t in the name of common sense is there left for it to show
itself in? For our lives are all made up of trifles. The great things
come three or four of them in the seventy years; the little ones come
every time the clock ticks. And as they say, 'Take care of the pence,
and the pounds will take care of themselves.' If we keep the little
things rigidly under the dominion of this principle, no doubt the big
things will fall under it too, when they emerge. And if we do not--as
the old Jewish book says:--'He that despiseth little things shall fall
by little and little.' Whosoever has not a Christianity that sanctifies
the trifles has a Christianity that will not sanctify the crises of his
life. So, dear brother, this motto is to be written over every portal
through which you and I go; and whatsoever we can put our hands to, in
it we may magnify and manifest the holiness of God.

III. Now, lastly, note the motive or inspiration of holiness.

The language of my text might read like 'the Holy One who hath called
you.' Peter would stir his hearers to the emulation of the Divine
holiness by that thought of the bond that unites Him and them. 'He hath
called you.' In which word, I suppose, he includes the whole sum of the
Divine operations which have resulted in the placing of each of his
auditors within the circle of the Christian community as the subjects of
Christ's grace, and not only the one definite act to which the
theologians attach the name of 'calling.' In the briefest possible way
we may put the motive thus--the inspiration of imitation is to be found
in the contemplation of the gifts of God. What He has said and done to
me, calling me out of my darkness and alienation and lavishing the
tokens of His love, the voice of His beseechings, the monitions of His
Spirit, the message of His Son, the Incarnate Word, and invitation of
God--all these things are included in His call. And all of them are the
reasons why, bound by thankfulness, overcome by his forbearance,
responding to His entreaties, and glued to Him by the strength of the
hand that holds us, and the tenacity of His love, we should strive to
'walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called.'

And not only so, but in the thought of the Divine calling there lies a
fountain of inspiration when we remember the purpose of the calling. As
Paul puts it in one of his letters: 'God has not called us to
uncleanness but to holiness.' That to which He summons, or invites (f