you that ye walk worthy
of the vocation ... with all meekness and lowliness, with
long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.' That is one side of the
vocation, and the life that is worthy of it will be a life emancipated
from the meanness of selfishness, and delivered from the tumidities of
pride and arrogance, and changed into the sweetness of gentleness and
the royalties of love.

And then, on the other side, in one of the other texts where the same
general set of ideas is involved, we get a yet more wondrous exhibition
of the life which the Apostle considered to be worthy. I simply
signalise its points of detail without venturing to dwell upon them.
'Unto all pleasing'; the first characteristic of life that is 'worthy of
our calling' and to which, therefore, every one of us Christian people
is imperatively bound, is that it shall, in all its parts, please God,
and that is a large demand. Then follow details: 'Fruitful in every good
work'--a many-sided fruitfulness, an encyclopaediacal beneficent
activity, covering all the ground of possible excellence; and that is
not all; 'increasing in the knowledge of God,'--a life of progressive
acquaintance with Him; and that is not all:--'strengthened with all
might unto all patience and long-suffering'; nor is that all, for the
crown of the whole is 'giving thanks unto the Father.' So, then, 'ye see
your calling, brethren.' A life that is 'worthy of the vocation
wherewith ye are called' is a life that conforms to the divine will,
that is 'fruitful in all good,' that is progressive in its acquaintance
with God, that is strengthened for all patience and long-suffering, and
that in everything is thankful to Him. That is what we are summoned to
be, and unless we are in some measure obeying the summons, and bringing
out such a life in our conduct, then, notwithstanding all that we have
to say about unmerited mercy, and free grace, and undeserved love, and
salvation being not by works but by faith, we have no right to claim the
mercy to which we say we trust.

Now, this necessity of a worthy life is perfectly harmonious with the
great truth that, after all, every man owes all to the undeserved mercy
of God. The more nearly we come to realise the purpose of our calling,
the more 'worthy' of it we are, the deeper will be our consciousness of
our unworthiness. The more we approximate to the ideal, and come closer
up to it, and so see its features the better, the more we shall fee