of deprivations and hardships
for citizens as well as soldiers. The great social questions of the
present day have also claimed much of his thought and effort. He has
felt, and justly, that these questions ought to receive more pulpit
recognition. It is possible, and should not be thought surprising,
that in the ardour of the social crusade the preacher may have
sometimes given to these things time and strength which might have been
better spent in ministering to the personal griefs and perplexities of
such as sat before him for their need's sake. It may be well for us
each to make inquiry concerning ourselves in these matters. As a
result we will realise again, no doubt, how numerous and insistent are
the demands made upon us to turn aside in our ministry to treat of a
hundred things which once upon a time we did not think of as pulpit
questions. Be this as it may, here lies work for the preacher which he
must not neglect. It is as certainly his duty to cheer and encourage
the heart of the individual as to indicate the path to better
conditions of life for the multitude.

And this he can only effectively do as he perfects himself in his
understanding of their needs. Of this understanding, and of the ways
in which it must be sought, we have already written and will say no
more, except to point out how every new discovery concerning the
preacher's duties furnishes additional illustration of the absolute
necessity that he study not books only, but also men and the conditions
of their lives. It is of little use knowing the contents of
well-filled shelves if we have never read the living volumes before us
in the pews. Again we say, "if we only knew."

Still knowledge is not the whole of the preacher's need in order that
his message may contain this cheering quality. It is even more needful
that he shall, himself, be one of those who abide in the comfort of
God. He must have learned the efficacy of the great consoling and
gladdening verities by experience of their application to his own soul.
He only can surely cheer others who himself is cheerful, and no man who
has ever felt the pressure and care of life _can_ be cheerful excepting
in so far as these great guarantees have become real to his own spirit.
Only with "the comfort wherewith he is comforted of God" will he
comfort others!

And what are the verities whose application he must have experienced?
There is not one of all the glorious circle of revealed