darkening counsel by words without knowledge, during the half hour
that followed the enunciation of his text, need not here be told.
None was more fully conscious than himself of his utter failure to
give spiritual instruction to the waiting congregation. The climax,
so far as he was concerned, was yet to come. As he descended the
pulpit stairs, at the close of the service, some one slipped a piece
of paper into his hand. Glancing at the pencilled writing thereon,
he read the rebuking words:

"The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed."

How could he feed them? Are holy and divine things of such easy
comprehension, that a man may devote the whole energies of his mind
to worldly business during six days, and then become a lucid
expounder of heavenly, mysteries on the Sabbath? The influx of
intelligence into the mind of a speaker, is in exact ratio with the
knowledge he has acquired. He may have, without this previous
preparation, "free utterance," as it is called; but this utterance
brings no rational convictions; it sways only by the power of
contagious enthusiasm. Moreover, as in the case of Mr. Adkin, every
lay preacher takes with him into the pulpit a taint from worldly and
business contact, and his presence there must turn the thoughts of
many hearers from his clerical to his personal character--from the
truth he enunciates, to his practical observance thereof in daily
life. He may be judged falsely; but the fact of his blending the two
separate characters of clergyman and layman, forms an occasion for
false judgment, and detracts from the usefulness of the sacred
office.

Whether Mr. Adkin "held forth" again, we cannot apprize the reader.