a mere utterance of certain
historical facts with deductions therefrom; more than a declaration of
certain doctrines with their applications. It is a highly complex
intellectual, moral and spiritual act. Two men may deliver the same
sermon. There may be similarity of voice, of manner, of delivery, but
one of these men will _preach_ the sermon, the other only recite it.
The difference may be almost beyond definition, yet it will be felt.
At the bottom it will be found to be this:--That one man is a preacher
and the other is not.

So then the man himself matters? Indeed he does, and to the extent
that it is not the declaiming of what may be called a sermon that makes
a man a preacher, but the _man_ who, through self-expression, by being
what he is, makes such an utterance preaching. _First_ the preacher,
_afterwards_ the preaching.

And in the preacher the first essential to effectiveness and success is
what we have called designation, and designation is in part natural and
in part spiritual. Natural fitness and spiritual calling, gifts,
graces and a divine revelation made to his own consciousness--without
these the occupation of the preacher's office, especially in the
capacity of the separated ministry, can only be a perpetual misery and
mortification to the so-called preacher. To those who come to him for
guidance in the things of God the result of their absence may be
incalculable and eternal!

And, alas! there are to be found, in the ministry of all the churches,
men in whom natural and spiritual qualifications for their work are
absent and have always been absent. Concerning such men but a few
words, and those in reply to the reminders that we are continually
receiving of the ineptitudes and inaptitudes of preachers. These
things form a favourite topic with some people, to whom we will at once
say, that while there may be misfits in the pulpit, probably they are
there in no greater numbers than in other walks of life. We have known
such misfits at the bar; in the surgery; in the shop; at the bench.
The preacher's failure is of all failures the most public, and
consequently more discussed than are such other examples as we have
named. We have been so often told that "the fool of the family goes
into the Church" that we find a natural satisfaction in pointing out
that this particular fool is to be met with in every lane of life.
Never a war which does not reveal his presence in the army; never a
politic