he guift wherein he most excelleth, and as
they agree between themselves."

SPIRITUAL POWER IN PREACHING.

I have little to say after the recitation of this passage of pregnant
and solemn counsel. That little shall be given to a supreme aspect of
the whole subject; I mean, Spiritual Power in Preaching. Who that knows
the Lord, and contemplates the preacher's work, does not long for
Spiritual Power? By that longing he means no ambitious wish to be
remarkable, nor any unwholesome craving to be a leader in scenes of
religious excitement. He means the deep desire to be an effectual
messenger of his Master; to be the living channel of the Holy Spirit's
energy in His converting, sanctifying, strengthening, perfecting work.
He knows that it is possible to be truly orthodox, and yet not to be
this; to be eloquent, to be impressive, to be impassioned, and yet not
to be this; to be unimpeachably truthful, reasonable, intellectually
convincing, and yet all the while not to be this. How shall he be a
vehicle of spiritual power?

THE OPEN SECRET.

The Scriptural answer is very simple, but it goes deep. If a man would
have spiritual power with men, and prevail, he must be real with his
Lord. What he says, he must first know, he must first live. As regards
HIM who is at once his Master and his Gospel, he must indeed "_know_
whom he has believed," [2 Tim. i. 10.] and, in calm but entire
simplicity, "_submit himself_ under His hands." Granted a true creed,
and a humble faith in its Subject, he must, in quiet reality, "yield
himself unto God," if he would be used by Him. Observe the Apostle's
phrase; "Yield yourselves," [Greek: parastesate heautous]: not, "yield
to God" (though that is implied), but, "yield _yourselves_, hand
yourselves over, to God," as you would hand over a tool, a weapon [Rom.
vi. 13.]. And another aspect of the same thing appears in the same
Apostle's later words: "_If a man_ _purge himself_ of these, he _shall
be a vessel_ unto honour, sanctified (to), and meet for, the Master's
use," [Greek: hegiasmenon euchreston to Despote]. [2 Tim. ii. 21.]

The deepest secret of spiritual power, in God's sense of the phrase,
lies there. Let the man be watchful over his Scriptural creed, and let
him discipline his life, and let him toil in his study, and among his
people. None of these things can be spared; they are all vital. But the
central secret, which they as it were enclose and protect, lies in the
words _Surrender i