It is a strange folly in multitudes of us, to set ourselves no mark,
to propound no end in the hearing of the Gospel.--The merchant sails
not merely that he may sail, but for traffic, and traffics that he may
be rich. The husbandman plows not merely to keep himself busy, with no
further end, but plows that he may sow, and sows that he may reap
with advantage. And shall we do the most excellent and fruitful work
fruitlessly,--hear only to hear, and look no further? This is indeed a
great vanity, and a great misery, to lose that labour, and gain
nothing by it, which, duly used, would be of all others most
advantageous and gainful: and yet all meetings are full of this!