Preparation to Hear

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1868

Preparation to Hear

PREPARATION TO HEAR.—Half the power of preaching lies in the mutual preparation. The minister must not serve God with that which costs him nothing, but it is not the minister alone who should “give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” There is a reciprocal duty on the part of the hearer. He should come with a purpose, and he should come with prayer. He should come hopeful of benefit, and bestirring all his faculties, that he may miss nothing which is “profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” He should come with benevolent prepossession toward his pastor, and with a friendly solicitude for his fellow-hearers.

And thus, as iron sharpens iron, so his intelligent countenance would animate the speaker, and, like a Hur, or an Aaron, his silent petitions would contribute to the success of the sermon.—Hamilton’s Royal Preacher.