Do not judge a minister

Do not judge a minister . . .

(Thomas Brooks, "The Unsearchable Riches of Christ")

"Consider carefully what you hear." Mark 4:24

It is sad to see how many preachers in our days, make 
it their business to enrich men's heads with high, empty, 
airy notions; instead of enriching their souls with saving 
truths. 

Fix yourself under that man's ministry, who makes it his 
business, his work to enrich the soul, to win the soul, and 
to build up the soul; not to tickle the ear, or please the 
fancy. This age is full of such light, delirious souls—who 
dislike everything—but what is empty and airy.

Do not judge a minister . . .
  by his voice, nor
  by the multitude who follow him, nor
  by his affected tone, nor
  by his rhetoric and flashes of wit;
but by the holiness, heavenliness, and spiritualness 
of his teaching. Many ministers are like empty orators, 
who have a flood of words—but a drop of matter.

Some preachers affect rhetorical strains; they seek abstrusities, 
and love to hover and soar aloft in dark and cloudy expressions, 
and so shoot their arrows over their hearers' heads—instead of 
bettering their hearers' hearts. Mirthful things in a sermon 
are only for men to gaze upon and admire. He is the best
preacher, not who tickles the ear—but who breaks the heart.

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and
 persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's
 power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom,
 but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4-5