Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1882 — Preaching and Practice. [ARTICLE]

Preaching and Practice.

It is so easy to theorize and lay down laws for others to follow! Shakspeare touched a cord in every human heart when he said he would rather teach twenty how to act than be one of the twenty to follow his own teaching. We know all about it, but we seldom do it. That over-knowledge of what is the duty of every one except yourself to do, and that prevalent unwillingness to make a personal application of your knowledge, is what rains ordinary huma i nature. A college professor lectured his students—this by way of illustration—on the science of skating. When on the pond himself his feet seemed to have a sudden antipathy toward each other. They tried, apparently, to take in all parts of the pond at once. He shot ahead with great velocity and then threw his arms wildly about trying to balance himself, but in vain, for in a moment a dull thud was heard and the professor of physics became a professor of astronomy. “Well, well,” he said humbly, as he rubbed the back of his head, “I am, may be, up in theory, but I must confess that I am down in practice.” Are we all equally willing to own ourselves defeated on our own ground?