How Much did You Take?
By Secretary
"Haven't we had a fine sermon?" said a lady to another in our hearing, while passing out with the congregation at the close of a recent Sabbath service. "Yes," replied the other, "I think we have—how much of it did you take?" The sermon was really a good one, upon the duty and blessedness of self-sacrifice in behalf of others. The argument was well put, the diction was almost unexceptionable, and there were passages in the discourse of genuine eloquence. But the lady who so warmly praised it was fashionably dressed, accustomed to live quite at her ease, and so far as we could learn, not particularly given to sacrificing her substance or her convenience for the benefit of anybody else. Yet she was captivated with the sermon—it was a "fine" one, she thought. She had been interested; she had been entertained; perhaps she would have said she had been edified; but while we remained within hearing, she had not framed a reply to the question, "How much did you take of it?" We do not know that she replied at all.—Secretary.