2 of a Sermon Preached by the Rev. W. E. Godson, M.A., in Holy. Trinity Cathedral, on August 21
"Take heed therefore how ye hear."St. Luke VIII, 18.
That is very clear, definite injirugtion, given, by, Our Lord Himself; To. whom? "To those who hear, the preaching of His Gospel; to those who in modern speech form Christian congregations, On various occasions, He spent precious: time, in giving, instructions to His] disciples in the matter of preaching. Here He deals with the hearers. The preacher to-day comes in for a good, deal of-criticism, some of it Teasgnablo and given in a kindly 3 such criticism is of its helpfulness captious character, Bs more fully the magnificence of their theme, come down from the pulpit feeling how inadequately they hay dealt. with it, I wonder how. far eongtogations realize that they oftentimes make or mar a' sermon.
'Our Lord, in this parable, deals very Plainly' with certain characterjsticw-of congregations. So little do they change that His words are just} as applicable to-day as when they were spoken centuries ago. Notice referred to them!
Think over them, ther in, what. you can of their ignifieance.
(Cares, riches, pleasure Of the first.some people seem to have more than their share. If they are not received in the right spirit they are bound to injure the spiritual life.
Out of them grows despondency "and discontent. This means loss of faith and the habit of grumbling and.finding fault. How easily and quickly these habits grow, and how effectively they' choke up the arteries of the spiritual} life, Riches! Well! in these: days, ingly out here, with all the uncertainty of the outlook in the political and commercial world, one readily can understand with what} anxiety men regard the future. It is not always the multiplicity of riches that causes their chief danger to the growth of the spiritual life, though this is a prolific cause. It} may equally be caused by the anxiety attendant upon taking care of what little we may possess, or in acquiring, sufficient for future needs. There the warning stands. Our "Lord specifically _mentions T used to the people whose 1d to the highway wei spiritual life.
Power of Pleasure wan my mistake, You find Jas such hearers in the congregations Aw the sower went forth some reeds fell by the way-Hardened by constant traffic, there: was no chance for the seed to penetrate beneath the surface. Tt was trampled under foot, eaten by the birds, "Do not we find them to-day? With hearts harden. ed by. the constant traffic of worldly or selfish thoughts, what chance has the message of our Saviour to find resting place there?
thoughte- goon mike of with the seed as it exposed upon the hard and hardening surface Superficial Appreciation fa touch of a master hand ts Mwnich pictures this precious} ced Falling upon the light soil over. laying, the surface of rock just mnoath. What an exact description of some members of congr: How delighted they]
the singing and prayers ha mon, How helpful How thankful they are that they he new-found joy lasts well up to Monday morning, there may be! tomethng of it by Tuesday, but} Yemptation of some kind or another has boon too strong, and by Wednesday the spiritual life has sunk back Yo the old dead level. Tt has all boon so superficial no root, and the worst, about. it is that we are con-font to have it 80, Then there are hearers who a compared to. seed fallen amongst} thorns; -at least the effect of the Word upon them is the sume. They, Usten intelligently. There is growth, but side by side with this precious: seed other things are growing, and '20 powerful and pernicious are they, in their influence that they choke Dut the life of the seed. What are Yhese things? Our Lord mentions: Yhree. of these soul-destroying agencies.
Look at them! Read! be able to destroy it.
Pleasures! It is worse than non-nse to talk about kill-joy in connection with Our Lord, and the) influence of His teaching. What] Our Lord wants to see is the growth deep -spiritual joy that He nd- no. man can take away, find that in the heazt of each one of us, If in His day pleasures had so deadly an influence, what would say about their power to-da It is for us Christians to be ever] watchful lest they should come eceering a) our sacred tees trid degtypy, apinigual gray ur hearer these Of others with whort we have to do. The Christian can and does enjoy the ordinary Honeat pleasures of life with great a zest ay does any man the world, and he enjoys them all the more for not allowing them to intrude upon the deeper joys of the spiritual life, Then Our Lord refers to the seed which fell upon good ground. In Verse 15 He says:—"But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the: Word Keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." This good ground may once have been hard find rocky; and. over-grown with thorns. "And heart under. the in-Muence of the Holy Spirit may, like the good ground, bring forth good seed to the Glory of God, Failure sometimes from bad seed the Word of God," never account for ay be bad sowing, may be bad toil. Notice one other point." This. wonderful. seed. Evidently very sensitive to fis surroundings. How prayerfully watch-{al we should be Test we allow any influence to come into the heart) that will destroy it, o even hinder Fes full development. Thank God, as long as you and I abide by faith demos: Clint no power on earth shall be able to destroy it. It may hinder it, it may make its growth painful and slow, but it will never
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.