meaning from the first epithet of the text-it gives another viewof the same thing. You have seen a rose bush which, perhaps, was bearing very few roses, and you half wondered why. It wasa good bush and planted in good soil, but its flowers were scanty. You looked around it and, by-and-by, you perceived thatsuckers were growing up from its roots. Now, these suckers come from the old, original briar on which the rose had been grafted-andthis rose had a superfluity of strength which it used in these suckers. These superfluities, or overflows, took away fromthe rose, the life which it required, so that it could not produce the full amount of flowers which you expected from it.These superfluities of naughtiness that were coming up here and there were to the injury of the bush.

Children of God, you cannot serve the Lord if you are giving your strength to any form of wrong! Your naughtinesses are springingfrom the briar stock of your old nature and the best thing to do is to cut off those suckers and stop them as much as possible,so that all the strength may return into the rose-and the lovely flowers of Grace may abound. Oh, that God's people, whenthey come up here on the Sabbath, may first have undergone that Divine pruning which shall take away the superfluity of naughtiness,for there cannot be grafting without a measure of pruning! The gardener takes off from a certain part of the tree, a shootof the old stock, and then he inserts the graft. There must be a removal of superfluities in order that we may receive withmeekness the engrafted Word which is able to save our souls. This is what is to be put away.

The garments spotted with the flesh and infected with disease are to be taken off and laid aside. We are to wear them no moreif we desire to profit by the Word which we hear. We are not to lay up these to put them on again, but lay them aside amongthe offal of Tophet's fire-with the strong desire never to touch them again. To the fires we condemn these filthy things!What have we to do with filthiness, now that we have been begotten by the will of God to be the first fruits of His creatures?You who are the children of a holy God, what have you to do with naughtiness, or any such superfluity? God help you to shakeoff sin as Paul shook off the viper into the fire!

Why is this? Why is a man, as he comes to hear the Gospel, to see to this? I take it because all these evil things preoccupythe mind. Whether it is covetousness, or lewdness, or anger, in addition to the pollution which these bring, they also possessthe thoughts, so that they are not likely to be blessed while hearing the Word of God. These are the rocks which prevent theseed from entering the mind. These the birds which devour that which is sown. These are the weeds which choke the upspringingshoots. Therefore, lay these aside. If you bring your measures to this place filled to the brim with chaff, how can you expectto have them filled with wheat? If we come here with this filthiness about us, how can we expect that the pure and incorruptibleWord of God shall be sweet to us?

Moreover, sin prejudices against the Gospel. A man says, "I did not enjoy the sermon." How can you? What have you been enjoyingduring the week? What flavor did last night leave in your mouth? "I cannot stand that man," says one.

And if you could, it would be an evidence that the man was not faithful! Can Ahab love Elijah? I remember seeing one get upand go out in hot indignation at what I had said, which happened to come personally home to him, though the man was a strangerto me. What I had said was the pure Truth of God and I could not be sorry that an ill-living man was indignant at it, sincethis was the only homage that such as he could pay to purity! Had he but known it, there was therein a manifestation to himselfof what his nature was and in what condition he was. Do you think Christ's servants desire to please those who will not pleaseGod? "Oh," said one to a Puritan Divine, "my lord heard you, this morning, and he is mightily offended at your remarks uponprofane language, for my lord is given to drop an oath, now and then, in his ordinary speech." What said the Puritan Divine?He answered, "Sir, if your lord offends my Lord, then your lord ought to be offended and I cannot say less than I have said."

If any men are offended with the Gospel, it is because they offend God. It is almost invariably the case that when personsgrow skeptical, who once professed to be religious, and begin picking at this and that, there is a secret evil in their liveswhich they thus try to cover from their own consciences. The devil tempts them to rail at the ministry because the Gospelpresses hard upon their guilty consciences and makes them feel uneasy in their sins. If you are to hear God's Word with pleasureand profit to yourselves, you must, "lay aside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness," for these things will prejudiceyou against the Word of God and render you incapable of that lively appreciation of it which is so necessary to profitingthereby. God bless these words of mine and may many of you who have come carelessly here at different times, henceforth seekto come with preparedness into the assembly of God's people.

