Preaching on Unprofitable Subjects by C. H. Spurgeon From the September 1877 Sword and Trowel

T Mentone the shepherds bring their flocks down to the beach among the stones. What can be their motive? Not a green blade is to be seen: there is surely nothing to eat, yet the poor sheep regularly traverse the hard shingle. Is this the reason why the mutton is so hard? But this strange habit of the shepherds can be paralleled at home. Do not certain preachers bring their people to consider dry, unpractical, worthless themes, as barren of all food as the stone of the Mediterranean shore? So we have been informed by some of those lean sheep which look up but are not fed. What can be their motive for conducting their flocks to such waste places? Is this the reason why they find the people so hard in heart when it comes to supporting the cause?
Our Good Shepherd never conducts us to the stony shore. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, he leadeth me beside the still waters."