“It is this that ruins churches, that you do not seek to hear sermons
that touch the heart, but sermons that will delight your ears with their
intonation and the structure of their phrases, just as if you were
listening to singers and lute-players. And we preachers humor your
fancies, instead of trying to crush them. We act like a father who gives
a sick child a cake or an ice, or something else that is merely nice to
eat--just because he asks for it; and takes no pains to give him what
is good for him; and then when the doctors blame him says, 'I could not
bear to hear my child cry.' . . . That is what we do when we elaborate
beautiful sentences, fine combinations and harmonies, to please and not
to profit, to be admired and not to instruct, to delight and not to
touch you, to go away with your applause in our ears, and not to better
your conduct.”
―
John Chrysostom
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