Before we proceed to any “work” we should weigh it, while yet it is a “spirit” unembodied, in the balances which will be used in the judgment of the great day. Letters are charged in the postoffice according to their weight. I have written and sealed a letter consisting of several sheets; I desire that it should pass; I think that it will; but I know well that it will not be allowed to pass because I desire that it should, or think that it will; I know well it will be tested by imperial weights and imperial laws. Before I plunge it beyond my reach, under the control of the public authorities, I place it on a balance which stands on the desk before me—a balance not constructed to please my desires, but honestly adjusted to the legal standard. I weigh it there, and check it myself by the very rules which the government will apply. The children of this world are wise for their own interests. We do not shut our eyes, and cheat ourselves as to temporal things and human governments; why should we attempt to deceive where detection is certain and retribution complete? On the table before you lies the very balance in which the Ruler of heaven and earth will weigh both the body of the act and the motive, the soul that inspires it. Weigh your purposes in this balance before you launch them forth in action. The man’s ways are unclean, although, through a deceitful heart, they are clean in his own eyes; by what means, therefore, “shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto according to thy word” (Ps. cxix:9). A most interesting practical rule is laid down as applicable to the case—“Commit thy works unto the Lord;” and a promise follows it—“Thy thoughts shall be established.” It is a common and a sound advice, to ask counsel of the Lord before undertaking any work. Here we have the counterpart lesson equally precious—commit the work to the Lord, after it is done. The Hebrew idiom gives peculiar emphasis to the precept—Roll it over on Jehovah. Mark the beautiful reciprocity of the two, and how they constitute a circle between them. While the act is yet in embryo as a purpose in your mind, ask counsel of the Lord, that it may either be crushed in the birth or embodied in righteousness. When it is embodied, bring the work back to the Lord, and give it over into his hands as the fruit of the thought which you besought him to inspire; give it over into his hands as an offering which he may accept, an instrument which he may employ. Bring the work, when it is done, to the Lord; and what will follow?—“Thy thoughts shall be established.” Bring back the actions of your life to God, one by one, after they are done, and thereby the purposes of your heart will be made pure and steadfast; the evil will be chased away like smoke before the wind, and the good will be executed in spite of all opposition; for “when a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”