ll brought under the influence of the one motive and made co-operant
to the one end. Drive that one steadfast aim through your lives like
a bar of iron, and it will give the lives strength and
consistency--not rigidity, because they may still be flexible.
Nothing will be too small to be consecrated by that motive; nothing
too great to own its power. You can please Him everywhere and always.
The only thing that is inconsistent with pleasing Him is the thing
which, alas! we do at all times and should do at no time, and that is
to sin against Him. If we bear with us this as a conscious motive in
every part of our day's work it will give us a quick discernment as
to what is evil, which I believe nothing else will so surely give. If
you desire life to be noble, uniform, dignified, great in its
minutest acts and solemn in its very trifles, and if you would have
some continual test and standard by which you can detect all
spurious, apparent virtues, and discover lurking and masked
temptations, carry this one aim clear and high above all else, and
make it the purpose of the whole life, to be well-pleasing unto Him.

II. Now, in the next place, notice the concentrated effort which this
aim requires.

The word rendered in my text 'labour' is a peculiar one, very seldom
employed in Scripture. It means, in its most literal signification,
to be fond of honour, or to be actuated by a love of honour; and
hence it comes, by a very natural transition, to mean to strive to
gain something for the sake of the honour connected with it. That is
to say, it not only expresses the notion of diligent, strenuous
effort, but it reveals the reason for that diligence and
strenuousness in what I may call (for the word might almost be so
rendered) the _ambition_ of being honoured by pleasing Christ.
So that the 'labour' of my text covers the whole ground, not only of
the act but of its motive. The concentration of effort which such an
aim requires may be enforced by one or two simple exhortations.

First, let me say that we ought, as Christian people, to cultivate
this noble ambition of pleasing Jesus Christ. Men have all got the
love of approbation deep in them. God put it there for a good
purpose, not that we might shape our lives so as to get others to pat
us on the back, and say, 'Well done!' but that, in addition to the
other solemn and sovereign motives for following the paths of
righteousness, we might have this highest ambition to impel us