Another habit which I would recommend you to cultivate from the very first is the homiletical habit. And by this I mean the habit of seizing upon every novel truth of Scripture, every suggestion of theological or scientific literature, every instructive or bright remark heard in conversation, every exigency in public affairs or in the private fortunes of those about you, every unfolding of your own needs or desires in secret prayer before God, as material for the awakening, encouraging, admonishing of the flock to which you minister. Remember always that you are a teacher, that the teacher must first be taught, that God teaches by his Providence as well as by his word, that whatever God teaches you, you are to teach others, that whatever interests you, affects you, moves you, can be made a means of interesting, affecting, moving others. Open your eyes then to see the homiletical significance and importance of all your reading and of all your experience; let all the currents of your life pour themselves into your preaching; that preaching cannot be tame or powerless, which reflects and represents all the passions, hopes and endeavors of a live and true man, as he is moved upon by the countless influences of God's twofold revelation in nature and in the Bible.

So much with regard to the habit of taking in. One word now about the habit of giving out. I beg you to cultivate the demonstrative habit. Many ministers are as busy as bees in gathering,- but the product is shut up in a dark hive, only the smallest portion of it is ever brought out to the light. There is a reticence, a shyness, a backwardness in the expression of ourselves, that constitutes a subtle foe to all ministerial success. This undemonstrativeness often excuses itself upon the ground of humility,— but it is false humility, in men who are set to be ambassadors of Jesus Christ, who have the word of the living God to preach, and to whom are promised all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Freedom of utterance is, of course, to a large degree, the result of quick thought and ready sympathy, but it is also the cause of quick thought and ready sympathy. Here, as well as elsewhere, the more we give, the more we have. Learn then to be yourselves, to say out what is in you, with manliness of tone, with strength of voice, if need be. Let your whole nature, your whole experience, your whole life, in short, all there is of you, speak for Christ.

Only one habit more shall be mentioned —I mean the believing habit. As respects your brethren, cherish the spirit of confidence; take them at their best; trust them as men and as Christians. "Believing all things," says the apostle. Men will not believe in you, unless you believe in them. Some ministers carry about with them an atmosphere of criticism and of suspicion. They do not believe in men. And as a result they do not love them, nor hope for them. And, so long as you have no confidence in them, you can do them little good. How different the open, cheery, sympathetic, hopeful spirit that sees, in every Christian, a branch of the true vine, unfruitful for the time it may be, yet dear to Christ, and still capable of bringing forth abundant fruit. But better than the habit of believing in men is the habit of believing in God. I exhort you, in this day when the old landmarks of doctrine are so frequently obscured by the fogs of speculation, to believe in God. The preacher doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Believe not only, but glory in believing,- make it your business to believe,- be in this respect an example to

those you teach. As Peter and John fastened their eyes stedfastly upon the blind man, and the courage and faith of their hearts passed through their eyes, as it were, into him, so let the spectacle of your faith exert all around you a contagious influence, and lead men themselves to trust the healing Son of God.

I can give only a single sentence to the question how this cultivation of right habits is to be managed. It is to be managed by persistent putting forth of single imperative volitions, often against the tendency of our natural impulses and desires-volitions repeated continuously in dependence upon the help of the Spirit of God. And what I say with regard to the advantages of such cultivation I must condense almost as much. You know what nervecentres are, and how physiologists tell us that by a sort of involuntary and automatic action these nerve-centres become lieutenants of the will and perform its behests even while we are apparently unconscious of their operation. I give the command to walk. There are nerve-centres that take the command from my will and execute it, I go down the street, putting forth no further conscious volitions; these subordinate powers do the work for me. The result is that my brain is left free for conversation with a friend, or for thought about my sermon. Every habit formed is in like manner a getting of the lower powers to do our work, with the result that the intellect and will are left free for other and higher concerns. Habits, therefore, economize our time and strength. The true pastor's maxim, "Never do anything yourself that you can get any one else to do for you," applies to his own faculties and powers. Conscious will should never do what it can get any of the lower powers to do for it. But it is more than economy,- it is safety also. Many a time, when selfish or indolent impulses would rule, they can be repressed by the simple thought that this is not our habit. The love of consistency saves us. Routine is itself a blessing. And these habits, if they are only habits of daily pondering God's work, of seeking its applications to human life, of uttering its truths to others, of trusting God and our brethren, will not only be the surest signs of a sanctified intellect and a self-sacrificing heart, but they will powerfully influence us to holiness and self-sacrifice, and so make the preacher a living example of the gospel which he preaches.

