It is not—need we say it?—that there should not be holy diligence and earnestness in the study of God’s Word, and in the study, too, of the exercises, the trials, the conflicts, and the varied difficulties of souls. Quite the reverse. We feel persuaded that the more absolutely we lean, in self-emptiness, upon the mighty power of the Holy Ghost, the more diligently and earnestly we shall study both _the Book_ and _the soul_. It would be a fatal mistake for a man to use professed dependence upon the Spirit as a plea for neglecting prayerful study and meditation. “Meditate upon these things; give thyself _wholly_ to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” (1 Tim. iv. 15.) But after all, let it ever be remembered that the Holy Ghost is the ever-living, never-failing spring of ministry. It is He alone that can bring forth, in divine freshness and fullness, the treasures of God’s Word, and apply them, in heavenly power, to the soul’s present need. It is not a question of bringing forth new truth, but simply of unfolding the Word itself, and bringing it to bear upon the moral and spiritual condition of the people of God. This is true ministry. A man may speak a hundred times on the same portion of Scripture, to the same people, and on each occasion he may minister Christ in spiritual freshness to their souls. And on the other hand, a man may rack his brain to find out new subjects, and new modes of handling old themes, and all the while there may not be one atom of Christ or of spiritual power in his ministry.