Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/114

hard heart have we broken? And if not, is it not because we have not first learned of God what we teach to others? If we sought it of Him He would give us a mouth and wisdom which even our adversaries would not be able to resist or to gainsay. The best meditation before preaching is prayer. We must, indeed, meditate what we preach, and make meditations in our sermons, but not sermons in our meditations; for our meditations are for our own sanctification, and we cannot more surely reach the hearts of other men than by teaching what has first been realised in our own. For this reason the work of preaching the Word of God keeps us always as learners at the feet of our Divine Master. And in speaking His truth it reacts with a powerful effect upon ourselves. It deepens its outlines on our own intellect, conscience, and heart. It powerfully sustains our will; it replenishes our mind, keeping alive in our memory the meditations of long years that are past with continual fresh accessions of light. And it brings down a special blessing into the heart of the preacher. Qui inebriat inebriabitur et ipse. He that abundantly refreshes the souls of men with the water of life shall be abundantly refreshed himself. He that watereth shall be watered himself in the very time and act of speaking for God. A hum-