Be sure, my brethren, that what you are will influence your hearers more than what you preach. I look forward to earnest, persistent, unselfish, consecrated lives, to be lived and spent by this Class for Christ and for his church. God has been with you thus far, and he will guide you still. Though you may be widely separated, the memories of these three years of close companionship in sacred studies will be a refreshment and strength to you, and you will still be united to one another and to us by that one Spirit through whom we all have access to the Father. May God fill your places here by men as good and true, and raise up for the ministry a multitude as well prepared for their work! We rejoice to-night that we have been able to do anything towards forming your intellectual and moral habits, in preparation for your sacred calling. Be faithful to what you have been taught,better still, be faithful to the word of God, as the Spirit of God shall show you its meaning. You have been a pride and a comfort to us. Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers go with you. We expect, the churches expect, Christ expects, noble services from the class of eighteen hundred and eighty-four.

1885:

THE PREACHER'S DOUBTS.

BRETHREN OF THE GRADUATING CLASS: This is an hour of contrasts, a time of sadness and of gladness, an ending and a beginning. We part from you regretfully, for you have been faithful students of God's truth; hopefully, for you go to preach this truth to others. You have made your way to your present convictions through struggles; you have gained for yourselves a firm assurance of the great truths of Christianity. You believe that the Scriptures are a special revelation from God, and that they represent God as triune, creating, redeeming and judging the world in Jesus Christ. You believe that man is fallen, congenitally depraved and wholly dependent for salvation upon the atoning sacrifice of Calvary and upon the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit. You believe that out of the ruins of this fallen humanity God is building up a glorious church, which is to be his temple and dwelling-place forever, and that without connection with that great and invisible body, of which all earthly organizations are more or less perfect types and symbols, men abide in darkness and death.

But it is not about your beliefs-it is about your doubts, that I wish to speak to you. The preacher's doubts, and what he is to do with them this is my theme. And the first thing I would say is, that Christianity gives place and room for doubt. Of course I do not mean that it is right to doubt God, - I do mean that it is often right to doubt what men say about him. Jesus did not doubt God, but he did doubt the interpretations of the Scribes and Pharisees. To doubt God's existence, or to doubt God's word when it is clearly set before us, is sin, but when man or Satan says God is so and so, or that his word means this or that, it may be a duty to doubt, and doubt may be the only road to truth. Though you have a fixed belief with regard to the main matters of theology, you well know that there are a thousand questions yet unanswered, and with regard to these you are free as the air to use your intellects and to interpret the Bible for yourselves. About many commonly received opinions you will have your doubts. Your doubts may be a sign of mental progress. You can make the truth effective, only by stripping off the cerements with which custom has bound it, and by bringing it forth in new life and power from its sepulchre.

But, secondly, remember that while Christianity leaves place and room for doubt, the incidents are not the essence of Christianity, and a thousand differences of belief about details will not affect the truth of the general scheme. Let us never imagine that, because we cannot explain certain apparent difficulties, the whole system may be a delusion. The astronomer does not give up gravitation, simply because the movements of certain satellites as yet refuse to be brought under its law. Men may worship securely in a great cathedral, although many a superficial stone of its exterior seems crumbling and falling from its place. So we are to believe that the foundation of God standeth sure, in spite of manifold perplexities with regard to the details of Christian truth.

Thirdly, even as respects these minor matters of the faith, remember that doubt is not refutation. You are not the first that have seen these difficulties.

There were brave men before Agamemnon. The Holy Spirit's enlightening influences have been given to others besides yourselves. When you begin to doubt accepted interpretations, therefore, do not take it for granted at once that your doubts are just. Carry your doubt a little further, and doubt yourselves—your perspicacity, the comprehensiveness of your thought, the completeness of your induction of facts. Take advice — not the advice of doubters like yourselves only, but the advice of men who have worried through with their doubts, and who at least think they have got out of the quagmire upon solid ground. Read books-not the books of the enemies of Christ and his gospel exclusively, for you may so saturate yourselves with plausible unbelief, as utterly to unfit yourselves for sober, independent judgment, but the books of the great Christian thinkers, the Butlers, the Pascals, and in modern days the Dorners and the Smiths, of the church. Above all, live in the self-evidencing sunlight of the Scriptures; make the word of God the man of your counsel; ten to one, if you will permit it to do so, the Bible will explain itself.