II. Secondly, I will talk a little about DURING HEARING. How shall we act while listening to the Word? "Receive with meeknessthe engrafted Word, which is able to save your souls." The first thing, then, is receive. That word, "receive," is a veryinstructive Gospel word-it is the door through which God's Grace enters us. We are not saved by working, but by receiving-notby what we give to God, but by what God gives to us-and we receive from Him. In the hearing of the Word, there should be areceiving of it, not into the ears only, but into the understanding, into the heart, into the conscience, together with alaying-up of this good treasure in the memory and the affections. You must receive the Word of God, or it cannot bless you.For, Sirs, the Word of God is a feast, but what comes of it if a man only looks at the banquet? Shall he not go away as emptyas he came if he does not receive it? The preaching of the Word of God is as a shower from Heaven, but what happens to thesoil if the raindrops fall but none are absorbed into the soil? Of what use is the shower if none is drunk in by the thirstyfurrows? A medicine may have great healing power, but if it is not received, it does not purge the inward parts of the body.There must be a receiving of any good thing before the goodness of it can be ours.

I love, when I read the Bible, or hear the Word, to throw the doors of my soul wide open-yes, and to open all the windowsof my heart. My soul cries, "Come in, most blessed Spirit; come in, Divine Life. You shall not say there is no room for Youin the inn! Come, take possession of every chamber of this house of mine and be Master of it from now on and forever." I prayyou, my Brothers and Sisters, do not block up your souls against the incoming tide of the Gospel! On the contrary, break downthe dams and let the river flow into you till you are filled with it! Receive the Word of God! Many men are not profited bythe Word because it does not penetrate them, but is like water flowing down a slab of marble. The Truth of God must soak intothe heart if it is to bless the heart! May the blessed Spirit give us a sweet receptive-ness of the Truth, for, otherwise,it is of no use to hear it.

Then it is added, "receive with meekness." Many do not receive the Gospel because they are not of a meek and teachable spirit.They come up to God's house, but the only seat they will occupy is the Judgment Seat. One would imagine them to be the godof God by their bold talk! Judge not the Word of God, I charge you! You may judge me as you like- small matter shall thatbe to me, for we are not anxious as to men's judgment-our judgment is with the living God. If the preacher truly declaresthe Word of God, woe unto the man who sits in judgment upon it-this same Word shall judge him at the Last Great Day! We standat the bar to be tried by God's Word, searched and sifted-but woe unto us if, rejecting every presence of meekness, we ascendthe tribunal and summon God, Himself, before us! The spirit of critics ill becomes sinners when they seek the Lord's mercy.

His message must be received with teachableness of mind. When you know it is God's Word, it may upbraid you, but you mustreceive it with meekness. It may startle you with its denunciations, but receive it with meekness. It may be there is somethingabout the Truth which, at the first blush, does not commend itself to your understanding. It is, perhaps, too

high, too terrible, too deep-receive it with meekness. This is not the spirit of the present age, but it is the spirit whichthe living God requires of us. It is by receiving with meekness that we receive the Truth of God in the power of it and soit is able to save our souls. Unless you are converted and become as little children, you cannot enter into the Kingdom ofHeaven. The door of Heaven is open to those who sit at Jesus' feet and learn of Him. You are not His servant unless He isyour Master. You cannot be said to be His disciple if you question His teaching, for in the questioning of Christ's teachinglies the rejection of His Person. To doubt Jesus is treason against the authority He claims over every human heart. Receivewith meekness if you would be blessed with Divine Grace.

What is this which is to be received? "Receive with meekness the engrafted Word." We are not bid to receive with meeknessmen's words, for they are many, and there is little in them. But receive with meekness God's Word, for it is one, and thereis power in each Word which proceeds out of His mouth. One Word of God created the heavens and the earth! By the Word of God,the heavens still stand! One Word of His shall, before long, shake not only earth but also Heaven! Therefore, hear with meeknessthat Word; that Word which testifies of sin and of its sure punishment; that Word which testifies of Grace most large andfree-and of an Atonement provided by the Only-Begotten Son of the Father-by which sin is put away in consistency with justiceand holiness. Receive with meekness the Word of the Lord in its entirety and unity. Reject no part of it, but receive thewhole.

Any little particle of God's Word, so far as we know it, is precious, and should be highly esteemed by us. The odds and ends,and corners and fragments of the Divine Word are to be received by you and by me-and there is a lack of meekness in us ifwe begin to pick and choose, and cut and carve the Divine Word. Who are we that we should say, "This or that is not essential"?Who are you, O man, that you should decide what is essential or otherwise? He who gave the Word did not write trifles! Itis essential that you receive the Word of the Lord as supreme and perfect! And it is essential that you are lost if you dowillfully reject any portion of that which the Most High deigns to reveal to men. Receive with meekness the one, only, andindivisible Word of the Lord.

