zzles but does not feed the flock. When
a minister keeps himself apart from public interests, the Church to
which he belongs is likely to be weak at that point.

The most fatal neglect is that of study; and perhaps it is the
commonest. The part of our work which needs most moral resolution is
undoubtedly the sermon--to get it begun, studied, written and
finished. It requires the discipline of years in even the most
conscientious to win the mastery of themselves in this particular; and
it is probably at this point that three-fourths of all ministerial
failures take place. It is not the reading of the material bearing on
the subject which is difficult; indeed, this may be luxuriously
prolonged, till it is too late to think and write the sermon out. The
hard and sour toil lies in facing the sweat of thought and the
irksomeness of writing; although, when the difficulty is overcome, the
happiness and triumph of our calling lie here also.

Of course this difficulty is greatest in the small sphere. Here the
temptation is, to be overcome by the monotony of the situation, to
allow the powers to stagnate, to feel that anything will do, and put
the people off with that which has cost no exertion. "I know," says
one who wields a trenchant pen,[58] "how plausible the excuses are,
and I know what relaxation of study results in--laziness in the
morning, increasing excesses in the daily papers, increased interest
in gardening, several more pipes a day, and so forth. Breakfast comes
finally to its long-deferred end about ten; then there is a
consultation with the gardener, which is, of course, business, and
makes the idler feel that really his active habits are returning; then
two letters have to be answered; then, just as he means to go to his
study, he sees Mr. Fritterday passing, and before he has finished his
colloquy over the hedge with him, it is past midday. When he does get
to his study, _Macmillan_ or _Blackwood_ is lying on his table, and he
feels he cannot settle till he knows what is the fate of the heroine
of the current story, or his window overlooks the busy hayfield of his
neighbour, and he becomes ten times more interested in that work than
in his own; and so his whole forenoon is gone, and he is summoned to
dinner before he has earned his salt by one decent hand's turn."

This kind of temptation, however, is not confined to the man in the
small and easy situation: it is the common temptation of all
ministers. Only i