THE PREACHER'S STUDY
very important direction a truth which ought to govern a man's whole ministry. Why are we in this work at all? To bring men to God through Jesus Christ. That is the ultimate goal of all our striving, the purpose of our commission. It ought to be our one consuming ambition to help men and women, through the services of the sanctuary, to meet the living God. And if ever we lose sight of that commanding goal, if we grow hazy and uncertain about our aim, if we eventually reach a point where we have ceased expecting the Holy Spirit to act mightily amongst our people with convincing and converting power, the Lord have mercy on our souls! "Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead"—yes, even through our poor preaching? Therefore, as our whole ministry must press toward that mark, as it can have meaning and value and momentum only by keeping that goal in sight, so every sermon must have its own quite definite aim. "A sermon," said Beecher, "is not like a Chinese fire-cracker to be fired off for the noise which it makes. It is the hunter's gun, and at every discharge he should look to see his game fall." There is something wrong with a preacher who sends people away with the bemused and puzzled feeling, "Now what was all that about? What was the fellow driving at to-day?" The artist in Don Quixote, on being interrogated what precisely he was painting, replied, "That is as it may turn out." Who has not suffered under sermons evolved in the same deplorably haphazard way? The acid test is to confront yourself, before ever
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