t, man. Do we say that it is
to ask a hard thing to insist that no one shall preach who cannot say
confidently that he knows himself to have been moved of God to this
place and labour? Hard, perhaps, it may seem, but "strait is the gate
and narrow is the way" into this excelling service. There are many
hard things in the ordinances of the Kingdom, and, perhaps, it has not
been well that we have so often sought to broaden the path, to widen
the gate. Possibly there might be fewer preachers if all we have laid
down were insisted upon, but there might be more power; there might be
more success.

Designation made plain by gifts, graces and an inward sense of Divine
election--this then is the first essential in the _man_. The
recollection of this will prevent the office of the preacher from being
regarded simply as a profession. When a man enters the ministry "for a
living," or because, forsooth, he has social aspirations, he has taken
a downward, and not an upward, step. When he comes into the work
because all his nature, all his experiences, all the results of
religion in his heart and life urge him on, the Lord saying "Go thou
and I will be with thee," then glorious is his calling, and glorious
will be his record when the day is done!

CHAPTER II.

Things to be Realized.

It is absolutely essential to the successful preaching of the Gospel
that the preacher should realise the greatness and dignity of his
position; and having once come into this realisation, it is also
essential to continuance in well-doing that he abide in it. In himself
he may have little in which to glory, but in his calling he has much
indeed.

For what is the Christian preacher? He is the very messenger of Jesus
Christ to men. He belongs to an order founded and recruited by the
Master Himself. First He sent out "the seventy," who probably soon
returned; afterwards He sent forth "the twelve," armed with a permanent
commission. When, in the ranks of this early band, a vacancy arose
through the unfaithfulness of one of its members, He made choice of
another. From the opened skies He arrested Saul in his journey to
Damascus that he might be a chosen vessel to bear the truth to the
Gentiles. From that day to this He has been calling and sending, not
less really, a succession of men every one of whom might with Paul have
called himself an ambassador of the King of Kings. Of course there
were preachers before the apostles and ther