p. 85 | Hearers Only by N. Y. Observer

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Feb 7, 1884

"Hearers Only."

By N. Y. Observer

If we receive God's word it will save us. It is able to do it; but it does not always do it, because it is not always received when heard.

It is well to be quick to hear; but that is not enough. It is of no use to hear except for the purpose of doing good. Mere listening never saved a soul, nor can save it. There must be doing also.

There are a great many mere hearers in the world. If one goes to church for the purpose of applying the word to other people, or because he likes to hear the minister's pleasant voice or charming rhetoric, but does not plan to do anything he is told to, he is a mere hearer, and will get no profit by it. Such a man's religion is vain.

The "hearers only" are terribly deluded. It does no good to bring one's ears to church unless one brings his heart also. Many think it does, and they hire good pews and look reverent enough in their seats. But God has no favor to show to those who do not respond to his word by obeying it.

Reading treatises or hearing lectures on agriculture does not make a man a farmer. He must get his land and go to work, and raise corn and potatoes, or he will starve when winter comes. Devoutly listening to the gospel will not save a man in the last day, except as he has also tried to live a good life.—N. Y. Observer.