+I. To do well is a thing that requires to be learned.+ 1. _It does not come to us naturally,_ as breathing and sleeping do. That which comes to us naturally is to do evil. This is manifest in every child: it needs no teaching to do evil, but it needs a great deal of teaching before it will habitually do well. Nor does proficiency in well-doing come to us even with our new birth. Then come new desires after righteousness, but the knowledge and practice of righteousness have to be learned.[1] At our new birth we are _born_ "babes in Christ:" manhood in Christ is reached only by _growth._[2] 2. _It is not a thing we acquire unconsciously,_ as infants learn to see and hear, or as older persons acquire the accent of the country in which they reside, or as invalids gain health at the seaside. Living in a religious atmosphere will not of itself make us religious, nor will mere companionship with good men. Association with artists will not of itself make a man an artist; and association with Christians will not of itself make any man a Christian. Judas was in constant association with Christ himself for more than three years, and at the end of that period, instead of doing well, he committed he foulest of all crimes. To do well is an _art,_ and, like every other art, it can be mastered only by deliberate efforts of the will.[3] This is the testimony both of _Scripture_ and _experience._ (See preceding outline.) +II. To do well is a thing that may be learned.+ Not all persons, however earnest their desires or persevering their efforts, can become poets, painters, statesman, orators. But to do well is an art in which all regenerate persons may become proficient, some with greater ease than others, but to none is the task impossible. There is no vice which a regenerate man may not lay aside, no excellence to which he may not attain. +III. To do well is a thing that must be learned.+ It is an imperative demand which God makes upon all His people. We cannot satisfy it by "ceasing to do evil." It is not enough for the "branches" of the True Vine not to bring forth "wild grapes;" they must bear _fruit_--_much_ fruit--to the glory of the Husbandman (John xv. 8). Not only must Christ's followers be "blameless," they must be _conspicuous_ for excellence. "Let your _light_ so SHINE before men that they may _see_ your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." These truths being settled in our minds, let us ask ourselves.