Notwithstanding the importance here attached to preaching, many who listen to sermons are really no better for it. Indeed, our Saviour more than intimates in the text that such may be the case, and hence His emphatic warning, "Take heed, therefore, how ye hear." Several classes of persons, to be met with in every congregation, should attend to this caution.
I. In the first rank of these may be placed the indifferent hearer.
II. Another class who should give heed to the warnings of the text are represented by the critical hearer.
III. A third class of church-goers who derive little benefit from preaching may be described as captious hearers. Note three simple rules in regard to hearing sermons: (1) Endeavour always to listen to the preaching of the Gospel with a mind free from prejudice. (2) Sermons should be heard with a desire to profit by them. (3) Sermons should be heard with humble dependence on God's Holy Spirit, to open the understanding and to touch the heart.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths,p. 334.
References: Luke 8:18. Preacher's Monthly,p. 213; Parker, Christian Commonwealth,vol. vi., p. 503; J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College,vol. i., p. 87; C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical,p. 157; J. Kelly, Christian World, Pulpit,vol. xviii., p. 51.Luke 8:22-25. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 249. Luke 8:23. Ibid.,vol. ii., p. 253.