And did He not call Joan of Arc to her strange and wonderful
mission? And Washington and Lincoln?
And, no doubt, He _leads_ most men by His providence to
their life-work; but the call to preach the Gospel is more than a
providential leading; it is a distinct and imperative conviction.
Bishop Simpson, in his "Lectures on Preaching," says:--
"Even in its faintest form there is this distinction between a
call to the ministry and a choice of other professions: a young
man may _wish_ to be a physician; he may _desire_ to enter the
navy; he would _like_ to be a farmer; but he feels he _ought_ to
be a minister. It is this feeling of _ought_, or obligation,
which in its feeblest form indicates the Divine call. It is not
in the aptitude, taste, or desire, but in the conscience, that
its root is found. It is the voice of God to the human conscience,
saying, 'You ought to preach.'"
Sometimes the call comes as distinctly as though a voice had
spoken from the skies into the depths of the heart.
A young man who was studying law was converted. After a while he
was convicted for sanctification, and while seeking he heard, as
it were, a voice, saying, "Will you devote all your time to the
Lord?" He replied: "I am to be a lawyer, not a preacher, Lord."
But not until he had said, "Yes, Lord," could he find the
blessing.
A thoughtless, godless young fellow was working in the corn-field
when a telegram was handed him announcing the death of his
brother, a brilliant and devoted Salvation Army Field Officer;
and there and then, unsaved as he was, God called him, showed him
a vast Army with ranks broken, where his brother had fallen, and
made him to feel that he should fill the breach in the ranks.
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