aptism which was to explain sentences which, at the moment
of their utterance, were full of perplexing and affrighting mystery to
such as heard. Almost His very last words on earth concerned their
mission. Then came Pentecost, the gift of power, the descent of the
Holy Ghost upon the waiting company in the Upper Room. Signs and
wonders filled the hour. The word was with assurance and ran like fire
among dry stubble. The multitude was pricked to the heart. Soon
followed the Herodian persecution, and the preaching band was scattered
abroad. As a result "they went everywhere preaching the word." So the
voice of the preacher proclaiming the new faith was heard throughout
the countries of Asia Minor and in learned Greece and warlike Rome, on
Mars Hill where walked and taught the philosophers in the presence of
the admiring and novelty-seeking sons of Athens, in the palace of the
Caesars whence ran the currents filling the arteries of the world.
Westward, Eastward, all over the known earth they went, and still they
preached, until, in years that seem very few, when we think of all that
had to be done to make true the boast, it was said "the Christians are
everywhere."

And no preacher has ever risen to any true sublimity of service and
success who has not connected his own place, and his own work, with the
events of this great history. He is of the same company as were Peter,
Paul, John, James, Apollos. The spiritual dignity conferred upon
_him_, the responsibility laid upon _his_ shoulders, are of the same
kind as were theirs. We stand for a doctrine of Apostolic Succession,
but it is not a succession dependent upon a ceremonial ordination
dispensed by a privileged and ghostly class. It is a succession of
gifts, of graces, of commission, of power, of victory. The true
preacher is God's messenger. Does he stand before thousands--a man of
learning, of eloquence, of far flung fame? His highest glory is not in
any one of these things, but in the fact that his commission is divine.
Does he plod--a poor "local brother" from mine or loom or plough or
forge--along dark lanes and over wild moorlands, in order that in some
distant and lowly village sanctuary he may speak to a few simple souls
of heavenly things? Let him not be depressed by the toil of the
journey; let him not be disheartened by the smallness of the audience.
Rather let him lift up his head in humble pride that he is counted
worthy to make this errand,