n the city it comes in another form. The man who has
a large congregation and a little popularity is beset with calls from
every quarter to engage in every kind of duty outside his own sphere.
His doorbell never ceases ringing. Every applicant supposes his own
case the most important. There is a whirl of excitement, and there is
an exhilaration in being able in many ways to serve the public. But,
if the man gives up his habits of study, he is lost. His appearances
become commonplace; the public tire of him, and throw him aside as
ruthlessly as they have senselessly idolized him. Robert Hall used to
say that, when the devil saw that a minister was likely to be useful
in the church, his way of disposing of him was to get on his back and
ride him to death with engagements.

* * * * *

To follow the course of St. Paul's labours and sufferings on the grand
scale produces an overwhelming impression of earnestness and devotion;
yet it is even more by entering into the minute details of his
activity that we find the apostle. One who has to deal with vast
masses is apt to overlook details; and it is so even in the work of
Christ. An evangelist, for example, moving from place to place and
surrounded with multitudes, may know very little of individuals. The
minister of a large congregation is exposed to the same temptation.
Indeed, we are all too desirous of crowds and too little occupied with
the units of which they are composed. But this is the greatest of all
mistakes. St. Paul, amidst the constant change of scene and the
pressure of large bodies of people in which he lived, never overlooked
individuals. In his speech to the elders of Ephesus he could challenge
them to bear witness that he had taught not only publicly but from
house to house, and had warned everyone night and day with tears.
While, like his Master, he was moved by the sight of a multitude and
welcomed the opportunity of making known the glad tidings to many, he
was quite as ready to preach to the small company of women of whom
Lydia was one at the riverside or to the soldier to whom he was
chained in the Roman prison.

St. Paul was never a mere evangelist. The evangelist's work is to deal
with the initial stage of the Christian life: he has to bring men to
decision; and, when this is done, he passes on, leaving to other
agencies whatever more may be required. An evangelist sometimes knows
very little of what becomes of his conv