uch
an element in it of attraction and hope, naturally drew around Him many
who sought to know further what this Gospel meant. He, on His part, was
as eager to meet inquirers as they were to seek Him; and we find that He
bestowed as much care and pains in expounding the nature of His kingdom
to individuals as He did when He was speaking to great multitudes. The
audience, if small, was fit. Not only so, but we find that He put
Himself in the way of individuals."--NICOLL, _The Incarnate Saviour_.

LECTURE IX.

THE PREACHER AS A THINKER.

Gentlemen, in the foregoing lectures I have adverted very little to
the studies, in preparation for the work of the ministry, with which
you are at present occupied. Indeed, I have rather ostentatiously kept
to a standpoint at some distance from the academic one, for reasons
which I explained in the opening lecture. But the clue which I have
endeavoured faithfully to follow has brought us at last to this point
also; and I welcome the opportunity of saying something about the more
intellectual aspects of our work. The subject to-day is the Preacher
as a Thinker.

* * * * *

In my last lecture I spoke of the vast sphere of operations assigned
to St. Paul and of the almost superhuman exertions which he made to
fill it. But what did he exert himself to fill it with? It was not
merely to overtake the ground and be himself present in so many
countries and cities that he was so zealous. That which drove him on
was the glorious message of which he was the bearer, with the sound
of which he desired to fill the world. He often combines these two
ideas in his writings--that the Gentile world had been committed to
him as a trust, to care for the souls which it contained, and that the
Gospel had been committed to him as a trust, to be communicated to the
Gentiles. These two things were included in his apostolate--on the one
hand, the care of the heathen world, and, on the other, the
publication of the Gospel.

Of course he had not, like the original apostles, heard the Gospel
from the lips of Christ; but he had received it directly from Christ
in some other way; and you know how vigorously he claimed that he had
not received it from man and was not indebted to the other apostles
for it. He frequently calls it his own gospel, and he maintains it to
be as authentic and authoritative as that preached by any of the other
apostles. How it was revealed to him w