moving down the slopes of inevitable
perdition until the final catastrophe shall burst upon it--that man has
no right to pose as a preacher of the gospel of glad tidings to men.
Not so did His Master look forward to the days to come when "for the
joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the
shame." Such a vision was not in _His_ eyes when He said, "And I, if I
be lifted up, will draw all men unto Me." Failure! That is a
possibility the preacher must not admit, even in secret to himself, if
he would not find his strength stolen and grey hairs upon him here and
there!

And in the spirit of victory he not only _must_, but _may_ live. There
have been darker ages than this in which the preachers have alone held
up the lamp of hope. Times of apparent unfruitfulness do come, times
of drought do fall upon us, but they _pass_, for silently, secretly God
works on and on. Let us believe in _Him_. His are the yet uncounted
years. He prepareth His ways in the darkness, "and He will bring it to
pass." In that faith alone is great, true and mighty preaching
possible.

Thus, with somewhat of the seer,
Must the moral pioneer,
From the future borrow;
Clothe the waste with dreams of grain,
And on midnight's sky of rain
Paint the golden morrow.

CHAPTER III.

The Need for Certainty.

One of the most obvious lessons to be learned from a study of church
history is a lesson teaching the necessity of the positive note in the
pulpit. The great ages of Christianity have been those in which
affirmation has been clear and definite and strong. The great
preachers of the past have ever been positive preachers, men whose
assurance concerning their message was heard in every tone of their
voices, who knew in whom they had believed. Especially has this been
true of those whose ministrations have been the means of great revivals
of religion as seen in the awakening of zeal within the Church and the
salvation of sinners. How positive were the Wesleys! How sure was
Whitefield! How absolutely certain of things were the fathers of our
own Church! How real to them were God and Jesus and Heaven and Hell.
They were narrow, perhaps. Possibly they were often intolerant. It
may have been the case that they were rather too ready to damn every
one who disagreed with them as to the interpretation of the truth of
God. They may not have always displayed a sweet and brotherly
reluctance to bran