The danger is, lest we first tire of work, and then fancy that we have done enough, are discharged from service by our superior importance, or by our subscribing to pay a substitute. While any strength remains, we may not cease from personal work for Jesus.

Moreover, some will come in who are not busy bees but busybodies. They do not work for their own bread, but are surprisingly eager to eat that of others. These soon cause disturbance and desolation, but they know nothing of "well doing."

1. Religious work is well doing. Preaching, teaching, writing books and letters, temperance meetings, Bible classes, tract distributing, personal conversation, private prayer, praise.

2. Charitable work is "well doing." The poor, the widow and the fatherless, the ignorant, the sick, the fallen, and the desponding are to be looked after with tender care.

• Support of family by the husband.


• Management of house by the wife.


• Assistance in housework by daughters.


• Diligence in his trade by the young man.


• Study of his books by the child at school.


• Faithful service by domestics in the home.


• Honest toil by the day laborer.

• Support of aged persons by those who work for them.


• Watching over infirm or sick relatives.


• Bringing up children in the fear of the Lord.


• Work done in connection with the church of God to enable others to preach the gospel in comfort.

A true Christian must be a worker. Industry, or diligence in business, is a prime element in piety; and the industry God demands is the activity of our whole complex nature. Without this, a man may be a dreamer, but not a "doer"; and just so far as any faculty of our nature is left unemployed do we come short of a complete Christian character. I must be doing — I, my entire self, my hand, my foot, my eye, my tongue, my understanding, my affections — must be all, not only resolving, purposing, feeling, willing, but actively doing. "Let us be doing."

But more than this. I must be "well doing:' The Greek word expresses beauty, and this enters into the apostolic thought. True piety is lovely. Just so far as it comes short in the beautiful, it becomes monstrous. But, as used by Paul, it goes far beyond this, and signifies all moral excellence. Activity is not enough; for activity the intensest may be evil. Lucifer is as active, as constant, and earnest as Gabriel. But the one is a fiend and the other a seraph. Any activity that is not good is a curse always and only. Better be dead, inert matter — a stone, a clod — than a stinging reptile or a destroying demon; and herein lies the great practical change in regeneration. It transforms the mere doer into a well-doer. It is not so much a change in the energy as in the direction. — Charles Wadsworth, D.D.

The Hebrews have a saying that God is more delighted in adverbs than in nouns: 'tis not so much the matter that's done, but the matter how 'tis done, that God minds. Not how much, but how well! 'Tis the well-doing that meets with a well-done. Let us therefore serve God, not nominally or verbally, but adverbially. — Ralph Venning

D'Israeli tells the following story of two members of the Port Royal Society. Arnauld wished Nicolle to assist him in a new work, when the latter replied, "We are now old. Is it not time to rest?" "Rest!" returned Arnauld, "have we not all eternity to rest in?" So Gerald Massey sings—

l. As a certainty. It is a "faithful saying." We do not doubt the truth of our message, or how could we expect you to believe it? We believe and are sure because:

• It is a revelation of God.


• It is attested by miracles.


• It bears its witness within itself.


• It has proved its power upon our hearts.

• All have sinned and need a Savior.


• All who believe in Jesus have a Savior.


• All believers show by their lives that Jesus has saved them.

• You must believe it to be true.


• You must appropriate it to yourself.


• You ought to do so, for it is worthy of your acceptance.

• He is the Anointed of God: "Christ."


• He is the Savior of men: "Jesus."


• He is God and man in one person.


• He died and yet he lives for ever.

• By his birth as a man.


• By his mingling with men.


• By his bearing our sorrows and our sins for us.

• For such Jesus lived and labored.


• For such he died and made atonement.


• For such he has sent the gospel of pardon.


• For such he pleads in heaven.

• He finished the work of salvation before he left the world.


• That work continues complete to this day.


• He is ready to apply it to all who come to him.

• Not to half save them.


• Nor to make them salvable.


• Nor help them to save themselves.


• Nor to save them as righteous.


• But to save them wholly and effectually from their sins.

A visitor to Rome says, "I was struck with the frequency with which the priests and other exhibitors of church curiosities use the phrase, 'It is said' (on dit) when describing relics and rarities. They do not vouch for their being what they are reputed to be." "It is said." Are they ashamed of their curiosities? Do they thus try to satisfy their consciences? They do not express their personal belief, but — it is said. Not thus do gospel preachers speak. "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you."

There's a nice word in the text: it is the word "acceptation." It's all provided for you. It's very much like a supper. You'll find the table laid, and everything all ready. You're not expected to bring anything at all. I was once invited out to tea by a poor widow, and I took something in my pocket. But I'll never do it again. It was two cakes; and, when I brought them out and laid them on the table, she picked them up and flung them out into the street and said, "I asked you to tea; I didn't ask you to provide tea for me." And so with Christ: he asks, he provides, and he wants nothing but ourselves; and if we take aught else, he'll reject it. We can only sup with him when we come as we are. Who will accept salvation? Who'll say,

Mr. Moody said, "I remember preaching on the subject 'Christ as a Deliverer; and walking away, I said to a Scotchman, 'I didn't finish the subject.' 'Ah, man! You didn't expect to finish, did ye? It'll take all eternity to finish telling what Christ has done for man.'"

