All is lost that is poured into a cracked dish
Charles Spurgeon · John Ploughman's Pictures; or, More of His Plain Talk for Plain People
INTO A CRACKED DISH.
COOK is wasting her precious liquor, for
it runs out almost as fast as it runs in.
The sooner she stops that game the better.
This makes me think of a good deal of
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204 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
preaching; it is labor in vain, because it
does not stay in the minds of the hearers,
but goes in at one ear and out at the other.
When men go to market they are all alive
to do a trade, but in a place of worship they
are not more than half awake, and do not
seem to care whether they profit or not by
what they hear. I once heard a preacher
say, " Half of you are asleep, half are in-
attentive, and the rest ." He never
finished that sentence, for the people began
to smile, and here and there one burst out
laughing. Certainly, many only go to
meeting to stare about.
"Attend your church, the parson cries,
To church each fair one goes ;
The old ones go to close their eyes,
The young to eye their clothes."
You might as well preach to the stone
images in the old church as to people who
are asleep. Some old fellows come into
our meeting, pitch into their corner, and
settle themselves down for a quiet snooze
as knowingly as if the pew was a sleeping-
car on the railway. Still, all the sleeping
at service is not the fault of the poor people,
THE CRACKED DISH. 205
for some parsons put a lot of sleeping stuff
into their sermons. Will Shepherd says
they mesmerize the people. (I think that
is the right word, but I'm not sure.) I saw
a verse in a real live book by Mr. Cheales,
the vicar of Brockham, a place which is
handy to my home. I'll give it you.
" The ladies praise our curate's eyes,
I never see their light divine,
For when he prays he closes them,
And when he preaches closes mine."
Well, if curates are heavy in style, the peo-
ple will soon be heavy in sleep. Even when
hearers are awake many of them are for-
getful. It is like pouring a jug of ale be-
tween the bars of a gridiron, to try and
teach them good doctrine. Water on a
duck's back does have some effect, but ser-
mons by the hundred are as much lost upon
many men's hearts as if they had been
spoken to a kennel of hounds. Preaching
to some fellows is like whipping the water
or lashing the air. As well talk to a tur-
nip, or whistle to a dead donkey, as preach
to these dull ears. A year's sermons will
not produce an hour's repentance till the
grace of God comes in.
2o6 JOHN PLOUGHMAN'S PICTURES.
We have a good many hangers on who
think that their duty to God consists in hear-
ing sermons, and that the best fruit of their
hearing is to talk of what they have heard.
How they do lay the law down when they
get argifying about doctrines ! Their relig-
ion all runs to ear and tongue : neither their
heart nor their hand is a scrap the better.
This is poor work, and will never pay the
piper. The sermon which only gets as far
as the ear is like a dinner eaten in a dream.
It is ill to lie soaking in the gospel like a
bit of coal in a milk-pan, never the whiter
for it all.
What can be the good of being hearers
only ? It disappoints the poor preacher,
and it brings no blessing to the man him-
self Looking at a plum won't sweeten
your mouth, staring at a coat won't cover
your back, and lying on the bank won't
catch the fish in the river. The cracked
dish is never the better for all that is poured
into it: it is like our forgetful heart, it
wants to be taken away, and a new one put
instead of it.