is will he shall know of the
doctrine whether it be of God." There is an intimate connection
between intellectual results and moral and spiritual conditions. The
surrender of the will to God is always followed by an increase of
spiritual intelligence. That this is true we have seen proved
unnumbered times as lowly piety has revealed sublimities of faith and
trust. Spiritual things are, and must be, spiritually discerned.

And this is not so hard to understand as may appear. A life
surrendered to the will of God is of all lives the most peaceful and
composed. It is lived in an atmosphere of repose. In such an
atmosphere the mind has an opportunity of looking upon the great
spiritual mysteries in the light proper to their contemplation and
consideration. It is a life of good works too, and good works tend to
establish the gospel by which they were inspired. It would not be
easy--we had almost said it would be impossible--to find a man engaged
in hard and constant toil for Jesus Christ who would complain that he
suffers from doubt as to the truth of the faith he serves. Unbelief is
not unfrequently the penalty of indolence. It might in many instances
be found possible to trace the doubts of men to their slackness in the
service of God.

The same spiritual laws as regulate the experience of every saint of
God regulate those of the preacher. His Sabbath note will be according
to his week-day living. Let him be all the week absorbed in material
things only; let him seek only his own gratification, only his own
wealth or pleasure or advantage; let him walk only in the lower paths,
and he must not be surprised if, as he stands up upon the Sabbath, his
voice be found to have lost the old ring of joyful and glorious
assertion. He must not be astonished if his grasp of heavenly
mysteries and promises and provisions be slack, and if, as a result, he
speaks in halting tones. If his daily walk be far from the side of his
Lord, he must not wonder if other spirits find their way to his ear and
fill it with whispers of doubt and fear which make his testimony
hesitant and of small effect for good. We say he must not be surprised
at these things. No, nor must he find the reasons for this weakening
of his faith in the message itself, though that will inevitably be the
chief temptation of such dangerous hours. He should ask first
concerning the life he is living, whether it is of a sort to make faith
an easy thing. He s