Luther says, "Once upon a time, the devil said to me, 'Martin Luther, you are a great sinner, and you will be damned! "Stop! Stop!' said I. 'One thing at a time. I am a great sinner, it is true, though you have no right to tell me of it. I confess it. What next?' 'Therefore, you will be damned.' 'That is not good reasoning. It is true I am a great sinner, but it is written, "Jesus Christ came to save sinners." Therefore, I shall be saved! Now, go your way.' So I cut the devil off with his own sword, and he went away mourning because he could not cast me down by calling me a sinner."

The Jews have a saying that the manna tasted to each one precisely like that which he liked best. The gospel is suited to every man, whatever his needs or desires may be.

One of William Carey's last visitors was the Rev. Alexander Duff who talked with him of his past life, then knelt down and prayed by his bedside. Leaving the room, Mr. Duff thought he heard himself recalled. He turned back, and the dying man addressed him in a whisper, "Mr. Duff, you have been talking about Doctor Carey, Doctor Carey. When I am gone, say nothing about Doctor Carey. Speak about Doctor Carey's Savior."

The text flatly contradicts such a supposition: the very reason for his salvation was that he might be a type of other conversions.

He was foremost in sin and also in grace, and thus his life speaks to the extremes on each side.

• He was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious.


• He went as far as he could in hatred to Christ and his people.


• Yet, the grace of God changed him and forgave him.

• He was faithful in ministry, clear in knowledge, fervent in spirit, patient in suffering, diligent in service.


• And all this notwithstanding what he once was.

• Long-suffering was carried to its highest pitch.


• Long-suffering was so great that all the patience of God seemed to be revealed in his one instance.


• Long-suffering was concentrated. All the long-suffering that has ever been seen or ever will be seen in others met in him.


• Long-suffering which displayed itself in many ways, so as—
To let him live when persecuting saints.
To allow him the possibility of pardon.
To call him effectually by grace.
To give him fullness of personal blessing.
To put him into the ministry and send him to the Gentiles.
To keep and support him even unto the end.

He was saved remarkably, but others will be seen to be saved in like manner if we look below the surface of things:

• Saved without previous preparation on his own part.


• Saved at once out of darkness and death.


• Saved by divine power alone.


• Saved by faith wrought in him by God's own Spirit.


• Saved distinctly and beyond all doubt.

• There is a sad resemblance in our sin.


• There is a similarity in the divine long-suffering towards us.


• There is a likeness in some degree in the revelation, for the Lord Jesus asks us from heaven, "Why persecutest thou me?"


• Shall there not be a similarity also in the faith?


• Will we not ask, "Who art thou, Lord?" and "What wilt thou have me to do?"

The word "pattern" in the original is expressive: a pattern from which endless copies may be taken. You have heard of stereotype printing. When the types are set up, they are cast — made a fixed thing, so that from one plate you can strike off hundreds of thousands of pages in succession without the trouble of setting up the types again. Paul says, "That I might be a plate never worn out — never destroyed, from which proof impressions may be taken to the very end of time." What a splendid thought that the apostle Paul, having portrayed himself as the chief of sinners, then portrays himself as having received forgiveness for a grand and specific end, that he might be a standing plate from which impressions might be taken forever, that no man might despair who had read his biography! — Dr. Cumming

An infidel, during his sickness, became convinced of his wretched condition, and by the assistance of a Sabbath-school teacher was led to the Savior and found salvation in his blood. After the change, which had passed in his heart, he often spoke of the Savior's love and the heaven into which he hoped soon to enter. Finding his life drawing rapidly to a close, he urged the teacher to proceed in his glorious work of doing good; then, opening his bedroom window, which overlooked a bustling and crowded thoroughfare, as he gazed upon the human forms beneath, summoning his last remaining strength, he cried at the top of his voice, "There is mercy for all! None need despair, since I, a poor infidel, have obtained mercy." This, his last work, accomplished, exhausted by the effort, he fell back on his bed and instantly died. — Haughton, in Bate's Cyclopaedia

John Newton, speaking of the sudden death of Robinson, of Cambridge, in the house of Dr. Priestly, said: "I think Dr. Priestly is out of the reach of human conviction; but the Lord can convince him. And who can tell but this unexpected stroke may make some salutary impression upon his mind? I can set no limits to the mercy or the power of our Lord, and therefore I continue to pray for him. I am persuaded he is not farther from the truth now than I was once." In the same spirit, Newton wrote the lines:

Every conversion of a great sinner is a new copy of God's love; it is a repeated proclamation of the transcendency of his grace. This was his design in Paul's conversion. He sets up this apostle as a white flag to invite rebels to treat with him and return to their loyalty. As every great judgment upon a grand sinner is as the hanging a man in chains to deter others from the like practice, so every conversion is not only an act of God's mercy to the convert, but an invitation to the spectators. — Stephen Charnock