that
were the one and solitary soul and life in existence. We Clergy are in
danger of becoming too official, too clerical, even in our prayers. We
_are_ the Lord's Ministers; we have a cure and charge of souls as the
unordained Christian has not; and let us daily remember it, humbly and
reverently. But also we are, all the while, sheep of the flock,
absolutely dependent on the Shepherd, men who for their own souls'
acceptance, and holiness, and heaven, must for themselves "live at the
Fountain." We have to serve others, and "lay ourselves out" for them,
daily and hourly. But on that very account, that "our selves" may be, if
I may say so, worth the laying out, we must see that "our selves" are,
in their own innermost life and experience, filled with the Spirit of
God, filled with the presence of an indwelling Lord Jesus Christ by the
Spirit. And so we must worship Him, and draw on Him, and abide in Him,
and acquaint ourselves with Him, just as if there were no flock at all,
that we may the better be of use to the flock.

LIVE BEHIND YOUR MINISTRY.

I am sure that this is an important point for the thought and practice
of the young Clergyman. While never really forgetting his ordained
character, let him, for the very purposes of his ordained work,
continually "live behind" not only the work but the character; living in
the presence, in the love, in the life, of his Lord and Head, simply in
the character of the redeemed sinner, the personal believer, the glad
younger Brother of the glorious Firstborn, the living Christian with the
living Christ; "knowing whom he has believed," [2 Tim. i. 12.] and
walking by faith in Him.

FOR THE MINISTRY'S SAKE.

Do you so live, by His grace and mercy? Is the sitting-room and the
bedroom of your curacy-lodging the place where you habitually hold
intercourse in this holy simplicity with Him who has loved you and given
Himself for you? Then I venture to say that all the more for this, by
that same grace and mercy, you shall be enabled to "lay yourself out"
for others, in your pastoral charge. You shall understand other men
better, by thus securing for your own soul a deeper understanding of the
Lord Jesus and a fuller sympathy (if the word is reverent) with Him. I
hardly care to analyze how, but somehow, you shall more readily and
closely "get at" men through this direct, simple, unofficial, unclerical
drawing very near indeed to God in Christ. The more you know Him thus at
_first-ha