THE PASTOR'S INNER LIFE Power with God the condition of power with men; The promise of the Holy Spirit; Means of maintaining an inner life "endued with power from on high:" 1. The habitual practice of secret prayer; 2. The habitual self-application and self-appropriation of Divine truth; 3. Habitual self-surrender and consecration to Christ and His work; 4. An habitual looking above for the reward. +THE PASTOR.+ * * * * * * * * +SECTION I.+ THE DIVINE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. A special call from God is essential to the exercise of the Christian ministry. Reason itself would suggest that He, as a sovereign, would select His own officers and send His own ambassadors; and the Divine call of the ancient prophets, the analogous office in the old dispensation, creates a presumption of such a call in the Christian ministry. None were permitted to intrude into the prophetic office. God said: "The prophet which shall presume to speak a work in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, shall die" (Deut. xviii. 20); "Behold, I am against the prophets that steal My words" (Jer. xxiii. 30; see also Isa. vi.; Jer. i. 4-10). The proof of this is seen in the following considerations: 1. Ministers, in the New Testament, are always spoken of as designated by God. This is obviously true of the apostles and of the seventy, but it is seen also in the case of the ministry in general. The elders of Ephesus were set over the flock by the Holy Ghost (Acts xx. 28). Archippus received his ministry "in the Lord" (Col. iv. 17). Paul and Barnabas were separated to their work by the Holy Ghost (Acts xiii. 2). 2. The ministry constitute a special gift from Christ to the church; for "He gave some, Apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. iv. 11, 12). The gifts for these offices are bestowed by God, and the men are sent forth to their work by God Himself, in answer to the prayers of His people. (See Rom. xii. 6, 7; Luke x. 1, 2.) 3. The nature of the office, as implied in the terms used to designate it, requires a personal Divine call. They are called "ambassadors for Christ," speaking in His name; they are "stewards of God," entrusted with the Gospel for men.