0 God-possessed ! Thy raiment is not from the looms of earth, But has a Heavenly birth."1
3. The time of every man's service comes to an end. Some work for a longer and others for a shorter time in the vineyard,
1 T. E. Brown, Old John and Other Poems, 152.
28o A PROMISED INHERITANCE
but with each one the night comes when no man can work. One just begins his labours when he is cut down in the midst of his days, and hurried away to give in his account. Another has to bear the burden and heat of the day, and is spared to be an old disciple, that his matured piety may shine as a heavenly light in a dark world. But with all, the dismission time comes at last. " Our fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do they live for ever ? " Surely the thought should solemnize us all, and especially when we consider that the time is not only short, but very uncertain. Surely what we are to do for the salvation of our own souls, we should do now, giving all diligence to make our calling and election sure. And what we are to do for the good of our fellow-men, and for the glory of our Lord, we should do earnestly, as we have opportunity from day to day. To-day only is ours. To-morrow we may never see. The call is emphatic : " Go work to-day in my vineyard " — not to-morrow, or at any future time, but to-day, now, at this present hour, while opportunity offers and life lasts.
T| How earnestly he now set himself to make the most of life in a religious sense appears from a sort of aphorism on conduct which he wrote down originally for his own use, and afterwards communicated as a parting gift to his friend Farrar [afterwards Dean of Canterbury], who was about to become a master at Marlborough School. As a record of the spirit in which Maxwell entered at three-and-twenty on his independent career, this frag- ment is of extraordinary value.
" He that would enjoy life and act with freedom must have the work of the day continually before his eyes. Not yesterday's work, lest he fall into despair, nor to-morrow's, lest he become a visionary, — not that which ends with the day, which is a worldly work, nor yet that only which remains to eternity, for by it he cannot shape his actions.
" Happy is the man who can recognize in the work of To-day a connected portion of the work of life, and an embodiment of the work of Eternity. The foundations of his confidence are unchangeable, for he has been made a partaker of Infinity. He strenuously works out his daily enterprises, because the present is given him for a possession.
" Thus ought Man to be an impersonation of the Divine process of nature, and to show forth the union of the infinite with the finite, not slighting his temporal existence, remembering that in
DANIEL xn. 13 281
it only is individual action possible, nor yet shutting out from his view that which is eternal, knowing that Time is a mystery which man cannot endure to contemplate until eternal Truth enlighten it."1
4. God says not only to individuals — to each of His own servants, when he has done his work — " Go thou thy way." He says it to communities of men and witnesses for the truth. He says it to churches. He says it to generations. He says it to worlds — to one world after another : " Go thou thy way." What power of will and thought is His which can develop itself in fulness only through all the worlds and along all the ages ! How great is His patience, which waits and is never weary, until the evil is vanquished and the good is triumphant at last ! And how vast is His providence, by which the whole is wrought out ! All thoughts and plans and systems of man, all passions, all pursuits, all births and deaths of individuals and of nations, all histories of races, — everything is in the providence and plan of God. Some things are inserted and sustained directly by Himself, some things by the exercise of the free choice of His creatures; but everything is ruled and used for the accomplishment of His ultimate and perfect will.
Tj The patience and long-suffering of God should be another subject of continual thanksgiving. Is it not wonderful how He has borne with us, and we so miserably perverse the while ? What a miracle of patience God has been ! Can we not enter into the spirit of that Spanish lady of whom Father Eho speaks, who said, " That if she had to build a church in honour of the attributes of God, she would dedicate it to the Divine Patience " ? Even the heathen Emperor Antoninus thanked God for the occasions of sin to which he had never been exposed. This, then, is another personal blessing for which we must always be giving thanks. St. Chrysostom, also, would have us remember with special gratitude the hidden and unknown blessings which God has heaped upon us. " God," he says, " is an over-running fountain of clemency, flowing upon us, and round about us, even when we know it not." In this matter Father Peter Faber was remarkable. He used to say there were hardly any blessings we ought more scrupulously to thank God for than those we never asked, and those which come to us without our knowing it. It is not un- likely, in the case of many of us, that these hidden blessings may 1 L. Campbell and W. Garnett, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, 200.