in Goethe's "Faust," where he speaks of this earth as being the living, visible garment of God:

In being's floods, in action's storm,

I walk and work, above, beneath,

Work and weave in endless motion !
Birth and death,

An infinite ocean;

A seizing and giving

The fire of the living;

'Tis thus at the roaring loom of time I ply,

And weave for God the garment thou seest him buy.

Goethe has well said that nature is the garment of God; and a beautiful garment it is, too. Like the coat of Jesus it is woven without seam from top to bottom, and must not be divided, but must remain an unblemished whole to the praise and honor of Him whose garment it is.

J. F. Chaffen

ART. VI.-A STUDY OF EMINENT DIVINES.

GREAT men are our best teachers. Inspiration comes not from what the books say, but from what men do. Out of feebleness into strength is the most marvelous journey in the universe or in all eternity. Not before the swift feet of angels does the path lie, but beneath the leaden tread of mortals. To study God's gifted ministers, as they walk along the historic ages, is therefore most helpful. Yet the theme of sacred eloquence, or the "golden tongue," is enough for volumes, and only a few of the elements of success can be noted here:

Health.-First should come that which is natural, and, afterward, the spiritual. Weariness in the study begets fatigue in the pew. Jonathan Edwards, the Plato of the pulpit, says that "a sound body is indispensable to a sound mind." No congregation wants a sickly minister. Work in the study, homes, and pulpit must be such as to keep up vigorous health. The preacher's body is to be a well-tuned instrument for God's hand, out of which to bring the richest music of all time. Yet some of the world's eminent divines have been men of feeble health. Peter the Hermit was of small stature, ungainly shape, and sickly appearance. But, with fiery enthusiasm and great flow of words, his passion swept like a torrent. Sometimes, with clinched fists, he would beat his own breast until badly wounded. St. Bernard was a man of feebleness, and no wonder, for he kept himself pale and ghostly on his food of barley bread with broth made from boiled beech leaves. This, with rising at two o'clock in the morning, with long chants and prayers, and with hard manual labor, reduced him almost to spirit. Calvin was small, slender, sickly, sunken-cheeked, and stooped with study and weariness. His bodily condition colored his theology. He had little of that human sympathy which glorifies the best thought and life of our age. He became a mighty intellectual force in the world, but gave “far more of law than Gospel, more of Moses than of Christ."

St. Paul had such grave defects of body that he thought himself unsightly, and must have a traveling companion and amanuensis; but he had insight to see the underlying philosophic principles, and gloried in his infirmities. Luther was healthy, robust, rosy-cheeked, and musical. God built him a

magnificent body, as a means to an end. In such a personality the desires for freedom, simplicity, and equality which had been growing in the race for centuries found expression; and the new thought took the form of the universal priesthood of believers, with the right and responsibility of the individual to think, act, and answer for himself. Justification by faith was shown to be the privilege of men, and the union with God direct. Thence came a new order in society-in the State, as well as in the Church-which infused another spirit of progress along nobler lines. Ephraem Syrus was so ascetic as to look sickly, but beautifully exemplified the monastic virtues. Isaac Barrow was a man of extraordinary physical strength, and his force of character corresponded. In youth he was a bad boy. His father said that if it should please God to take away any of his children he wished it might be Isaac. His teacher went so far as to say that he was "an imbruted pugilist." After conversion his literary achievements were marvelous. He became a philosopher, preacher, profound mathematician, and the teacher of Sir Isaac Newton. His early habit of "tobacco," with other youthful imprudences, weakened his great body, and he died at fortyseven-the "bad boy" at last conquering the great man.

Education.-Next after the physical comes the mental. A few eminent ministers have not had collegiate training. Ephraem was a leading Christian orator of his century. His school he found in books and his contemporaries. Fuller, of the seventeenth century, had a brief period at Cambridge, but made himself by extensive reading. He absorbed the classical writings of Owen, and the afterglow of the dazzling days of Shakespeare was in his style. In him the world-spirit of the Elizabethan dramatists becomes urbanity, wit, and humor. But he had not the intensity of nature, profound conviction, and deep insight which characterize the true theologian of the grace of God. He was rather a cavalier at heart

and "a most jaunty follower of King Charles." Across the sweep of centuries perhaps not over six other eminent divines stand out as self-made men. The great mass of celebrities have been thoroughly educated in the universities. Ambrose (A. D. 340-397) was of a distinguished family and carefully trained by the ablest scholars at Rome. He practiced law at Milan with much success, and became civil governor. By the people, led by a little child, he was chosen bishop, and afterward he was ordained. Because of his fine appearance and elegant, flowing style he was called the "Christian Cicero." The influence of his preaching was greatly increased by his administrative talents, a much needed gift in our own age. He is a case in point to prove that Christian statesmanship is essential in the pulpit.

Bernard used to speak slightingly of learning, but took good care to secure it first. His eloquence swept all the keys of the human soul, from tender pathos to good-tempered humor. He was also a careful writer, and has left eighty-six sermons on the three first chapters of Solomon's Song. Basil the Great came of a famous family, rich, powerful, and very pious, with a tendency to ecstatic emotional enthusiasm back to the grandparents. This gave him all possible advantages. His father was a distinguished rhetorician, and gave him careful instructions from childhood. He spent some five years studying philosophy with the masters at Constantinople and Athens. Julian, the apostate emperor, was among his schoolfellows. It is said the Athenian students had such a high opinion of young Basil on his entering college that as a special favor they consented to exempt him from being hazed. He must have been a remarkable youth, and came to show a marvelous skill in constructing learned discourses. The sermons left by him on drunkenness and the Gospel view of evil are still regarded as remarkable. Ephraem, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Augustine were from families of high social position. This gives a preacher an advantage which is of no slight importance.

Bossuet was of good family, his father being president of the parliament of Metz. The child was brought up and trained in a house full of books. He delighted in Latin and

Greek literature, Homer being his lifelong companion. One day he chanced to find a Bible left open at Isaiah, and began to read. He was thrilled by the poetry, and thenceforth it became his chief book. The Scriptures were transfused into a man. His intellect was quickened by the new philosophy of Descartes, and he achieved distinction in every department while in the university at Paris except mathematics, for which he seems to have possessed neither taste nor faculty. His passion for the one book became so great that he memorized almost the entire contents, but mostly shaped his style from the prophet Isaiah. Bourdaloue's father was a gifted lawyer, who equipped his son with a thorough collegiate education. His early training in a cultured home gave him peculiar advantage. He was able to be simple with the simple, erudite with the learned, and a dialectician with sophists and disputants, so that he exercised a sort of empire over all minds. In this ascendency he owed much to the gentleness of his manners. He "lifted his profession," and never did Christian orator infuse into his discourses more dignity, energy, and grandeur. His discourses have been described as embodying in themselves a complete course of theology. Voltaire said of Bourdaloue that he tried to convince, but not to please. This itself was one of the great secrets of pleasing. At thirty-seven he came to Paris, where they regarded him as an angel of light and where his church overflowed. For over thirty years he was the leading court preacher of France, until the brilliant star of young Massillon blazed upon the horizon. Fénelon, the younger contemporary of Bossuet and Bourdaloue, was educated with greatest care and became the foremost of all French preachers in that magnetic unction so delightful to those people. He was a man of fine culture and the highest charm of style.

Claude, the noted Protestant divine, was the son of a learned minister. Being first carefully educated at home, he was sent to the best colleges to study philosophy and theology. Then he took a small country charge, where he pursued his studies and taught some until forty-seven, when he was prepared to enter Paris and take a commanding position. His “Essay on the Composition of a Sermon " was for over one hundred and