hat there
are great spiritual realities, but they are not made clear to their
minds. The devouter portion of the people still pray, and on the whole,
live sober, righteous and godly lives; but multitudes are discouraged,
and take themselves away.

"The hungry sheep look up and are not fed."

They hear words, but get no ideas. Religion does not come to them from
the pulpit as a reality. It does not make itself felt as truth. Books
and lecturers on science treat of realities, and treat of them in words
that can be understood; but many books on religion, and many preachers,
seem to deal only in words. And the consequence is, many fancy religion
is a delusion, a fanaticism, a dream. Others believe there is something
in it, but they cannot conceive what it is. Yet teachers and preachers
appear not properly to understand why so many get weary of sermons and
religious books. Let them talk in plain good English, and say nothing
but what has some great Christian reality under it, and sermons and
religious books will be the most popular things on earth.

--I would never sacrifice Christian truth to conciliate the world; but I
would sacrifice everything at variance with Christian truth; and I would
present Christian truth itself in as intelligible and taking a form as
possible.

--The antinomian theology has had a terribly corrupting effect on many
members of churches. I meet proofs of it every day. God help me to do my
duty. Some of my hearers say to me, 'We come to church to be comforted,
and not to be continually told to do, do, do.' I do not wish people to
be comforted unless they will do their duty; and they will never _lack_
comfort if they _do_ do it. Comfort is for those who labor to comfort
and benefit others, and not for those who care only for themselves. I
try to make the easy-going, indolent and selfish professors miserable:
and in some cases I succeed. But I make others happy, thank God, by
inducing them to give themselves heartily to Christian work.

--Here are a few more good words from Baxter: 'Many proclaim the praise
of truth in general, but reject and persecute its various portions. The
_name_ of truth they honor, but the truth itself they despise.'

'Passion is a great seducer of the understanding, and strangely blindeth
and perverteth the judgment.'

'When passion hath done boiling and the heart is cooled, and leaveth the
judgment to do its work without clamor and disturbance, it is strange to
se