“The ears of many of our hearers are stopped with earth….
“Many sit and stare the minister in the face, yet scarce know a word he says…. “If a man be in a mill, though you speak never so loud to him, he does not hear you for the noise of the mill. We preach to men about matters of salvation, but the mill of worldly business makes such a noise that they cannot hear; ‘in hearing they hear not.’ “It being thus, ministers who are called ‘sons of thunder’ had need often ascend the mount and ‘lift up their voice like a trumpet’ (Isa. 58:1) that the deaf ear may be syringed and unstopped, and may ‘hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches’ (Rev. 2:7).” — Thomas Watson