FRIENDLY READERS,
Last time I made a book I trod on some people’s corns and bunions, and they wrote me angry letters, asking, “Did you mean me?” This time, to save them the expense of a halfpenny card, I will begin my book by saying—
Whether I please or whether I tease,
I’ll give you my honest mind;
If the cap should fit, pray wear it a bit,
If not, you can leave it behind.
If the Cap Fits, Wear It. No offense is meant; but if anything in these pages should come home to a man, let him not send it next door, but get a coop for his own chickens. What is the use of reading or hearing for other people? We do not eat and drink for them: why should we lend them our ears and not our mouths? Please then, good friend, if you find a hoe on these premises, weed your own garden with it.
CH Spurgeon
John Plowmans Talks