infinite love. We all
believe that "through the ages one increasing purpose runs." But to
believe in the sense that we do not disbelieve, is _one_ thing, and
profoundly and constantly and vitally to realise a truth is _another_.
It is so easy to forget a belief when everything around us seems to
contradict the possibility of its fulfilment. The labour of the
preacher is often very hard; often, in its immediate results, extremely
disappointing. The present and immediate care, the difficulty to be
faced _here_ and _now_, so much concern and so much, at times, depress
us. So much effort must be put forth even to _keep living_, so much
patience even to hold up under the burden, that it is little wonder if,
at times, we forget that our strenuous struggle is in fulfilment of a
great plan to eventuate in the accomplishment of an eternal purpose.
If we do hold the thought it is too often only in a theoretic way. It
does not _dominate_ us as it should, and as it would if once it seized
us by the heart. Perhaps, more than in the case of most things to be
realised, it requires great grace to make the soul able to grasp it.
Perhaps, again, the purpose of God seems to ask more from us than we
care to give, and the fear of the sacrifice required blinds us to the
glory of that purpose. As long as the preacher's programme is
parochial or merely patriotic his preaching will lack the clarion note.
Small conceptions of the will of God make mean service. God's
intention is to reign on earth as He reigns in Heaven. Let us live in
this assurance if we would help His kingdom in.

But there is still more to be realised before the preacher has grasped
all the golden truth with which God would fortify and cheer him for the
task he is sent out to perform. Did we say that he must come into a
consciousness of the true dignity of his office? Did we point out his
need to discern the true glory of his message, which is that it _alone_
is the message that is indeed from the heart of God? Did we emphasise
the preacher's need of a clear view of the infinite, loving purpose
behind the work he is sent to carry through? To all this he must add a
clear and constant vision of the victory to come. In that vision he
must live as though the music of the triumph were already falling upon
his ear. There is no room in the pulpit for pessimists or pessimism.
The man who thinks that the world is growing worse, and _will_ grow
worse, and _still_ worse,