supernatural prompters of the sinner in his rebellion
against God; that the warfare of the preacher for his deliverance is
not against flesh and blood only, but also "against principalities and
powers and spiritual wickedness in high places." We do not always
quite realise all that it may mean to a man to take the step to which
we invite him--sometimes so lightly. To begin the following of Christ,
or, having already begun that following, to arise from slackness to
whole-hearted service, may involve the snapping of long cherished ties
and an absolute revolution in every habit and mode of life and thought.
By many men the Kingdom of Heaven can only be entered at the cost of
what seems to them a stupendous sacrifice and the facing of what
appears an appalling risk. Against all these forces and considerations
has the preacher to prevail, and that, through no compulsive power, but
by exercise of such gifts of persuasion as are given unto him to be
cultivated to that end, God's Spirit helping his efforts. He is here
to make men _do_--do that which on every earthly account they had
rather not do. Unless he accomplishes this result his work has been in
vain.

Now, it is well that the nature of the work, its greatness and the
hardness of it, should be fully realised and constantly remembered.
There is always a danger of being misled by the shows of incomplete, or
false, success. In no branch of service is this more true than in
preaching. It is such a glorious thing to be able to gather great
congregations; but even this may be done and the messenger fail. It is
such a delightful thing to a preacher to watch a multitude waiting
spellbound beneath his eloquence in rapt attention, or swept by waves
of emotion; but that multitude may disperse, the great end of preaching
still unwrought and the whole attempt a splendid failure. It is
possible to attract people to your preaching, possible to win the crown
of their approval, and yet come short of accomplishing the very results
for which you were commissioned from on high. To please is one thing;
to prevail against the heart of sin another.

And with the recollection of this much-to-be-remembered truth it will
be well that a sense of the difficulty of the real task should abide
continually with us. Some of these difficulties, we have already
mentioned. The hardest to overcome are the obstacles within the mind
and heart of the hearer himself. It is always finally _the man