'Now ye have heard what is meant by this "first
card," and how you ought to "play" with it, I purpose again to
"deal" unto you "another card almost of the same suit," for they
be of so nigh affinity that one cannot be well "played" without
the other, &c.' 'It seems,' says Fuller, 'that he suited his
sermon rather to the TIME--being about Christmas, when cards were
much used--than to the text, which was the Baptist's question to
our Lord--"Who art thou?"--taking thereby occasion to conform his
discourse to the "playing at cards," making the "heart triumph."'
This blunt preaching was in those days admirably effectual,
but it would be considered ridiculous in ours--except from the
lips of such original geniuses as Mr Spurgeon, who hit upon this
vein and made a fortune of souls as well as money. He is,
however, inimitable, and any attempt at entering into his domain
would probably have the same result as that which attended an
imitation of Latimer by a country minister, mentioned by Fuller.
'I remember,' he says, 'in my time (about the middle of the
seventeenth century), a country minister preached at St Mary's,
from Rom. xii. 3,--"As God has DEALT to every man the measure of
faith.
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