It is called "the engrafted Word." The Revised Version has "the implanted Word," which is, perhaps, more literal than theAuthorized translation. And it puts in the margin, "the inborn Word," which gives another idea and yet conveys the same sense.I will keep to our old and well-beloved version and read it, "engrafted Word." When a graft is to be made, the first thingis to make a cut or gash. Nobody ever received the Word of God into his heart, to be engrafted there, without being cut andwounded by the Truth of God. It needs two wounds to make a graft-you wound the tree and you wound that better tree which isto be grafted in. Is it not a blessed grafting when a wounded Savior comes into living contact with a wounded heart? Whena bleeding heart is engrafted with a bleeding Savior? Engrafting implies that the heart is wounded and opened-and then theliving Word is laid in and received with meekness into the bleeding, wounded soul of the man. There is the gash and thereis the space opened by it. Here comes the graft-the gardener must establish a union between the tree and the graft. This newlife, this new branch, is inserted into the old stem, and they are to be livingly joined together.

At first they are bound together by the gardener and clay is placed about the points of junction. But soon they begin to growinto one another and only then is the grafting effectual. This new cutting grows into the old and it begins to suck up thelife of the old and change it so that it makes new fruit. That branch, though it is in the grafted tree, is altogether ofanother sort. Now, we need the Word of God to be brought to us in a similar fashion-our heart must be cut and opened-and thenthe Word must be laid into the gash till the two adhere. Then the heart begins to hold to the Word, to believe in it, to hopein it, to love it, to grow to it, to grow into it and to bear fruit accordingly! "Christ lives in me," said the Apostle. Isnot that a wonderful thought? The daily Incarnation of Christ in the Believer, or, in other words, the new Eternal Life livingin us and producing fruit after its own kind, while we live in it-and the fruit is our own. Christ is come in all the newnessof His life and is living in me! Oh, blessed grafting! "Receive with meekness the engrafted Word."

Once more, you are to receive it by faith, for you are to regard the word as being able. Believe in the power of God's Word-receiveit as being fully able to save your souls from beginning to end! Two ways it does this-by putting away your sin as you acceptthe blood and righteousness of Christ-and by changing your nature as you accept the Lord Jesus to be your Master and yourLord, your life and your all. There is such potency in the Word of God, that if it is received into the heart, it will effectuallysave the soul! It will not merely give you a hope of being saved, but really save you-save

you now, save you through life, save you to all eternity! Oh, with what ears ought men to listen to a Word which can savetheir souls! With what open mouths ought they to drink in this Living Water! How wisely might we wish to be like sponges,to suck it all up, or like Gideon's fleece, to be saturated with the dew of Heaven! How we ought to wish to be like the plowedground which is broken up and pulverized, so that every drop that falls may soak into it! Oh, that the new life that is cometo us would put out the old life of the flesh, so that our life should no longer be after the old fashion, but in all newnessof power! Let us rejoice to have the Word engrafted in us.

This is how to behave at the sermon. Oh, what need have we of the Holy Spirit to help us to hear the Truth as well as to prepareus before we hear it!

III. Lastly, and very briefly, let us think of AFTER THE SERMON. "Be you doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceivingyourselves."

First, the command is positive-"Be you doers of the Word." Oh, dear Sirs, I come to this pulpit oftentimes and speak withyou, but as I come here, my heart is more and more burdened with this desire-that mine may not be an unprofitable ministryto you! I shall be useless to you unless you are doers of the Word as well as hearers. Sirs, you have heard about repentanceand the putting away of filthiness-repent, then, and let your filthiness be put away! May God the Holy Spirit lead you todo so-not only to hear about it-but do it. You have heard us preach continually concerning faith in the Lord Jesus Christand you know all about believing-but have you believed? Sirs, have you believed? If not, to what use is it for us to cry,"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved"? We are to admonish you concerning all those blessed duties whichspring out of that living faith which works by love-but it is nothing to hear about these virtues unless you possess them!Doing far surpasses hearing!

I believe that with a very little knowledge and great doing of what we know, we may attain to a far higher degree of Gracethan with great knowledge and little doing of what we know. The man who knows how to keep shop makes no profit by his knowledgeif he does not keep a shop. The doctor who knows how to cure the sick is not, therefore, a healer if he never has a patient.The man who knows how to teach children, but never teaches them, is not an instructor of youth. If a schoolmaster teachesthe little he does know, he may be a better teacher than a great philosopher who keeps all his wisdom to himself. We valueclouds by their rain, and men by their actual doings! The world is always looking to the church, not so much to hear her teachingsas to see her doings. Few ask, "What is the doctrine taught at such a meeting house?" The ungodly world cries, "Forget thedoctrine! What good is done there?"

