First of all, we must recognize the common human tendency to glorify the past to the disadvantage of the present. We all have reason to look out for this disposition, but it especially besets older people. Something about human nature makes it prone to live in the past. We are continually hearing it said or suggested that the great statesmen, the great poets, the great scholars, the great preachers, the great virtues, and the good days are all dead and gone. One may read something of this sort in the literature of ancient as well as modern ages. Yet the progress of the world has gone right on. The fact is that we quickly forget what the past actually was. When to-day becomes yesterday, we forget its troubles and glorify its redeeming features. It is well enough that we do, yet the habit often leads us far afield of the truth. If people were really called upon to live again some of the good old days they talk about so much, they might soon conclude that the change was for the worse. Next, we must remember that the standard of greatness constantly lifts. It takes more to make a great man to-day than it did in other years. The judgment of those who pass upon the question of a man’s greatness and accord him his place in history was never so exacting. The Harvard of Emerson’s day represented about the grade of scholarship obtainable now in a good high school. What then was exceptional scholarship is now commonplace. It is the same with statesmen. Men who were outstanding in their day would seem altogether mediocre in the face of the demands of this present period. In this time of widely diffused knowledge, it takes more than it ever did before to win the name of greatness in the pulpit. Next, we must remind ourselves that the minister occupies a very different place in the community from that which he held in other days. He is, therefore, judged by very different standards. Of old he was apt to be the chief educator of the community, and was judged by his learning. That place is now filled by the expert educator with the best equipment money can place at his disposal. He was the chief commentator on current affairs, and was judged by the wideness of his information. That place has been taken over by the editor. He was often the only trained public speaker in the town, and was judged by the polish of his oratory. Now the land overflows with capable public speakers. The conclusion of it all is that the work of the minister has narrowed down to the one specific thing to which he is called, the specialized service for which society must look to him alone. He is not to be judged by his learning, his familiarity with public affairs, or his ability as a speaker, altho he needs to possess them all. The one standard by which he is measured is the question of his ability as an exponent of the Christian religion.