he last thought that is here, and
that is the certainty and the confidence. 'Therefore we are always
confident,' says the Apostle.

'He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God.' Then we may
be sure that as far as He is concerned, the work will not be
suspended nor vain. _This_ man does not begin to build and is
unable to finish. This workman has infinite resources, an unchanging
purpose, and infinite long-suffering. He will complete His task.

In the quarries of Egypt you will find gigantic stones, half-dressed,
and intended to have been transported to some great temple. But there
they lie, the work incomplete, and they never carried to their place.
There are no half-polished stones in God's quarries. They are all
finished where they lie, and then borne across the sea, like Hiram's
from Lebanon, to the Temple on the hill. It is a certainty that God
will finish His work; and since 'He that hath wrought us is God,' we
may be sure that He will not stop till He has done.

But it is a certainty that you can thwart. It is an operation that
you can counterwork. The potter in Jeremiah's parable was making a
vessel upon his wheel, and the vessel was marred in his hand, and did
not turn out what he wanted it. The meaning of the metaphor, which
has often been twisted to express the very opposite, is that the
potter's work may fail, that the artificer may be balked, that you
can counterwork the divine dealing, and that all His purpose in your
creation, in His providence and in His gift of His Son for your
redemption, may come to nought as far as you are concerned. 'I
beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.' 'In vain
have I smitten your children,' wailed the Divine Love; 'they have
received no correction.' In vain God lavishes upon some of us His
mercies, in vain for some of us has Christ toiled and suffered and
died. Oh, brother! do not let all God's work on you come to nought,
but yield yourselves to it. Rejoice in the confidence that He is
moulding your character, cheerfully welcome and accept the
providences, painful as they may be, by which He prepares you for
heaven. The chisel is sharp that strikes off the superfluous pieces
of marble, and when the chisel cuts, not into marble, but into a
heart, there is a pang. Bear it, bear it! and understand the meaning
of the blow of the sculptor's mallet, and see in all life the divine
hand working towards the accomplishment of His own loving purpose.
Th