opinions. If also, in direct connection with this investigation of a great truth, the pastor should preach on the leading points involved in it, he would greatly add to the definiteness of his own views, while the work of the study would thus come into the work of the pulpit, enhancing the interest and power of the sermons. III. SERMON PREPARATION. _The preparation of sermons should doubtless fill the chief place in these hours of private study._ This subject, however, belongs to the department of homiletics, and will be found amply treated in works specially devoted to it, such as Broadus on the _Preparation and Delivery of Sermons,_ Shedd's _Homiletic and Pastoral Theology,_ and the several courses of _Yale Lectures on Preaching._ I will, therefore, on this topic only emphasize the importance of high ideals of sermonizing and pulpit preparation. The sermon is the embodied result of the pastor's culture and reading, the public expression of his whole spiritual and intellectual manhood, and he is bound to show himself "a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" (2 Tim. ii. 15). He dishonors Christ and His Gospel if he habitually preaches without thorough study. The sermon is the message God sends by him to the people. It unfolds high and holy themes, into which "angels desire to look," and on which the profoundest minds of the ages have dwelt with wonder and awe. It deals with the souls of men and the great interests of eternity. Surely, the man who ventures to stand up and speak carelessly and thoughtlessly on such themes and amidst such interests has failed to grasp the primary idea of his great office as a Christian pastor. +SECTION XVIII.+ PASTORAL RESPONSIBILITY.