men;
though even the preacher will find that there are times and _times_.
Spiritualism talks of its "mediums," some of whom are said to "see"
while others are said to "hear." The preaching mind will be in the
best sense both clair-voyant and clair-audient. Call the man a seer,
if you will, and speak of preaching as prophecy, and you will describe
as well as it can possibly be done the designated preacher and his
work. It remains to be predicated that such a man will possess, at
least, a more than ordinary endowment of tact and aptness in dealing
with men, holding keys to their consciences and their hearts. He will
have some special gift of natural power to move his fellows toward the
action they would rather not perform. He will abound in that precious
sympathy with humanity that _feels_ the truth concerning other lives
which it cannot always _know_. To express our meaning in still another
tabloid phrase:--The man meant for the pulpit will possess a genius for
spiritual things.

In these few, incomplete lines we have indicated some of the natural
gifts whose possession should be held essential to the proof of a man's
designation for the preacher's vocation. Before the Church suggests
this service to one of her sons she should be satisfied of the presence
of these qualifications; not, of course, as matured and perfected
talents--that would be to ask the impossible--but as evidenced in signs
visible to the searching eye. Before a man yields to such a
suggestion, however kindly and urgently expressed, even if it only
point to a place on the plan of some struggling rural circuit, he
should know that nature has already in some degree fashioned the
instrument for the work.

But natural endowments and indications are not--need we say?--the whole
necessity. Our fathers talked not only of "_gifts_" but also of
"_graces_" and of "_fruits_" as well. The work of religion should be
realised by the preacher as a personal experience and prove itself in a
life accordant therewith. It is perfectly true that every hearer ought
to be as good as the preacher, but, paradoxical as the remark may
appear, it is none the less true that the preacher ought to be better
than those to whom he preaches. It is an absolutely sound instinct for
the fitness of things--an instinct honourable to the preacher's
office--which asks that he who discourses concerning the elements of
piety, calling upon men to embody them in works of faith and
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