The Minister's Might in God.
PHILIP HENRY thus wrote upon a studying day: "I forgot when I began, explicitly and expressly, to crave help from God, and the chariot wheels drove accordingly. Lord, forgive my omission, and keep me in the way of duty." Another old divine observes: "If God drop not down his assistance, we write with a pen that hath no ink. If any in the world need walk dependently upon God more than others, the minister is he." It was once said to a minister of Christ, whose labors had been abundantly successful. "Sir, if you did not plough in your closet, you would not reap in your pulpit." The eminent author of "The Saints' Rest," being reminded of his labors on his death-bed, replied, "I was but a pen in God's hand, and what praise is due to a pen?" "After having composed and delivered a sermon," says Bishop Horne, "I have often thought of and repeated the following lines of Thompson:—
'Be gracious, Heaven! for now laborious man
Has done his part. Ye fostering breezes blow!
Ye softening dews, ye tender showers descend!
And temper all, thou world-reviving sun,
Into a perfect year.'" A minister has no ground to hope for fruits from his exertions until in himself he has no hope; until he has learned to put no faith in the point and energy of sentences; until he feels that a man may be mighty to compel the attention, and mighty to regale the imagination, and mighty to silence the gainsayer and yet not mighty to the pulling down of strong holds."