III. The third and last practice recommended to you is that of a single intention, directing all you do, however secular and commonplace, to the Service of Christ in His members. In a place like this you have great advantages for this exercise. In ordinary life the pursuits of men and women (with the exception of the Pastoral Charge) can only be connected _remotely_ with the great end of Our Lord’s Service. It is His will, no doubt, that the present system of Society should work on till the Second Advent; and its continuance involves all the various duties which flow out of various positions. I am well aware that the humblest of these duties may have the right intention imported into it, and become through that intention an acceptable service; but still it is an advantage to have a duty which stands in very near relation to the great end. Now your duties here are of this character. You tend the infirm, or you instruct the ignorant, or you visit the poor. Now it is very easy to see in each sick person, in each ignorant person, in each poor person, a member of Christ. He Himself has constituted the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the prisoner, His representatives, and has assured us that what is done to them, He will count as done to Himself. So that these patients, these pupils, these destitute people, are in fact a Sacrament, having Christ hidden underneath them. They indicate to us where He is, and in what quarter we may do Him direct Service. Now this should be to you, not a great comfort only, but a great help in the Divine Life. The intention to serve Him in His members may be so readily formed, no doubt whatever resting on the fact that He may be really served in this shape. Then, too, this thought will stand you in good stead, when your kindness is not reciprocated; when you are met by indifference and coldness, or thrown out of heart by ignorance and perversity. It was not to them you offered your service, but to Him in them. And you may be sure that, whatever their mind may be, He is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which love ye have showed for His Name’s sake. You may have failed in your object of giving relief, or communicating instruction, or soothing a sufferer; but there can be no failure in the Service rendered to Him, if your intention to render it has been sincere. Remember in this matter of intention that there is no duty so trifling, no service so humble, which may not be done to the Lord. And in doing the commonest things, pray and strive to exclude as much as may be the operation of lower motives. Let the thought be simply, “For Thee, dear Lord.” When the habit has been acquired of doing trifles thus, it will communicate a grace to our actions, and a brightness and alacrity to our spirits in performing them, which cannot fail of being felt by those under whose eyes we act. Men and women are very quick at reading one another’s real motives.