January 24

Be listening

“Incline your ears to the words of my mouth” (Psa. 78:1).
“Their ears are dull of hearing” (Acts 28:27).
“Let these sayings sink down into your ears” (Luke 9:44).

I have a phonograph into whose sensitive gelatine cylinders I dictate my literary work. One busy day, I dictated a large amount of matter, filling up every cylinder. I spent nearly two days getting through a great amount of literary labor, and felt very much relieved that it was off my hands.


But when my typist proceeded to copy the messages which I had spoken into these cylinders, she could not understand the words, they were all jargon and confusion. The reason was very simple. I had neglected to shave off the former dictation before giving the new message. I had really dictated a lot of matter into the ears that were already filled and, therefore, it had made no impression. My work was lost, my labor was in vain. But I learned a lesson that was worth all it cost, and that is, that we must be empty before we can be filled. God cannot speak His messages into full ears. The Holy Ghost cannot pour His fullness into those who are already full.—A. B. Simpson.

Among the things that this day brings
Will come to you a call,
The which, unless you’re listening,
You may not hear at all:
Lest it be very soft and low,
Whate’er you do, where’er you go,
Be listening.

Then whatsoe’er the call may be,
To service small or great,
To cross the seas and speak God’s love,
To smile, to rule a state—
When God shall come and say to you,
“Here is the thing that you must do,”
Be listening.

Nothing in life should be dreaded so much as that the soul should ever lose its sensitiveness to God; that God should ever speak and find the ear just dull enough to miss what He has said; that God should have some active will for some human will to perform, and our heart be not the first in the world to be ready to obey.—Henry Drummond.

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