Tasters, Not Buyers

“The hearer’s life is the pi-eacher’’ s best conuncndation. They that praise the man but do 7iot practise the matter are like those that taste that they may commend them, not buy theyt” What a worry such folk are to dealers who are in earnest to do business! Time is wasted, labour lost, hopes disappointed. Oh that these loafers and idlers would take themselves off from our market! We set forth the precious produce of heaven’s own vintage, and hope that they will buy of us; but no, they lift the glass, and talk like thorough connoisseurs, and then go off without coming to a bargain. Sermons which we have studied with care, delivered with travail, prayed over, and wept over, are praised for such minor matters as taste, accuracy, and diction, and the truth they contain is not received. We cannot bring our hearers to a decided bargain, though our wares are the best that heaven can supply. Will it always be so Reader, has it been so with you? Is it to be so still.’*