d have a
right to demand it from those who stand up in God's name to teach them
His way. We have read of blind guides, "blind leaders of the blind."
Such a leadership is that of the preacher who has no sure word to
speak. For his own soul's sake the ambassador must have certainty, for
what life can be more wretched than the life of a man set up to
proclaim a message doubted of his own spirit. For God's sake; for the
sake of the Gospel to be uttered; for the sake of the high purpose of
that Gospel he must be _sure_. Without certainty there can be no truly
effective and successful preaching!

CHAPTER IV.

Individuality.

Another essential quality of the effective and successful messenger of
Christ is individuality.

The preaching of the truth is, after all, _man's_ work for the sake of
man, and _the man_ is needful to the completeness of the definition.
It has ever been God's way to work His will and reveal Himself to
mankind through members of their own race. He does not speak to the
nations in a supernatural voice rolling over the land. He does not
write His word across the arch of the sky in any way plainer than in
that language of which the stars are syllables. It is true that
everywhere the inscription of His power and Godhead may be seen; but
neither in nature, nor in history, nor in human instincts does He
declare Himself on the deeper needs of the soul. His way is to use men
whom He calls, trains and equips. Even Jesus, Himself, came in fashion
as a man, that He might speak with the speech of a man to the
generations for whom He was to die. One meaning of this must surely be
that true preaching derives power from the man himself as well as from
the truth expressed. In His infinite resourcefulness the Creator has
made all men different. Wonderful it is, but true, there are no two
men who are, in all things, each a duplicate of the other. Physically,
mentally, morally, spiritually, every man is _another_ man. We speak
of the average man; really there is no such being. No average can be
struck which takes account of all that every man is and includes every
quality and peculiarity of body, mind and spirit. Each birth is a new
creation. Here comes one into the world to occupy a new point of view.
He will see things with other eyes; he will hear them with other ears.
He will relate them in his own way, if only he be permitted to do so.
Should he become a preacher, the message will be new in h