John tells how an angel brought him a little book and told him to eat it. He did so, and in his mouth it was sweet as honey, but as soon as he had swallowed it, the sweetness changed to bitterness. That is the way with the word of truth. We must absorb it. The study of it is sweet, but the weight of care it lays upon us is bitter. It places us under the great compulsion. One morning Jesus slipped out in the gray dawn, stood on the slope overlooking the quiet rooftops of Jerusalem, and wept. What so moved Him? It was the difference He saw between the city that was and the city that might have been, the world that was and the world that might have been. He had dreamed of better things and had discovered how difficult was their realization. The great compulsion was upon Him. Key words are interesting in the vocabulary of such a one as Paul. One of his favorite words was _bondslave_. Another was _must_. A heavy sense of obligation was upon him. The feeling that took the vocal form of that word drove him over land and sea, planting the seeds of the kingdom life. A great vision had gripped his soul. A dream had possessed him. He could never rest again, for the great compulsion was upon him. The Minister and His Reading (1928) What the world and the spirit of the times have done to the reading habits of the public in general, they have also done to the minister. In the case of the public, they have sought to substitute the motion picture, the tabloid newspaper, and the confession magazine for the bookshelf. In the case of the minister, they seek to take the hours once devoted to the enrichment of the mind and dedicate them to the puttering things so fondly called practical duties—organizations, promotion, community activities. Where the world leaves off, the church begins, for it is not wholly free from infection with the virus of materialism. Often the very disciples of Jesus get the idea that it is more important to make a stir in the world of today than to build life for the eternities. We hear frequent complaints that there is a dearth of commanding preaching. The wonder is not that there are so few challenging voices in the pulpit, but that there are as many as there are when so many forces are joined in a giant conspiracy to throttle the spirit of prophecy. There is not enough encouragement to men to be great preachers. Yet wherever there is a voice that speaks with authority and not as the Scribes, there are people to hear it, though it be in the slums of a city or the depths of a forest. There will be plenty of such voices when the world and the church allow men to get back to the reflective life, and when ministers themselves once more determine to spend much time with the truth of God.