SERIOUSNESS

Seriousness is not a virtue. It would be a heresy, but a much more sensible heresy, to say that seriousness is a vice. It is really a natural trend to lapse into taking oneself seriously, because it is the easiest thing to do. It is much easier to write a good Times leading article than a good joke in Punch. For solemnity flows out of men naturally; but laughter is a leap. It is easy to be heavy; hard to be light. Satan fell by the force of gravity.

G.K. Chesterton

Sermons,
Listening to

Dear Mrs. S.

As it is our trial to live in a day wherein so many contentions and winds of strange doctrine abound, I hope you will watch and pray that you may not have itching ears, inclining you to hearken after the novel, singular, and erroneous sentiments of men of unstable minds, who are not sound in the faith. I have known some who have gone to hear such men, not for the sake of edification, but to hear what they had to say. They thought themselves too well established in the truth to be hurt by it. But the experiment (without a just and lawful call) is presumptuous and dangerous. In this way many have been hurt, or overthrown. Error is like poison; the subtlety, quickness, and force of its operation is often amazing. As we pray not to be led into temptation, we should take care not to run into it wilfully. If the Lord has shown you what is right, it is not worth your while to know how many ways there are of being wrong.

Next: I advise you, when you hear a Gospel sermon, and it is not in all respects to your satisfaction, do not be too hasty to lay the whole blame upon the preacher. The Lord’s ministers feel (it is to be hoped) their own weakness and defects, and the greatness and difficulty of their work. They are conscious that their warmest endeavors to proclaim the Savior’s glory are too cold, and their most urgent messages to the consciences of men are too faint. Indeed, they have much to be ashamed of; but it will be useful for you, who are their listener, to consider whether the fault may not possibly be in yourself. Perhaps you thought too highly of the man, and expected too much from him; or perhaps you thought too little of him, and expected too little. In the former case, the Lord justly disappointed you; in the latter, you received according to your faith. Perhaps you neglected to pray for him. Accordingly, though he might be useful to others, it is not at all strange that he was not useful to you.

Lastly, as a hearer, you have a right to try all doctrines by the word of God; it is your duty to do so. Faithful ministers will remind you of this. They will not wish to hold you in a blind obedience to what they say, upon their own authority. They would not be lords over your conscience, but helpers of your joy. Prize your liberty in the Gospel, which sets you free from the doctrines and commandments of men, but do not abuse it to the purposes of pride and self. There are hearers who make themselves, and not the Scripture, the standard of their judgment. They attend not so much to be instructed, as to pass their sentence. To them, the pulpit is the bar at which the minister stands to take his trial before them; it is a bar at which few escape censure, from judges both severe and inconsistent. For as these censors are not all of a mind, and perhaps agree in nothing so much as in the opinion they have of their own wisdom, it has often happened that in the course of one and the same sermon, the minister has been condemned as a legalist and an antinomian, as too high in his notions, and too low, as having to little action, and too much. Oh! this hateful spirit, that prompts hearers to pronounce ex cathedra as if they were infallible!

I pray God to preserve you from such a spirit, and to guide you in all things.

John Newton

On Hearing Sermons

I am glad to find that the Lord has at length been pleased to fix you in a favored situation, where you have frequent opportunities of hearing the Gospel. This is a great privilege; but like all other outward privileges, it requires grace and wisdom to make a due improvement of it. The great plenty of ordinances you enjoy, though in itself a blessing, is attended with snares, which, unless they are carefully guarded against, may hinder rather than promote your edification. I gladly embrace the occasion you afford me, of offering you my advice upon this subject.

Faithful ministers of the Gospel are all the servants and ambassadors of Christ. They are called and furnished by his Holy Spirit; they speak in his name; and their success in the discharge of their office, whether it is more or less, depends entirely upon his blessing. Thus far they are all upon a par. But in the measure of their ministerial abilities, and in the peculiar turn of their preaching, there is a great variety. There are “diversities of gifts from the same Spirit; and he distributes to every man severally according to his own will.” Some are more happy in alarming the careless, others in administering consolation to the wounded conscience. Some are set more especially for the establishment and confirmation of the Gospel doctrines; others are skillful in solving points of application. Others are more excellent in enforcing practical godliness; and others again, having been led through depths of temptation and spiritual distress, are best acquainted with the various workings of the heart, and know best how to speak a word in season to weary and exercised souls. Perhaps no true minister of the Gospel is wholly at a loss upon any of these points. But few, if any, are remarkably and equally excellent in managing them all. As to their manner; some are more popular and appealing, but at the same time more general and diffuse; while in others the lack of life and earnestness in delivery is compensated by the closeness, accuracy, and depth of their compositions.

In this variety of gifts, the Lord has a gracious regard to the different tastes, dispositions, and wants of his people. By their combined efforts, the complete system of God’s truth is illustrated, and the good of his church promoted to the highest advantage. His ministers, like officers assigned to different stations in an army, have not only the good of the whole in view, but each one his particular post to maintain. This would be more evidently the case, if the remaining depravity of our hearts did not give Satan too great an advantage in his subtle attempts to hurt and ensnare us. But, alas! how often has he prevailed to infuse a spirit of envy or dislike in ministers towards each other, and to withdraw hearers from their proper concerns by dividing them into parties. He stirs them up to contend for a Paul, an Apollos, or a Cephas, for their own favorites, to the disparagement of others, who are equally dear to the Lord, and faithful in his service! You may think my preamble long, but I shall draw my counsel chiefly from it.

As the gifts and talents of ministers are different, I advise you to choose for your stated pastor and teacher one whom you find most suitable, upon the whole, to your own taste, and whom you are likely to hear with the most pleasure and advantage. Use some deliberation and much prayer in this matter. Entreat the Lord, who knows better than you do yourself, to guide you where your soul may be best fed. When your choice is fixed, you will do well to make a point of attending his ministry regularly at the stated times of worship on the Lord’s day. I do not say that no circumstance will justify your going elsewhere on certain occasions, but I think more seldom you are absent the better. What I have observed of many, who run about unseasonably after : “As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is the man that wandereth from his place.” Such unsettled hearers seldom thrive: they usually grow wise in their own conceits, have their heads filled with notions, acquire a dry, critical, and censorious spirit; and are more intent upon disputing who is the best preacher, than upon obtaining benefit to themselves from what they hear.

John Newton

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“Take heed what you hear,” Mark 4:24. We must hear nothing with approval except what we know to be the word of God. We must, therefore, be well acquainted with the Scriptures ourselves, and by them test the things which we hear, whether they are the word of God or not, as the men of Berea did, Acts 17:11. “Take heed how you hear,” Luke 18:18. That which we know to be grounded upon the Scriptures we must receive, “not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God,” 1 Thess. 2:13. We must with reverence attend to it; we must in our hearts believe, and we must in our lives obey it.

William Gouge

As an aside, no music is more sweet to a gospel preacher than the rustle of Bible pages in the congregation. Many times when I have been in the pulpit and I have read a passage of Scripture, nobody has followed me to see if I was quoting correctly. I strongly urge you to take your Bibles with you when you go to church. What is the best way of hearing the Word? Is it not to search and see whether what the preacher says is really according to the Word of God? Thus, I entreat you to search the Scriptures to see if what is being taught to you is true.

C.H. Spurgeon

Do we prize it in our judgments? Do we receive in into our hearts? Do we fear the loss of the Word preached more than the loss of peace and trade? Again, do we attend to the Word with reverential devotion? When the judge is giving the charge on the bench, all attend. When the Word is preached, the great God is giving us his charge. Do we listen to it as to a matter of life and death? This is a good sign that we love the Word.

Thomas Watson