Fourthly, do not preach new doctrine till you have some new doctrine to preach. In other words, do not publish your doubts,- wait till they become certainties. There is no foe to truth so dangerous as haste, for haste has self-will and presumption for fellow-laborers. The Holy Spirit was promised to guide the apostles into all the truth, but we know that he did not do this by some sudden flash of lightning, but rather by a continuous enlightenment as to doctrine and polity, which was not completed until the last apostle died. And so the Holy Spirit will guide us into all the truth - but not necessarily in three months. Preach no tentative sermons, then, to see how a certain new conception of yours will work, you have no business to try the materia medica of the gospel upon your patients in any such fashion. Keep your doubts to yourself, until you have solved them and do not need to preach them, or until you have found truth and verified it by long thought and observation, and can preach it as the very truth of God.

Fifthly, and finally, work and pray the more, the more you doubt. You cannot reach truth in this universe of God without the help of Christ, who is the truth. And he will give you his help in finding the truth, only as you obey him. Shall a man who doubts, shut himself out from preaching and from visiting the sick, on the plea that he must be wholly independent, and must give all his time to investigation? Remember that religious truth is a matter of the heart, as much as it is a matter of the intellect; that the cold heart cannot judge of it; that only sympathy for sinning and suffering men can prove that we love God; that without love to God we cannot know God, or know the truth of God. The more you doubt, then, throw yourselves the more vigorously and devoutly into all manner of Christian service. He who does Christ's will shall know of his teaching, whether it be from God. The more you doubt, pray the more. For doubts will disappear when the obedient servant lays them at the Master's feet; even on earth his presence will give us the best light for our darkness; and, when at last the day dawns and the shadows flee away, it will be heaven itself to hear his word: "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?

You are stewards of the mysteries of God, sent upon a great commission, entrusted with the truth that is to save mankind. You go out into an unbe

lieving age an age that is weary and hopeless in its unbelief, and that longs for nothing so much as the man that can bring positive truth from God, answers to the great problems of existence, practical salvation from its sorrow and sin. You can win, you can stand, in this age, only by believing. In more senses than one, the just nowadays shall live by his faith. That faith will be assailed, assailed more subtly and more powerfully than in any age before. Doubts will come to you - doubts that will shake you. You may treat them in two ways. You may treat them, on the one hand, as Othello treated his doubts of Desdemona. You may listen only to Iago; you may cast away all you have known in the past of Desdemona's truth and faithfulness, as so much credulity and superstition; you may condemn her on the unsupported testimony of her worst enemy; you may ruthlessly slay her you love best. So you may condemn Christ and his gospel on the word of his foes; you may turn doubt into apostasy; you may crucify the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. But there is another way to treat doubts. It is the way of doubting Thomas. He stayed away for a little from the assembly of Christ's disciples, but he came back; he said he would not be convinced unless he put his hand in the prints of the nails, but when Christ appeared to him he needed no such proof; he loved the Savior after all, and no disciple of them all left us so majestic a confession of faith as did this same doubting Thomas, when he bowed at Christ's feet and cried: “My Lord and my God."

My brethren, I do not pray for you that God will keep you from all doubt, but I do pray that through all doubt he may lead you into his truth. It is not doubt, but faith, that constitutes God's measure of a man. Romaine, in his diary, speaks of "a year famous for believing." I pray not that one year of your lives, but that every year of your lives may be a year famous for believing; for be sure that "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.'

1886:
HIGH-MINDEDNESS.

BRETHREN OF THE GRADUATING CLASS :— You have now accomplished your course of preparatory study. Full of hope and vigor, you are anticipating the public duties of the ministry. I trust that the Seminary has done something to fit you for them. You have learned to work here-to work from an inner impulse, and not because you were driven. You have gained some new knowledge of the great system of truth which you are to commend to your fellow-men. Above all, you have become more manly and more sympathetic, you are broader and truer men than when you came to us three years ago. Your instructors have seen growth in you, and it is with hope and cheer that we look forward to your service for Christ. Much of this hope is based upon our conviction that you are high-minded men, and and that this high-mindedness is of a Christian sort. It is with regard to this that I would speak to you. There is a high-mindedness that is good; there is a high-mindedness that is evil. I would have you cultivate the one; I would have you abhor and renounce the other.