Chapter VII: Part II: I—odd Volumes (3)

'_Be shod with sandals!_' said the Master; so that at a moment's notice, you may slip them _off_ to welcome the vision or slip them _on_ to take to the road. The crest of the Baptist Missionary Society is a picture of an ox between a plough and an altar, while, underneath the symbols, are the words '_Ready for Either!_' The ox is ready for service in the field or for sacrifice in the temple. Christ's minister stands between the glory and the majesty of things divine on the one hand and all the paths and the prose of human life on the other. He must be ready at any moment to enter into fellowship with the skies; and he must be ready at any moment to hurry forth to see a sick child, to comfort a broken-hearted woman or to share the burden of a man whose load is greater than he can bear. '_Be shod with sandals_'; so that, whether the Revelation or the Road shall call, you are ready for either. The ministry is neither mundane nor monastic; the minister wears sandals that he may keep in touch with two worlds.

Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
Where the race of men go by;
They are good, they are bad, they are weak, they are strong,
Wise, foolish. So am I.

Let me turn not away from their smiles nor their tears,—
Both parts of an infinite plan,—
Let me live in my house by the side of the road,
And be a friend to man!

And there, in his house by the side of the road, the minister will welcome his wondrous visions, and will take good care to _be shod with sandals_. Gurnall concludes the first volume of his great work in _The Christian Armour_ with 'Six Directions for the Helping On of this Spiritual Shoe'; but the man who is wise enough to wear sandals stands in no need of any such elaborate instructions.