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approaching to overwhelm her, and Love abandoning her to its horrors.^
^ Life without industry is guilt ; and industry without art is brutality.2
^ There is no cure for the despair and the nervous misery from which so many among us are sufiering like a long and steady piece of hard work. "Work reacts on the worker. If it is slovenly it makes him slovenly, even in his outward appearance. If he does it, not with any love, but merely as drudgery, it gives him the careless look of drudgery. "To scamp your work will make you a scamp." On the contrary, when work is well done it yields its reward long before pay-day comes round, because it communicates solidity and dignity to the character. I do not know any man who is more to be envied than the man who has an eye
That winces at false work, and loves the true; With hand and arm that play upon the toil As willingly as any singing-bird Sets him to sing his morning roundelay, Because he likes to sing, and likes the song.^
2. It is this real work, this earnest life, that the Apostle desires to see exemplified in the Church of Christ, and among its members. It is thus that He would have them to undertake and prosecute the work of their Christian calling, to perform the functions of whatever they may find to be their office in the Church, the body of Christ, of which they are members. No doubt there is here a peculiar difficulty, arising out of the nature of that work and these functions. They are essentially spiritual. They make a demand upon the spiritual tendencies and tastes. In any circumstances, the faculty or habit which is required is difficult of acquisition. Still, there are certain qualities which are essential to worldly success, and if we carry them over into the life of the spirit we shall find that they are there also the secrets of progress in Christian usefulness.
(1) Here is a quality which is greatly esteemed in the ways of the world — the quality of alertness. It is characteristic of every successful merchant. If we listen to the ordinary speech of the man of the world, we find how great is the value which he places upon this gift. " A man must have all his wits
1 Hugh Macmillan, G. F. Watts, 214. ^ Ruskin. « J. Stalker.
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about him." "It is the early bird that catches the worm." These are recognized maxims in the way of success, and they point to the commanding necessity of an alert spirit. A merchant must be alert for the detection of hidden perils. He must be alert for the perception of equally hidden opportunity. He must be alert for the recognition of failing methods. His eyes must clearly see where old roads are played out, and where new ground may be broken. Let us carry the suggestion over into the affairs of the Kingdom. The Scriptures abound in counsel to alertness. " Awake, awake ! " " Watch ye ! " " Let us watch and be sober ! " " Watching unto prayer." It is an all-essential ingredient in the life of the progressive saint.
^ The watchfulness which Jesus Christ commands is a faith- ful care to love always and to fulfil the will of God at the present moment, according to the indications we have of it ; it does not consist in worrying ourselves, in putting ourselves to torture, and in being ceaselessly occupied with ourselves, but rather in hfting our eyes to God, from whence comes our only help against our- selves.i
^ " Buy up the opportunity." We are especially to look at things that appear to be useless, lest they turn out to be the raw material of the garments of heaven. Sir Titus Salt, walking along the quay of Liverpool, saw a pile of unclean waste. He saw it with very original eyes, and had the vision of a perfected and beautified product. He saw the possibilities in discarded refuse, and he bought the opportunity. That is perhaps the main business of the successful citizen of the Kingdom — the conversion of waste. This disappointment which I have had to-day, what can I make out of it ? What an eye it wants to see the ultimate gain in checked and chilled ambition —
To stretch a hand through time, and catch The far-off interest of tears.
This grief of mine, what can I make of it? Must I leave it as waste in the track of the years, or can it be turned into treasure ? This pain of mine, is it only a lumbering burden, or does the ungainly vehicle carry heavenly gold ? It is in conditions of this kind that the spiritual expert reveals himself. He is all " alive unto God," and seeing the opportunity he seizes it like a successful merchant.2
^ Fenelon. » J, H. Jowett.
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(2) Again, we hear one man say of another who has risen to fortune : " Everything about him goes like clockwork." Of an- other man whose days witness a gradual degeneracy quite another word is spoken : " He has no system, no method ; everything goes by the rule of chance." So the quality of method appears to be one of the essentials of a successful man of affairs. Is this equally true in the things of the Kingdom ? How many there are of us who, in our religious life, are loose, slipshod, unmethodical ! How V- unsystematic we are in our worship and our prayers ! Our worldly business would speedily drop into ruin if we applied to it the inconsiderate ways with which we discharge the duties of our religion.