[6] Thou hast laid down the commission of an evil, but hast thou taken up thy known duty? He is a bad husbandman that drains his ground, and then neither sows nor plants it. It's all one if it had been under water as drained and not improved. What if thou cease to do evil (if it were possible) and thou learn'st not to do well? 'Tis not thy fields being clear of weeds, but fruitful in corn, pays the rent, and brings thee in thy profit; nor thy not being drunk, unclean, or any other sin, but thy being holy, gracious, thy having faith unfeigned, pure love, and the other graces which will prove thee sound, and bring in evidence for thy interest in Christ, and through Him of heaven.--_Gurnell,_ 1617-1679. THE GREAT TASK. i. 17. _Learn to do well._ Negative goodness is not enough to meet the Divine requirements. Those who have "ceased to do evil" must "learn to do well." God demands positive excellence.[1] The cultivation of well-doing is the surest guarantee against evil-doing.[2] +I. Well-doing is a thing to be learned.+ We have been too prone to look at it in its other aspect only, as a thing springing from faith and love, not as a thing to be cultivated. But see Phil. iv. 9; 1 Tim. v. 4; Titus iii. 14; Matt. xi. 29; Heb. v. 3 All _experience_ is in accordance with the teaching of these texts. Has any case occurred in which at the beginning of the Christian life a person was proficient in well-doing? Men are not born into the Christian life with a perfect capacity to _do_ well, any more than they are born into the natural life with a perfect capacity to _speak_ well. Conversion is a beginning, not an ending.[3] We then begin to learn the standards, methods, opportunities, and practice of excellence. In the hour of conversion we do but pass into Christ's school, and begin to be His _disciples._ Well-doing is not to be learned in one lesson, nor in six lessons. [_Illustration:_ frequent advertisement, "French in six lessons." Absurd!] It was only after a prolonged training and most varied discipline that St. Paul could say, "I have _learned_ in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Is _that_ a lesson to be acquired in a day? Let our own hearts supply further proof. Look within, and see the evils yet unsubdued, the excellences yet unattained, the difficulty with which many a duty is discharged, and you will see the necessity of _learning_ to do well. We have _learned_ to do well only when it has become a _habit_ to us, when we do it as easily and naturally as a well-trained merchant's clerk adds up a column of figures correctly. But can any _habit_ be acquired without prolonged practice?[4] +II. Well-doing is learned much in the same way as other things are learned.+ Learning a language involves study, patience, perseverance, practice. Not otherwise can we learn to do well.[5]