HERALDS OF GOD
of the centuries. No minister of the Gospel has any right to cease to be a student when his College days are done. However burdened he may be in after years with the crowding cares of a large city congregation, however wearing to body, brain and spirit the toils of his twelve hours' day, he must and he can—by resolution, self-discipline, and the grace of God—remain a student to the end. The preacher who closed down his mind ten, twenty, thirty years ago is a tragic figure. Keep alert to what theology is saying. Refresh your soul with the living waters of the spiritual classics. Augustine's Confessions, Baxter's Reformed Pastor, Pascal's Thoughts, William Law's Serious Call, Wesley's Journal, von Hügel's Letters—all these and many more are your rightful heritage: and who could dwell with these and not be "strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man"? Enlarge your range sometimes to include the great enemies of the faith. Be debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians. Know what men have said against our holy religion. See how even there God turns the wrath of man to His praise, and the damaging arguments of the sceptics to the greater glory of Christ. Nor will you, if you are wise, neglect literature of a more general kind. You will find that history and biography, science and literary criticism, drama, fiction, poetry—all have some gift to bring for the preparation of your message. Not that you are to direct your reading with a deliberate eye to the garnering of sermon material! That makes for homiletical professionalism. But to have com-
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