We have been dwelling all this time on a simple virtue of a very mundane type. But all that has been said may be immediately raised to a higher plane by one observation. Our Lord and Master was diligent about His Father's business, and has left on record this saying: "I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is called to-day; for the night cometh, in which no one can work." As each one of us comes under His influence and passes into His faith and obedience, the joyful seriousness of our life-work deepens; it is lit by the rich glow of a sunset glory. We want to do diligently what our hand finds to do--to do it earnestly as unto the Lord. By patient and industrious exercise of every faculty which He has given us, we wish to be prepared for any task which He may appoint here or hereafter. Some of us He only apprentices in this world; and according to the faithfulness with which we discharge our humble and unnoticed duties will be the service to which He will one day appoint us. Others are called out of apprenticeship into the rough and eager work of the journeyman, and His eye is always upon us as He tries us to find whether we may ever be appointed over one, or five, or ten cities. A few supreme souls have been called even on earth to shape, to create, to control; a Paul, an Augustine, a Luther, can work with an emancipated hand. But the law is one all through the workshops, the fields, the vineyards of our Lord. The diligent shall stand before Him, and the slothful shall be shamed. He that does not plough will not reap. Wasted opportunities vanish for ever, and leave only their doleful record in the emasculated and nerveless soul. FOOTNOTES: [517] Prov. xxvi. 14. [518] Prov. xxiv. 34. [519] Prov. xix. 24. [520] Prov. xxvi. 15. [521] Prov. xxvi. 13. [522] Prov. xxii. 13. [523] Prov. xxvi. 16. [524] Prov. xv. 19. [525] Prov. xx. 13. [526] Prov. xix. 15. [527] Prov. xii. 27. [528] Prov. xvi. 26. [529] Prov. xxi. 25. [530] Prov. xviii. 9. [531] Prov. xii. 11. [532] Prov. xxviii. 19. [533] Prov. xiv. 4. [534] Prov. xxviii. 19. [535] Prov. xxiv. 30-34. [536] Prov. xxvii. 23-27. [537] Prov. xiii. 4. [538] Prov. xxi. 5. [539] Prov. xxi. 20. [540] Prov. xxii. 29. [541] Prov. xii. 24. [542] Prov. xii. 27. [543] Prov. xxxi. 27. XXI. _WINE._ "He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: He that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich." PROV. xxi. 17.