ess, and the impulses towards God--to be near Him, to
serve Him, to do anything for Him--were now far stronger than his
shrinking from Him had been a little before. Therefore of his own free
will and choice he answered the Divine question with, "Here am I, send
me."

* * * * *

Gentlemen, I have gone minutely into the details of this scene in the
life of a representative preacher of the Old Testament, because every
line of it speaks to the deep and subtle movements of our own
experience. What is the inference to be drawn from it? Is it that at
the commencement of a preacher's career there must be a call to the
ministry distinct from the experience of personal salvation? This
inference has often been drawn; but I prefer, in the meantime at
least, to draw a wider but, I believe, a sounder and more useful
inference. It is this: that the outer must be preceded by the inner;
public life for God must be preceded by private life with God; unless
God has first spoken to a man, it is vain for a man to attempt to
speak for God.

This principle has an extensive and varied application.

It applies to the beginnings of the religious life. I should like to
be allowed to say to you, gentlemen, with all the earnestness of which
I am capable, that the prime qualification of a minister is that he be
himself a religious man--that, before he begins to make God known, he
should first himself know God. How this comes to pass, this is not the
place to explain. Only let me say, that it is more than the play upon
us of religious influences from the outside. There must be a reaction
on our own part--an opening of our nature to take in and assimilate
what is brought to bear on us by others. There must be an uprising of
our own will and a deliberate choice of God. Of course in the history
of many there are, at this stage, experiences almost as dramatic and
memorable as this scene in the life of Isaiah; and they may be
composed of nearly identical elements. In some haunt of ordinary
life--perhaps in the church of one's childhood or in the room
consecrated by the prayers of early years--there comes a sudden
revelation of God, which transfigures everything. In this great light
the man feels himself to be like an unclean thing, ready to be
condemned and annihilated by the presence of the Thrice Holy. But then
ensues the wonderful revelation of grace, when God takes up the soul
in despair and draws it to His heart, p