No  pursuit  of  mortal  men  is  to  be  compared  with  that
of  soul-winning.  I  know  what  I  say  when  I  bid  you
think  of  it  as  men  think  of  entering  the  cabinet  of  the
nation,  or  occupying  a  throne;  it  is  a  royal  business,
and  they  are  true  kings  who  follow  it  successfully.
The  harvest  of  godly  service  is  not  yet:  ''we  do
with  patience  wait  for  it;"  but  we  have  earnests  of
our  wage,  refreshing  pledges  of  that  which  is  laid  up
in  heaven  for  us.  Partly,  this  reward  lies  in  the  work
itself.  Men  go  hunting  and  shooting  for  mere  love  of
the  sport;  surely,  in  an  infinitely  higher  sphere,  we
may  hunt  for  men's  souls  for  the  pleasing  indulgence
of  our  benevolence.  To  some  of  us,  it  would  be  an
unendurable  misery  to  see  men  sink  to  hell,  and  to  be
making  no  efifort  for  their  salvation.  It  is  a  reward
to  us  to  have  a  vent  for  our  inward  fires.  It  is  woe  and
weariness  to  us  to  be  shut  up  from  those  sacred  activi-
ties which  aim  at  plucking  fire-brands  from  the  flame.
We  are  in  deep  sympathy  with  our  fellows,  and  feel
that,  in  a  measure,  their  sin  is  our  sin,  their  peril  our
peril.
If  another  lose  the  way,
My  feet  also  go  astray;
If  another  downward  go.
In  my  heart  is  also  woe.
It  IS  therefore  a  relief  to  set  forth  the  gospel,  that  we


THE  SOUL-WINNER'S  REWARD.  195

may  save  ourselves  from  that  sympathetic  misery  which
echoes  in  our  hearts  the  crash  of  soul-ruin.
