their occupations,—they should consider themselves as _collaborateurs du Tout-Puissant_. If their work seem the reverse of noble, let them ennoble it by this thought, in Wordsworth’s phrase,— “And with the lofty sanctify the low.” A Christian nursemaid is pictured, forgetting the thousand _désagréments_ of her humble functions, and reminding herself that in reality she is in charge of souls, as much as pastor or preacher is, and this _grande conviction_ suffices to save her from servile dejection. So, again, the artisan and day labourer may be sustained by the Spirit from on high, and taught to magnify their calling, in a deep and a wide sense, because it is what they are called to, and because they respond to the call, in the spirit of it. They are toilers co-operant to an end; and the end, the result, is with God. “They also serve who only stand and wait.” But the whole sonnet of Milton’s which closes with that grand line, is too germane to the matter, and too largely suggestive in its main issue, to be omitted here; the sonnet which the blind poet wrote touching his blindness:— “When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide, Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest He, returning, chide; ‘Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?’ I fondly ask: but Patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, ‘God doth not need Either man’s work, or His own gifts; who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve Him best; His state Is kingly; thousands at His bidding speed, And post o’er land and ocean without rest; They also serve who only stand and wait.” _SUBORDINATE, NOT SUPERFLUOUS; OR, DEPRECIATED MEMBERSHIP._ 1 CORINTHIANS xii. 22. Strenuously St. Paul insists on the importance of not overlooking the feebler members of the body—be it physical, politic, or ecclesiastical,—and of upholding their rights to due consideration, on the mere score of membership. Subordinate they may be, but superfluous they are not. The body would not be a body without them. “Nay, much more, those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary.” “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” If all were one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, but one body. And one member differeth from another in honour; yet, without the seeming minor and meaner ones, for all the abundant honour of the greater ones, where were the body? * * * * *