uel's mother,
consecrated him to the Lord before his birth.

Forty years ago, it was a passion with many Christian parents to have at
least one son enter the ministry, and yet I am sorry to say to-day I have
many, many times made inquiry of ministers' sons and have found very few
of them who were willing to give even a respectful hearing to the claim of
the ministry and few parents of such sons who seemed concerned about the
matter.

The first remedy is to go back to first principles and let the people who
claim to love the Lord and His Christ be willing to make an offering of
the very flower of their families to this, the highest and noblest service
ever given to man to perform.

Then our various churches must take a larger interest in leading the most
promising young men into this great service. Some churches have done nobly
at this and have stood by their spiritual sons by furnishing the means by
which they might attend college and fit themselves for service, and have
taken peculiar interest and pride in seeing them return to the mother
church and in listening to them, and in bidding them God speed; but most
of our churches, though able, have paid hardly any attention to this
important phase of service at all, and many of our churches cannot mention
a single successful minister who commands the respect of any large
community because of his ability and power, which they have sent out. On
the other hand, many times men are allowed to come into the ministry
through our churches who are always calculated to do more injury than
good,--men with no preparation and no chance of getting proper training.

God never calls a man to preach unless He also provides the way for him to
make due preparation for that service. This is a principle which cannot
successfully be disputed. When God called Moses He led him out of the land
of Egypt, and he spent years and years communing with God under the canopy
of heaven; and Paul spent three years somewhere in preparation for his
great work, and even the Father's own Son for thirty years was in
preparation to do three years' work.

It is a harmful thing to have a church full of inefficient, licensed
preachers with no hope of ever entering actively into the ministry, but in
most cases are just a worry of the flesh to a progressive pastor. When a
man comes before a board for a license he ought to be given to understand
that this license will be granted only on condition that he prepare
h