The great mass of mankind does not love to think closely. They would prefer to do almost anything else. They are like schoolboys who shun the labor of study and go to be taught without having studied their lesson. What they are told they forget before the next recitation.
I shall address myself, in this lecture, to those, and only those, who will take the trouble to think. To address others would be a waste of time and strength. Those who will not think cannot be saved.
Charles Finney, Principles of Holiness, p 55.
Just a thought for Sunday morning; throughout the rest of the aforementioned lecture, Finney strongly exhorted his audience to think about what they believed, and why they believed it. He used pretty strong words, but then again, he obtained some great results from his preaching.
A word from Paul (emphasis added):
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that Day.
2 Timothy 1:12 NKJV
