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to be the instrument of saving others? Is it for this that I exist? To accomplish this would I
gladly die? Have I seen the pleasure of the Lord prospering in my hand? Have I seen souls
converted under my ministry? Have God's people found refreshment from my lips, and gone
upon their way rejoicing, or have I seen no fruit of my labors, and yet content to remain
unblest? Am I satisfied to preach, and yet not know of one saving impression made, one
sinner awakened? Can I go contentedly through the routine of ministerial labour, and never
think of asking how God is prospering the work of my hands and the words of my lips?"

Nothing short of positive success can satisfy a true minister of Christ. His plans may
proceed smoothly and his external machinery may work steadily, but without actual fruit
in the saving of souls he counts all these as nothing. His feeling is: "My little children, of
whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." And it is this feeling which
makes him successful. "Ministers," said Owen, "are seldom honored with success unless they
are continually aiming at the conversion of sinners." The resolution that in the strength and
with the blessing of God he will never rest without success, will insure it. It is the man who
has made up his mind to confront every difficulty, who has counted the cost and, fixing his
eye upon the prize, has determined to fight his way to it—it is such a man that conquers.

The dull apathy of other days is gone. Satan has taken the field actively, and it is best to meet
him front to front. Besides, men's consciences are really on edge. God seems extensively
striving with them, as before the flood. A breath of the Divine Spirit has passed over the
earth, and hence the momentous character of the time, as well as the necessity for

improving it so long as it lasts. The "earnestness" which marks the age is not of man, but of
God. To give the right direction to this earnestness is the great business of every one that
would be a fellow-worker with God. It is taking so many wrong directions—such as
skepticism, ritualism, rationalism, Romanism, etc.—that we must make haste to put forth
every effort to lead it aright. The one true goal or resting-place where doubt and weariness,
the stings of a pricking conscience, and the longings of an unsatisfied soul would all be
quieted, is Christ himself. Not the church, but Christ. Not doctrine, but Christ. Not
forms, but Christ. Not ceremonies, but Christ; Christ the God-man, giving His life
for ours; sealing the everlasting covenant, and making peace for us through the blood of
His cross; Christ the divine storehouse of all light and truth, "in whom are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge;" Christ the infinite vessel, filled with the Holy Spirit,
the enlightener, the teacher, the quickener, the comforter, so that "out of his fullness we may
receive, and grace for grace." This, this alone is the vexed soul's refuge, its rock to build
on, its home to abide in till the great tempter be hound and every conflict ended in victory.

It is to give this direction to the varied currents of earnestness that we must strive. How
these may multiply, what strange directions they may yet take, with what turbid torrents they
may pour along the valleys of the earth, what ruin they may carry before them, and with what
a hideous deluge they may yet overflow the world, dissolving and leveling
everything divine and good, everything true and noble, who shall adventure to
foretell?