If the people who attend there are mean, false and hypocritical, the world condemns the tree which yields such fruit! Thebulk of men do not read the Bible, but they read you-and if they do not come to hear the minister preach the Gospel, yet theysay, "These people who hear him are no better than other people, and why should we trouble to go and listen to him?" The ministergets the blame which should rightly belong to those who are hearers but not doers of the Word of God! Oh, may the EternalSpirit work in us all to will and to do of His own good pleasure! There is nothing done by these Sundays. There is nothingdone by these pulpits! There is nothing done by these pews! There is nothing done by these vast gatherings unless our hearersare doers of the Word of God! Practice is the harvest-the rest is but the plowing and the sowing.

Observe that the command is put negatively. The text says, "not hearers only." Those who are hearers only are wasters of theWord. What poor creatures hearers are, for they have long ears and no hands! You have heard of him who, one day, was discoursingeloquently of philosophy to a crowd, who greatly applauded him. He thought he had made many disciples, but suddenly the marketbell rang and not a single person remained! Gain was to be made and, in their opinion, no philosophy could be compared topersonal profit! They were hearers till the market bell rang and then, as they had been hearers only, they quit the hearing,also! I fear it is so with our preaching-if the devil rings the bell for sin, for pleasure, for worldly amusement, or evilgain-our admirers leave us right speedily! The voice of the world drowns the voice of the Word! Those who are only hearers,are hearers but for a time. Some of those now before me are hearers only. We cannot mark your houses by putting a cross uponyour doors and writing on them, "Lord, have mercy upon us," but if I did so, London would seem to be smitten with the plague!

Oh that you would cease from this mocking of God and ruining of yourselves! Remember, if any man will be lost, he will mostsurely be lost who heard the Gospel and refused it! Write that word in great capital letters-if any soul will be lost emphatically,it is he who has been, for years, a hearer only, a hearer where thousands have believed unto eternal life!

Over the cell of such a man write, "He knew his duty, but he did it not"-and that cell will be found to be built in the verycenter of Gehenna-it is the innermost prison of Hell. Willful rejection of Christ ensures woeful rejection from Christ! Takeheed, you that deny Him entrance now, lest-

"How they deserve the deepest Hell

That slight the joys above!

What chains of vengeance must they feel

Who break the bonds of love!"

The text closes with this solemn word-"deceiving yourselves." Whereupon says Bishop Brownrig, "To deceive is bad, to deceiveyourselves is worse, to deceive yourselves about your souls is worst of all." Alas, there are many in that sad condition!A syllogism may be bad and yet it may look like logic-and such are the hopes which men fashion out of a bare hearing of theWord of God! It is very easy, when you get well accustomed to the Gospel, au fait at it, as they say, to be able to twistit so as to make it seem to favor you, though it condemns you. He who wills to be deceived can feign an acquittal out of asentence of death! Many think it is all right with them, when it is all wrong with them. They always hear the Gospel-how canthey be castaways? They sit under a thoroughly evangelical Divine-how can they be reprobates? They know what is what-theywill not consent to hear false doctrine-they have a discriminating faculty and will not abide unorthodox teaching.

I am very glad they will not, but they seem to make a god of this discernment. Alas, it is a mere idol! Hundreds believe thatbecause their minister is unquestionably sound in the faith, therefore they are also sound. As they have the good sense tohear him, surely they are first-rate people and the Lord will overlook their faults! Oh, Sirs, be not such fools! Do not deceiveyourselves in that way, for there is no truth in this comforting conclusion! The better that which you hear, the more guiltyare you if you do not practice it! And the plainer and more straight the Gospel which is taught you, the more inexcusableare you if you do not receive it! When the Gospel comes to you with a heavy knock at the door of your heart, the more terribleyour crime if you bolt and bar your door against it, or say, "When I have a more convenient season I will send for you."

God grant to each one of us that when we go home we may attend to the doing of the sermon! You know the old story-I am halfashamed to repeat it, but it is so pat to the point. When Donald came out of church sooner than usual, Sandy said to him,"What? Donald, is the sermon all done?" "No," said Donald, "it is all said, but it is not begun to be done yet." Let my sermonbe done in your chambers by prayer and in your lives by holiness! Let it be done all through the week by our, each one, seekingto put away all filthiness! Let us cling to the holy Christ, desiring to live His life and breathe His Spirit. God grant itmay be so with you all, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON-James 1.