to utter this testimony, for in the King's
stead he goes, and in the King's name he speaks!

A great, good thing would it be if only the divinity of their calling
could be brought home to all who minister among us--brought home, we
mean, as a constantly realised truth, warming always and inspiring the
hearts of our preachers and giving confidence and authority to their
word. The oft-quoted prayer, "Lord, give us a good conceit of
ourselves," might well be offered with some small change of terms. We
do need a "good conceit" of our office. From such a conceit so many
great thoughts would flow, such a sense of the importance of our task!
We should hear less complaint concerning "poor appointments"; we should
hear less criticism of the sermons of humble but sincere men, if
preacher and people alike remembered that this commission was given on
the steps of the throne. Let the preacher think small things of the
preaching office and small service will be the inevitable result, small
sermons, small faithfulness, small harvests when the reaping time shall
come. Let the preacher live in the great facts of his history! Let
him realise--he cannot magnify--his office! This is the word we would
speak into every preacher's ear throughout our Church. There would be
little murmuring concerning poor sermons and forgotten appointments if
only this fact could win home. We are persuaded that the cause of much
of the poor and careless preaching, the preaching that is perfunctory
and cold and lifeless, lies in this:--That here and there are preachers
who have never realised the glory of their delegation.

Another realisation into which the preacher must come before his
preaching can reach its highest possibilities, both as to quality and
results; and in which he must abide if his ministry has to remain upon
the heights, is that of the supreme distinction of the message he has
to proclaim. It is a _divine_ message which has been divinely
entrusted to him for conveyance to his fellow-men. In regard to this,
too, he must occupy and speak from high ground. He is not merely one
among the world's many teachers, not simply one among the many
speculators who come with theories first ingeniously spun by the
spindles of imagination, then woven in the looms of logic. He brings
not a theory but a revelation. He is not "one of the philosophers"
classified and catalogued with the rest. He is a messenger. Behind
him is One who sent him; and