ON HEARING THE WORD.

DEAR BRETHREN,

THE subject on which we addressed you, at our last anniversary, was the proper method of Reading the Word of God; as a natural sequel to which, we beg leave, on the present occasion, to suggest a few hints of advice respecting the duty of Hearing it.

Preaching is an ordinance of God not entirely confined to the christian dispensation. From the Old Testament history, it appears that Ezra, upon the return of the Jews from Babylon, assembled them in the streets of Jerusalem, and ascending a stage, or pulpit, for the advantage of being better seen and heard, read the law in the ears of the people, and gave the interpretation thereof. It is probable that he did little more than, agreeable to the natural import of the phrase interpretation, translate, paragraph by paragraph, the Hebrew original into the Syriac, or Chaldee, which had become, during a captivity of forty years, the vernacular language of the Jews. From that time, however, synagogues were erected in all the cities

throughout Judea, and regular officers appointed to read, first the Pentateuch, and, after the persecution by Antiochus, the Prophets, and explain them in ample paraphrases or comments. Such

was the origin of preaching.

When the fulness of time was come for God, in his infinite mercy, to send forth his Son, his appearance was first announced by John's proclaiming in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord; which, after a short time, was succeeded by the personal ministry of Christ and his apostles, with whom the dispensation of the gospel, properly speaking, commenced. After his resur

rection, our Lord extended the commission of the apostles to all nations, saying, Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; or, as you have it in Mark, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

Upon the formation of christian churches, an order of men was appointed in each society for the express purpose of preaching the Word and administering the sacraments: wherein the wisdom and kindness of the Great Head of the church is eminently conspicuous; for such are the necessary avocations of life, so little the leisure most christians possess for the acquisition of knowledge, and such the deficiency of many in the elementary parts of education, that they will always, under God, be chiefly indebted to this appointment for any extensive acquaintance with divine truth.

The privilege of reading the Scriptures in our native language is of inestimable value; but, were it much more universal than it is, it would not supersede the necessity of hearing the Word: for there are not only difficulties in the Bible which require to be elucidated, and seeming contradictions to be solved, but the living voice of a preacher is admirably adapted to awaken attention, and to excite an interest, as well as to apply the general truths of revelation to the various cases of christian experience, and the regulation of human conduct. When an important subject is presented to an audience, with an ample illustration of its several parts, its practical improvement enforced, and its relation to the conscience and the heart insisted upon with seriousness, copiousness, and fervour, it is adapted, in the nature of things, to produce a more deep and lasting impression than can usually be expected from reading. He who knows how forcible are right words, and how apt man is to be moved by man, has consulted the constitution of our frame, by appointing an order of men, whose office it is to address their fellow-creatures on their eternal concerns. Strong feeling is naturally contagious; and if, as the Wise Man observes, as iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend; the combined effect of countenance, gesture, and voice, accompanying a powerful appeal to the understanding and the heart, on subjects of everlasting moment, can scarcely fail of being great.

But, independently of the natural tendency of the christian ministry to promote spiritual improvement, it derives a peculiar efficacy from its being a divine appointment. It is not merely a natural, it is also an instituted means of good; and whatever God appoints, by special authority, he graciously engages to bless, provided it be attended to with right dispositions, and from right motives. The means of grace are, as the words import, the consecrated channels in which his spiritual mercies flow; and, as the communication of spiritual blessings always implies an exertion of divine power, so these become the stated instrument, or occasion of its exercise. These are emphatically his ways, in which he is wont to walk with his people. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways. Though the Spirit bloweth where it listeth, where the gospel is not preached the effects of his operation are rarely to be discerned, and we witness few or no indications of a renewed character out of the bounds of Christendom. From the history of religion, in all ages, it appears that the Spirit is accustomed to follow in the footsteps of his revealed Word; and that, wherever his work lies, he prepares his way by first communicating the Oracles of God. When he proposed to take out a people for his name from among the Gentiles, the first step he took was to commission the apostles to preach the gospel to every creature. To this

*Isaiah lxiv. 5.