d it beyond the power of man to improve upon it.

To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

And, similarly, when He looked upon His work in Redemption and cried
triumphantly '_Tetelestai_,' He placed it beyond the power of any man to
add to it.

There are times when any addition is a subtraction. Some years ago,
White House at Washington--the residence of the American Presidents--was
in the hands of the painters and decorators. Two large entrance doors
had been painted to represent black walnut. The contractor ordered his
men to scrape and clean them in readiness for repainting, and they set
to work. But when their knives penetrated to the solid timber, they
discovered to their astonishment that it was heavy mahogany of a most
exquisite natural grain! The work of that earlier decorator, so far from
adding to the beauty of the timber, had only served to conceal its
essential and inherent glory. It is easy enough to add to the wonders of
Creation or of Redemption; but you can never add without subtracting.
'_It is finished!_'

VII

Many years ago, Ebenezer Wooton, an earnest but eccentric evangelist,
was conducting a series of summer evening services on the village green
at Lidford Brook. The last meeting had been held; the crowd was melting
slowly away; and the evangelist was engaged in taking down the marquee.
All at once a young fellow approached him and asked, casually rather
than earnestly, 'Mr. Wooton, what must _I_ do to be saved?' The preacher
took the measure of his man.

'Too late!' he said, in a matter of fact kind of way, glancing up from a
somewhat obstinate tent-peg with which he was struggling. 'Too late, my
friend, too late!' The young fellow was startled.

'Oh, don't say that, Mr. Wooton!' he pleaded, a new note coming into his
voice. 'Surely it isn't too late just because the meetings are over?'

'Yes, my friend,' exclaimed the evangelist, dropping the cord in his
hand, straightening himself up, and looking right into the face of his
questioner, 'it's too late! You want to know what you must _do_ to be
saved, and I tell you that you're hundreds of years too late! The work
of salvation is done, completed, _finished_! It was finished on the
Cross; Jesus said so with the last breath that He dr