he Chaplain to hold another little
Meeting by the grave-side, after he had read the ordinary Service.
I cannot but feel that the hand of God was upon me in those days,
teaching me how much lay preachers could do."

How wonderful that the lad who did all that in the teeth of religious
convention and opinion should have lived to organise just such battles
and just such funerals all round the world, and to train hundreds of
thousands of Soldiers of Christ to do likewise! What a termination to
his own career he was preparing all the time, when the City of London
was to suspend the traffic of many of its busiest thoroughfares for
hours to let his coffin pass through with a procession of his uniformed
Soldiers a mile long!

With regard to the question of a "Call to the ministry," that bugbear of
so many souls, The General constantly expressed himself as follows:--

"How can anybody with spiritual eyesight talk of having no call,
when there are such multitudes around them who never hear a word
about God, and never intend to; who can never hear, indeed, without
the sort of preacher who will force himself upon them? Can a man
keep right in his own soul, who can see all that, and yet stand
waiting for a 'call' to preach? Would they wait so for a 'call' to
help any one to escape from a burning building, or to snatch a
sinking child from a watery grave?

"Does not growth in grace, or even ordinary growth of intelligence,
necessarily bring with it that deepened sense of eternal truths
which must intensify the conviction of duty to the perishing world?

"Does not an unselfish love, the love that goes out towards the
unloving, demand of a truly loving soul immediate action for the
Salvation of the unloved?"

"And, are there not persons who know that they possess special
gifts, such as robust health, natural eloquence or power of voice,
which specially make them responsible for doing something for
souls?

"And yet I do not at all forget, that above and beyond all these
things, there does come to some a special and direct call, which it
is peculiarly fatal to disregard, and peculiarly strengthening to
enjoy and act upon.

"I believe that there have been many eminently holy and useful men
who never had such a call; but that does not at all prevent any one
from asking God for it, or blessing