1. The importance of attending the preached
word —
[We know not when it is that God intends to send his word home to our hearts ; and therefore we should always be found waiting upon him in the way of his appointment. The man who was healed at the pool of Bethesda had been there many years ; and if he had absented himself on the day that Jesus visited the place, he had lost the blessing that was designed for himp. However long therefore we may have attended at the house of God, apparently in vain, it becomes us still to tarry the Lord's leisure, and to expect the showers of his grace in due season.]
2. The danger of despising it —
[The text, though often interpreted as comprehending God's judicial purposes, does not properly relate to them ; for, as the rain is not spoken of as deluging the earth, but only as rendering it fruitful, so the parallel between the Gospel and the rain should be drawn only as relating to mercies, and not to judgments. Nevertheless we may notice in this place, that, as God sent his miracles to harden Pharaoh's heart, so he may, and often does, send his word to blind, and harden the hearts of proud opposers. This was the end of the commission given to Isaiahq; and, though it was not the primary intent of Christ when he preached to the people in parables, it consti- tuted a part of his design in relation to the proud, cavilling, and incorrigible Pharisees r: and the same end is accom- plished, though not primarily intended, in respect to thou- sands of infidels in every ages. Beware then, lest God " take you in your own craftiness :" for whether you receive his word or not, " it shall not go forth in vain :" if it be not " a savour of life unto life, it will prove a savour of death unto death1."]
3. The benefit of praying over it —
[It is not in the power of man to command a blessing on the word. " Paul may preach in vain, and Apollos water in vain, unless God give the increase"." But if we pray to God, he will send us such a word as shall be suited to us ; such a word as shall make us ready to think that the minister has received private information respecting us ; such a word as shall discover to us our whole hearts x, and constrain us to fall down on our faces, and confess that God is indeed present in his ordinances ?. The minister may draw the bow at a venture ; but God will direct the arrow between the joints of the
p John v. 1 — 9. i Isai. vi. 9, 10. r Luke viii. 10.
s Rom. xi. 8. Acts xxviii. 26, 27. * 2 Cor. ii. 16.
» 1 Cor. hi. 6, 7. x John iv. 29. r 1 Cor. xiv. 25.