e suffered his house to be broken up."

For the effective delivery and application of his message, then, we
insist that the preacher needs to be in touch with every aspect of the
lives of those who come beneath the influence of his preaching. He
must know _them_; the conditions under which they live; the thoughts
upon which they feed from day to day. Oh, if only we knew more about
the people, how much more could we help and bless them! There they sit
before us as we speak. If only we could look down into their hearts;
if only we could hear the questions asking themselves in their minds,
the doubts and fears, the sad perplexities which, even within sound of
our voices, darken our counsel and come between the soul and God! If
only we knew the struggle maintained, the heavy burden borne, from year
to year by yonder man anxiously listening to our words! Silently he
comes and goes between his home and this house of prayer. He neither
pines nor whines; he does not rise to put the question which needs an
answer before his heart can be at peace. If we only knew--but oh! our
knowledge is so small at the best. The more reason then why we should
seek to make increase therein, that from the worst results of ignorance
in their teachers the people may be saved!

Lest some may think that, in emphasising the importance of that
understanding which is not altogether gained from books we have
under-valued the work of the study, let us, in closing our chapter,
describe what seems to us to be the highest type of training for the
work of the pulpit. It is the training in which the student gives to
_every_ means of furnishing its due and proportionate place; in which
he turns to books _and_ to life for the wisdom he seeks. We have
spoken of the impracticable scholar, but not all men of learning have
been of this order. Among the most practical of preachers; among those
who have displayed the greatest knowledge of the human heart and of the
times, their conditions and their problems, have been many renowned for
breadth and depth of scholarship. These men were mightier, and not
weaker, for their learning. They were able to apply the best of
everything to the uses and necessities of the hour. They brought out
of their storehouse, to quote a well-worn phrase "things new and old."
So let a man be diligent at his books and diligent, everywhere, in
using his eyes and ears, and so "let him go round the walls of the city
and let him te