None  was  more  helpful  than  his  presentation  to  me  on
the  day  after  my  sermon  of  a  copy  of  ''An  Earnest
Ministry  the  Want  of  the  Times,"  by  John  Angell
James,  published  in  1850.  This  copy  was  its  fourth
edition.  I  read  it  through  the  next  day,  marking  in
the  first  chapter  the  following  quotation:  ''No  min-
istry will  be  really  effective,  whatever  may  be  its  in-
telligence, which  is  not  a  ministry  of  strong  faith,  true
spirituality  and  deep  earnestness.''  Those  elements
forthwith  became  a  challenge  to  me  and  at  the  same
time  they  loomed  up  like  great  mountains  in  my  path-
way. I  have  been  discouraged  a  thousand  times  in
my  dream  to  climb  to  their  costly  heights,  but  I  have
never  been  able  to  get  away  from  the  picture  flung
upon  my  mind  by  that  sentence.  It  is  indeed  the  way
to  an  effective  ministry,  carrying  with  it  all  the  cost
that  the  best  things  demand.  I  have  seen  so  many  men
lose  God  in  sermon  making,  as  the  scientist  loses  Hiim
in  his  search  of  nature,  that  from  my  earliest  preach-
ing I  have  sought  to  guard  myself  and  made  prepar-
ing my  heart  more  important  than  preparing  my
mind.
The  great  wide  fields  of  ripe  harvests  call  for  labor-


16  WORKING  WITH   GOD

ers — true,  brave,  industrious,  clean-hearted  men,  who
have  caught  the  fire  from  the  burning  heart  of  infinite
love,  upon  whose  lips  have  been  laid  a  live  coal  from
God's  altar  and  who  live  in  the  light  of  great  distances.
