th in fact and in my consciousness depends upon my action.
The 'diligence,' of which the Apostle thinks such great things, reaches,
as it were, a hand up into heaven and binds a man to that great
unrevealed, electing purpose of God. If we desire that upon our
Christian lives there shall shine the perpetual sunshine of an
unclouded confidence that we have the love and the favour of God, and
that for us there is no condemnation, but only 'acceptance in the
beloved,' the short road to it is the well-known and trite path of toil
in the Christian life.

Still further, one of the other writers of the New Testament gives us
another field in which this virtue may expatiate, when the author of the
Epistle to the Hebrews exhorts to diligence, in order to attain 'the
full assurance of hope.' If we desire that our path should be brightened
by the clear vision of our blessed future beyond the grave, and above
the stars, and within the bosom of God, the road to that happy assurance
and sunny, cloudless confidence in a future of rest and fellowship with
God lies simply here--work! as Christian men should, whilst it is called
to-day.

The last of the fields in which this virtue finds exercise is expressed
by our letter, when Peter says, 'Seeing that we look for such things,
let us _be diligent_, that we may be found of Him in peace without spot,
and blameless.' If we are to be 'found in peace,' we must be 'found
spotless,' and if we are to be 'found spotless' we must be 'diligent.'
'If that servant begin to say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming;
and to be slothful, and to eat and drink with the drunken, the lord of
that servant will come in an hour when he is not aware.' On the other
hand, 'who is that faithful servant whom his lord hath set ruler over
his household? Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh
shall find so doing?' Doing so, and diligently doing it, 'he shall be
found in peace.'

What a beautiful ideal of Christian life results from putting together
all these items. A fruitful faith, a sure calling, a cloudless hope, a
peaceful welcome at last! The Old Testament says, 'The hand of the
diligent maketh rich'; the New Testament promises unchangeable riches to
the same hand. The Old Testament says, 'Seest thou a man diligent in his
business, he shall stand before kings.' The New Testament assures us
that the noblest form of that promise shall be fulfilled in the
Christian man's communion with his Lord h