ngregation of
five hundred I have not given you a description of a dozen people.
The difficulty is that a dozen people can and _do_ set in commotion
large bodies of humanity, and bring about results of which they
themselves do not dream.

About that minister: If he sunk under such a common matter as having
certain ones in a church disaffected with him, it shows a weak mind,
do you say? He should have expected trials, and disappointments, and
coldness, and disaffection. "The servant is not greater than his
lord." All true; he had preached that doctrine to himself for twenty
years, and earnestly strove to live by it. I do not say that he sunk
under the humiliation; only, don't you remember the fable of the last
straw that broke the camel's back? What I _do_ say is, that he had
borne hundreds and thousands of "straws." Also, remember it was _the
Lord_ who called him from work. Assuredly he did not call himself. I
think the master said: "Let him come; it is enough; and we need him
here."

Then what about the unfinished work that he left? What about the
midnight prayer over that sermon, the wrestling for a sign of fruit?
Was it in vain? There is fruit that you and I do not see, oftentimes.
Do you remember the young man, Dwight Brower, and the Sabbath
afternoon communion that he had with himself? Not with himself alone;
the world, the flesh, and the devil were in full strength before him;
and not _them_ only--the angel of the covenant was there beside him.
There was a conflict--the world and the devil were vanquished. Dwight
Brower's name was on the church-roll, but his heart had been with the
world. He came over that day, distinctly, firmly, strongly, to the
Lord's side. He weighed the solemn words, "Take heed what ye do; let
the fear of the Lord be upon you." They sounded to him as they never
had before. He resolved then and there that they should mean to him
what they never had before, that they should mean to him what they
evidently did to his pastor.

That was twenty years ago. There were modern churches even then.
Dwight Brower has been a power in the land since then. Not one, but
scores--aye, hundreds--aye, thousands of souls has the Lord given him
as seals to his ministry; and he is working now. Once I visited where
he preached. I heard a lady say to him, "That was a wonderful sermon
that you gave us to-day. To begin with, it is a wonderful text. I
never before realized that the Lord was actually _watching_ all ou