The Central Presbyterian

Not Fed.

Not long ago, a pious old lady, as she was leaving the house of God, said to the preacher, in a desponding tone, "I haven't been fed."

"Well," responded he, kindly, "come this afternoon and you shall be fed."

The preaching was above her range of thinking. She could not digest strong meat. She craved milk. Yet many who heard the preaching in the morning were much better nourished and strengthened by the food then offered them, than by what was proffered them in the afternoon. With her, however, the opposite was the case.

This common incident led me to this train of reflection. Not fed! Who is to blame? Is it always the preacher? It belongs to him, certainly, to "feed the flock of God;" all of it, the weak as well as the strong. But is he responsible for more than furnishing the food? Must he feed and do the feeding, too? Was not the weak stomach of the good sister at fault in regard to the indigestible food? Milk for babes. But she was a veteran who had seen fifty years' service. Ought she not to have been strong enough for "strong meat?"

"Not fed." Is not the disposition of the hearer towards the preacher one prime reason why so few are fed? Had that good sister prayed for him that morning? Had she come to the sanctuary like a hungry sheep, willing to stretch her mind a little if the food happened to be high in the rack? Or was she so full of other thoughts, she loathed the food which cost her a little thought? Dr. Swaim, during his pastorate in Worcester, noticed that one of the members of the church by the name of Lamb was occasionally absent from his place on the Sabbath. Meeting him one day in the street, he said to him,--

"Bro. Lamb, I see your seat at meeting vacant sometimes."

"Yes," was the reply. "The truth is, Mr. Swaim, I have to go down to the Methodist meeting once in awhile to get fed; I don't always get fed up here."

"Well," replied the doctor, "perhaps the fodder is so high in the rack, the Lambs can't reach it."

A tender rebuke; for the doctor knew well that that was not the cause.

"Not fed." How many there are that are not fed! A little dislike to the manner of the preacher, or to the particular way his matter is presented, a little restlessness under his demands for their service, a little irritation because they cannot be the lords of his creations, a little assumption that they know better than he how to feed God's children with the heavenly manna,--any one of these states of mind induces good men to tread the food under foot, and go away complaining and barren.

"Not fed." All may be fed who will feed. There was never a sermon with truth in it which did not contain food sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to him who was ready to feed upon it. Reader, look well to your tastes. See to it that they are neither too delicate nor too gross.