al campaign in which we do not see him being shouldered into
Imperial Parliament. Never do men talk together of their experiences
of bodily suffering, as sometimes even the least morbid of us will, but
some one is found to recall afflictions at the hands of the physician
of little wit. The "incompetent" is everywhere and if, sometimes, he
finds his way into the pulpit, those who jeer at the Church on his
account have little room for scorn.

But, true as is this reply to the oft-repeated gibe to which we have
referred, it is also true that nowhere does the square man in the round
hole do quite as great and as lasting injury as he does from the
pulpit. The _right man_ for the work--_that_ must be the ideal of the
Church, that man and no other, whatever be the consequence in the way
of offending well-to-do supporters whose dream it has been that son of
theirs shall "wag his head in a pu'pit," whatever be the disappointment
caused to the uninspired ambitions of callow youth or the conceit of
later years. The pulpit is not for sale! The honour of standing there
is not to be dispensed as a reward or allowed as a compliment. Wealth
has no rights and poverty no disabilities as to the occupancy of this
high place. Only the preacher must be suffered there!

And on this matter the Church must be jealous and alert. Sometimes the
responsibility for the presence of the wrong man in the pulpit rests
with her rather than with the man himself. It is open to question
whether the Church always regards with quite sufficient seriousness
this business of putting names "upon the plan." We have known cases in
which an individual has been persuaded against his own knowledge of his
qualities to set out upon a career which has brought to himself nothing
but failure and to the churches and congregations to which he has
ministered nothing but trial. We do well to be anxious to help men
into paths of Christian service, but it is needful to study the
adaptation of the man for the task. To send any man into the work of
preaching, either as a minister or as a lay preacher, merely to "find
him something to do," in order that he may be "encouraged in the good
way," as has been done in many and many an instance, is simply to
prepare difficulties for some one else to face. It is not sufficient
reason for aiding a man's progress to the pulpit that his ambitions run
in that direction, or that his relatives wish to see him in the
preacher's offi