They read a great many religious books besides.

The clergy, however, rarely hear any sermons except what they preach themselves.

A dull preacher might be conceived, therefore, to lapse into a state of quasi heathenism, simply for want of religious instruction.

And on the other hand, an attentive and intelligent hearer, listening to a succession of wise teachers, might become actually better educated in theology than any one of them.

We are all theological students, and more of us qualified as doctors of divinity than have received degrees at any of the universities.
It is not strange, therefore, that very good people should often find it difficult, if not impossible, to keep their attention fixed upon a sermon treating feebly a subject which they have thought vigorously about for years, and heard able men discuss scores of times.