seek a place to labor, or should you wait for the place to offer itself? No human being can answer these questions for you. But Christ can answer them. He can give you a vision like that of the man of Macedonia which was granted to Paul. He can impart the discerning Spirit which shall guide you to the place of his selection,—the place precisely fitted for you, and the place for which you have been fitted from the foundation of the world.

But suppose you have found your place and your work. You tell me that there are important points of doctrine with regard to which your minds are not settled. Remember that in Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and that Christ is yours. Christ is the truth, and you have the promise that the Holy Spirit will take of the things of Christ and will show them to you. He does not promise that you shall be omniscient, nor even that encyclopædic knowledge shall be yours at the moment of your prayer. But the promise is that he who lacks wisdom and asks of God shall have large and liberal supply, help in every time of need, new grace to-day in place of the grace of yesterday, and so a larger and larger understanding of God and of his plan of salvation. When the vastness of the universe and the dreadfulness of human misery and guilt oppress you, cast your care upon Christ, for he cares for you. Do his will and you shall know of the doctrine. Every day Christ will give you his message, first for your own soul and then for the souls of others, and Isaiah's words shall be yours: "The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of them that are taught,

that I may know how to sustain with words him that is weary he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught."

Christ will be made to you Wisdom in your pastoral work. The young minister has to confront enormous evils in the community. If the church were perfectly pure, he might feel himself equal to the fight. But when the garrison has traitors among its number, the defense of the fortress becomes difficult; aye, when the commandant himself is weak, who shall inspirit the soldiers? A pastor seldom feels his helplessness more than when he is urging a convicted sinner to break with the world and surrender himself to Christ; he never feels his helplessness more than when he is urging professed Christians to renounce their worldly ambitions and to give their property, their voices, and their influence to the cause of Christ. The problems of church quarrels and of church discipline require more than mortal wisdom to manage. It is an infinite resource upon which we have to rely. Christ is equal to any emergency. Our necessity is his opportunity. Let discouragement and opposition only drive us to him, and we shall be given the wisdom that is profitable to direct. Committing our ways to him, he will surely direct our paths.

There are many questions of marriage, of finance, of affliction, which can never be settled in advance. It is not best to anticipate trouble. It is enough to know that with the trial Christ will provide the way of escape. Disappointments will come to have a different spelling and to mean only his appointments. Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the

upright in heart,-sown, like seed hidden in the dark. earth, but certain to manifest itself in flower and fruit. Even seeming evil will be found to be

among the all

There will be

things that work together for good. plans that, so far as human sight can pierce, fail of accomplishment, and ideals that fail to be realized. intent of the heart. He takes

But God looks at the the will for the deed.

With him my success is not

something outside myself, but within the circle of my own personality.

Thoughts hardly to be packed

Into a narrow act,

Fancies that broke through language and escaped;

All I could never be,

All men ignored in me,

This I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.

Our first business then is to have Christ for our wisdom, in our own hearts and lives. The kingdom of God is first of all within us. Christ is made unto us wisdom, because he is also made our justification, sanctification, and redemption. But the triumph of Christ within is the pledge and earnest of his triumph without. He who spared not his own Son will, with him, freely give us all things. The good we strove for shall be ours some day. "No work begun shall ever pause for death." God has an eternity to work in. And only in eternity shall it be known how wise they were who took Christ for their wisdom, and who followed him even unto death.

Dear brethren, you go out from us with our blessing upon your heads. You leave in our hearts glad memories of your faithfulness. We shall follow you

with our prayers. We cherish high hopes for your future. But all these hopes are based upon our confidence that Christ is made to you wisdom. There are many snares before your feet, many powers of evil to attack you. There will be fightings without and fears within. But you have Christ. He is the Victor, and the victor's wreath is upon his brow. He can make you victorious, and can give you too, the victor's crown. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. You have joined yourselves to him. Now abide in him, and the very wisdom of God shall be yours.

1906

PRAYER AND MINISTRY

BRETHREN OF THE GRADUATING CLASS: Last words ought to be memorable words. I would like to sum up for you the whole substance of my teaching and the whole influence of the seminary. I would like to say the one thing which will be of greatest service through your future lives. I speak to you therefore of PRAYER AND MINISTRY.

You remember that, when deacons were chosen by the early church, the apostles urged the choice in order that they might give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. They left the care of the body to others and devoted themselves to care of the soul.

Sociology may be the business of deacons; the minister's business is theology. The work of the preacher

naturally leads to the work of the deacon. But while the deacon serves tables, the preacher must see that there are tables to be served; or, in other words, must make men Christian and keep them so.

The Christian ministry is a spiritual vocation. The preacher is a communicator, not of earthly bread, but of the bread of life. He deals with God's truth. He cannot give, unless he first receives. And prayer is receiving, or the condition of receiving. Actual reception of the truth from God is the indispensable condition of a fruitful ministry. But you ask: Have we not the truth already in the Scriptures? Yes, in an external and mechanical way, not in any such way as to move us or others. The automobile may have within itself all the forces and appliances for motion, yet may be cold and dead. There is a clutch that sets its latent energies to work. Prayer is the clutch that makes the truth effective, sets all the machinery of the soul in motion, and so reveals the hidden power within.

Prayer and ministry! The apostles, in choosing that order of the words, seem to have put prayer first, not only in time, but in importance. It is as much as to say: We are only media, instruments, channels of communication. The truth, the love, the power, must come from above. "In thy light shall we see light." I am inclined to believe that all errors of doctrine have resulted from the neglect of prayer. I doubt whether men who live a life of prayer can doubt the unity and sufficiency of Scripture, the supremacy of righteousness in God, the depravity and helplessness of man, God's initiative in human salvation, the deity and