the armory of the word of God are many
weapons, and all have their various uses and adaptations. Blessed is the
workman or warrior who seeks to know what particular implement or
instrument God appoints for each particular work or conflict. We are to
study to keep in such communion with His word and Spirit as that we
shall be true workmen that need "not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the
word of truth." (2 Tim. ii. 15.)

This expression, found in Paul's second letter to Timothy, is a very
peculiar one ([Transcriber's Note: Greek source text for the English
phrase quoted in the paragraph immediately above appears here]). It
seems to be nearly equivalent to the Latin phrase _recte viam secare--to
cut a straight road_--and to hint that the true workman of God is like
the civil engineer to whom it is given to construct a direct road to a
certain point. The hearer's heart and conscience is the objective point,
and the aim of the preacher should be, so to use God's truth as to reach
most directly and effectively the needs of the hearer. He is to avoid
all circuitous routes, all evasions, all deceptive apologies and by-ways
of argument, and seek by God's help to find the shortest, straightest,
quickest road to the convictions and resolutions of those to whom he
speaks. And if the road-builder, before he takes any other step, first
carefully _surveys his territory and lays out his route,_ how much more
should the preacher first study the needs of his hearers and the best
ways of successfully dealing with them, and then with even more
carefulness and prayerfulness study the adaptation of the word of God
and the gospel message to meet those wants.

Early in the year 1833, letters from missionaries in Baghdad urged
Messrs. Muller and Craik to join them in labours in that distant field,
accompanying the invitation with drafts for two hundred pounds for costs
of travel. Two weeks of prayerful inquiry as to the mind of the Lord,
however, led them to a clear decision _not_ to go--a choice never
regretted, and which is here recorded only as part of a complete
biography, and as illustrating the manner in which each new call for
service was weighed and decided.

We now reach another stage of Mr. Muller's entrance upon his complete
life-work. In February, 1832, he had begun to read the biography of A.
H. Francke, the founder of the Orphan Houses of Halle. As that life and
work were undoubtedly used of God to make him a like instrument