word will return unto you void, nor that your ministry will be suggestive of the sounding brass and the tinkling cymbal. The sceptical mood has had its innings, and has failed to satisfy. Therefore "lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!"
You will do well to remember that, whenever you speak to men in the name of Jesus Christ, unseen instincts deep within them are reinforcing your words.
Thou hast great allies;
Thy friends are exultations, agonies,
And love, and man's unconquerable mind.
"The belief in God," said Rabbi Duncan, "presses multifariously upon man." Let that be your confidence!
You do not preach in a vacuum. Those secret allies of God are always there, working in the hearts of those to whom you are sent. One of the greatest is the sense of sin. However much men may romanticize the guilty conscience, or rationalize with clever casuistry the restless misery of the disintegrated and dishevelled soul, there are stubborn questions which refuse to be silenced: How shall I make my peace with God? Can the damage be atoned for? Can the frightful dilemma be resolved?
O how shall I, whose native sphere
Is dark, whose mind is dim,
Before the Ineffable appear,
And on my naked spirit bear
The uncreated beam?
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