read it over so many times. I should love dearly to read it
aloud to my friends, some of whom are seriously inclined; it is
so good, and I am sure that they have never heard it, it fits
their case exactly, and we should enjoy it so much together,--but
I instinctively despair of getting their ears. They soon show,
by signs not to be mistaken, that it is inexpressibly wearisome
to them. I do not mean to imply that I am any better than my
neighbors; for, alas! I know that I am only as good, though I
love better books than they.

It is remarkable that, notwithstanding the universal favor with
which the New Testament is outwardly received, and even the
bigotry with which it is defended, there is no hospitality shown
to, there is no appreciation of, the order of truth with which it
deals. I know of no book that has so few readers. There is none
so truly strange, and heretical, and unpopular. To Christians,
no less than Greeks and Jews, it is foolishness and a
stumbling-block. There are, indeed, severe things in it which no
man should read aloud more than once.--"Seek first the kingdom of
heaven."--"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth."--"If
thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the
poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven."--"For what is a
man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"--Think
of this, Yankees!--"Verily, I say unto you, if ye have faith as a
grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove
hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be
impossible unto you."--Think of repeating these things to a New
England audience! thirdly, fourthly, fifteenthly, till there are
three barrels of sermons! Who, without cant, can read them