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A Hint

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 12, 1864

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 23, No. 20.

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A Hint.

THERE are some hearers who take special delight in telling their minister how much they are pleased with his sermons. And there are some hearers who take equal delight in showing their minister on what points in matter and manner they deem him defective. And both these classes of persons, though they may perhaps mean well, are to a sensitive minister annoyances. Few preachers are the better for being extravagantly commended, and few are profited by homiletical suggestions from those whom they know are incapable of writing or delivering a sermon themselves.
“Let such teach others, who themselves excel, And censure freely who have written well.”
One of the best compliments that was ever paid to a clergyman, was what was once said to Massilon by Louis XVI. “When I hear other preachers, I usually go home praising them; but when I hear you I go home condemning myself.” To none but to a faithful preacher could this in truth be said; and the highest and most valued compliment a parishioner can pay a pastor, is to obey the truths which his pastor delivers.