Spirit as spoke through them. But, however
difficult it may be to define it, I am one of those who believe that
there is a difference, and that it is a great difference. The mind and
will of God expressed themselves through the prophets and apostles
with a directness and authority which we cannot claim. But the
difference is not such as to remove them beyond our imitation.
Although in some, or even many, respects they may be beyond us, this
is no reason why we may not in others imitate them with the greatest
advantage. It will be seen at a glance how little there is in this
objection, if it be considered that our Lord Himself is the great
pattern of the ministry. In some respects He is of course much farther
away from us than either prophets or apostles; yet He is near us as a
model in every detail of our duty. No mode of treating my subject
would have been so congenial to me as to set Him forth in this
character. But, having attempted to do so elsewhere, I have chosen the
method now announced under the conviction, that the nearest approach
to the study of how Christ fulfilled the duties of the ministry is to
study how prophets and apostles fulfilled them.

* * * * *

There is one thing more which I should like to say before closing this
somewhat miscellaneous introductory lecture. I would not have come to
lecture to you on this subject if I were not a firm believer in
preaching. If in what has been already said I have seemed to
depreciate its results, this is only because my ideal is so high of
what the pulpit ought to do, and might do.[5] I do not, indeed,
separate preaching from the other parts of a minister's life, such as
the conducting of the service of the sanctuary, the visitation of the
congregation, and taking part in more general public work. As I go on,
it will be seen, that, so far from undervaluing these, I hold them to
be all required even to produce a healthy pulpit power. Yet preaching
is the central thing in our work. I believe in it, because Christ
Himself set His stamp on it. Read His sayings, and you will see that
this was what He sent forth the servants of His kingdom to do.
"Christ," says St. Paul, "sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
Gospel"; not, I think, thereby ignoring baptism, but putting it and
all other ceremonies in their proper place of subordination to the
preaching of the Word.

It is often charged against the evangelical, and especially the free