PREACHER AND PEOPLE
‘Other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.’
Preacher and people should be reminded by this parable that there is such a thing as a good soil, and good results which follow on the right hearing of the word.
I. Good soil.—Our Lord describes for us here the characteristics of good soil. He tells us what sort of man he is who profits by the Sunday sermon; the right hearer has an honest and good heart. This means that the man who has it is—
(a) Receptive. It may be well that the soil of our heart has ceased to become honest and good because we have not kept it informed or receptive or interested in the highest things which form the object matter of our intelligence. It is a matter of supreme indifference to many men whether the Creed be maintained in its integrity or not.
(b) Retentive. But the man with an honest and good heart is also retentive. Having heard the word he keeps it. This is the trouble: how to keep what is heard in face of the birds, and the pressure of the rock, under the adverse growth of thorns which spoil the results. What am I to believe? you ask; who am I to follow? We know that there are certain standards by which we measure all things. Anything which is contrary to the Apostolic Creeds which we have received must be wrong, whoever says it. Anything which is contrary to the traditions and accepted utterances of the Church must be wrong.
(c) Patient. Our Lord spoke of patience as a requisite for fruit-bearing. There never was a time when the preacher needed more to urge patience in those who hear his sermons. It is a day of quick sowing and speedy results. Creeds multiply as fast as the magazines which exploit them, and still the old pulpit goes droning on. The preacher starts with the faith once for all delivered to the Saints, and he demands from you that you seek no other Gospel. It is the unchanging Gospel which needs patience. The system of God is a system which postulates patience.
II. A great responsibility.—‘Take heed how ye hear.’ The responsibility of the preacher is immense, but there is a responsibility which rests with the hearer to offer that honest and good heart, to retain and develop with patience the seed which is to bear fruit unto everlasting life.
—Canon Newbolt.
Illustration
‘There are four different kinds of hearers in the world,—those like a sponge, that suck up good and bad together, and let both run out immediately; those like a sand-glass, that let what enters in at one ear pass out at the other, hearing without thinking; those like a strainer, letting go the good, and retaining the bad; and those like a sieve, letting go the chaff, and retaining the good grain.’