'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.--MATT. xiii. 8.
This saying was frequently on our Lord's lips, and that in very
various connections. He sometimes, as in the instance before us,
appended it to teaching which, from its parabolic form, required
attention to disentangle the spiritual truth implied. He sometimes
used it to commend some strange, new revolutionary teaching to men's
investigation--as, for instance, after that great declaration of the
nullity of ceremonial worship, how that nothing could defile a man
except what came from his heart. In other connections, which I need
not now enumerate, we find it. Like printing a sentence in italics,
or underscoring it, this saying calls special attention to the thing
uttered. It is interesting to notice that our Lord, like the rest of
us, had to use such means of riveting and sharpening the attention
of His hearers. There is also a striking reappearance of the
expression in the last book of Scripture. The Christ who speaks to
the seven churches, from the heavens, repeats His old word spoken on
earth, and at the end of each of the letters says once more, as if
even the Voice that spoke from heaven might be listened to
listlessly, 'He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith
to the churches.'