Preaching Through an Uplifted Nose

“Above all; do not put on a ‘parsonic’ voice. What a terrible thing that is, and yet how common. Young men develop this bad habit; they hear others and they begin to use the same affected parsonic unnatural voice. It offends people. Still worse is to put on a false appearance of piety — sanctimoniousness. What a horrible thing that is! According to as a famous story, Spurgeon once ridiculed this . . . He was out to ridicule the type of person who looks upwars with a sanctimonious expression, persuading himself that he is very pious. He also said another very wise thing in the same connection. He said that whenever you see a man who has a reputation of looking very saintly, and who rather enjoys that reputation, you can be quite sure that he probably has a bad liver” (Lloyd-Jones, Preachers and Preaching, p. 264).