HERALDS OF GOD
ramparts of the world. Always the preacher of the Word has known himself to be a sentinel, appointed to keep vigil over immortal souls. Always the pressure of the immense responsibility has constrained him to cry, "Necessity is laid upon me: woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel!" That is not rhetoric. It is not the vehement, declamatory talk of the pietist or the fanatic. It is the plain unemotional declaration of the man who has grasped the essential issues of his calling. "These sheep of the Saviour's flock, these blundering, sinning, suffering, lovable men and women, these I must render again to the Lord who has given them to me, these I must offer at the throne in righteousness: else—God will ask the reason why! Their blood will God require at the watchman's hand." It is when this ultimate challenge stabs our conscience that we learn to see slackness, that ruinous besetting sin of so many a ministry, in its true colours, and make our vows unto the Lord against it.
Redemptive work is always costly. There is no hope of ease for the faithful servant of the Cross, It is involved in the very nature of his task that he can never be at the end of it. Not his to evade the burden and the heat of the day: physical weariness, sickness of heart and bitter disappointment, the strain of the passion for souls, all the wear and tear of vicarious burden-bearing—these he will know in full measure. He may even find himself wondering sometimes why he ever accepted a commission in a warfare in which there is no discharge. He may have moods when a
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