is evermore to make
head in the Church against the world, and is to carry the Church on in
her mission in the world. This gives us the fundamental view of our work
as preachers; and nothing more is needed in order to illustrate its
dignity and glory."--PRINCIPAL RAINY.

LECTURE II.

THE PREACHER AS A MAN OF GOD.

In accordance with the plan announced yesterday, I am to turn your
attention in the next four lectures to the prophets of the Old
Testament as patterns for modern preachers; and the special subject
for to-day is The Preacher as a Man of God.

To earnest minds at the stage at which you stand at present no
question could be more interesting than this: How does a right
ministry begin? what are the experiences which justify or compel a man
to turn his back on all other careers and devote himself to this one?
On the minds of some of you this question may be pressing at the
present moment with great urgency. It is a question of supreme
importance. In most things a good deal depends on beginning well; but
nowhere is the commencement more momentous than here.

This is a point on which the greatest emphasis is laid in the history
of the prophets. We are told how they became prophets. Their ministry
commenced with a spiritual experience usually denominated the
Prophetic Call.

Such experiences are narrated of the greatest prophets. The call of
Moses was the scene of the Burning Bush, which is detailed at great
length in his biography. The next outstanding prophet was Samuel, and
there is no better known story in Scripture than the touching account
of how the Lord called him to be the reformer of an evil age. Each of
the three great literary prophets--Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel--has
left an account of his own call; that of Ezekiel covering nearly three
whole chapters. If the smaller prophets do not, as a rule, commemorate
similar experiences of their own, it is not to be inferred that they
did not pass through them. The brief compass of their writings is
sufficient to account for the omission; although perhaps a subjective
element may also enter into the explanation. Among ourselves there are
men who are able to confide to the public their own most sacred
experiences, and habitually make use of them to illustrate and enforce
the truth. To others nothing would be more unnatural: they shrink from
the most distant allusion to the most sacred moments of their
spiritual history. Yet these may be worth the wh