hy course,
Unlingering in thy path,
Teach me thy earnest ways,
That mine may be a life of steadfast work and praise.

O ever earnest stars!
Unchanging in your light,
Unfaltering in your race,
Unswerving in your round,
Teach me your earnest ways,
That mine may be a life of steadfast work and praise.

O ever earnest flowers!
That with untiring growth
Shoot up and spread abroad
Your fragrance and your joy,
Teach me your earnest ways,
That mine may be a life of steadfast work and praise.

O ever earnest sea!
Constant in flow and ebb,
Heaving to moon and sun,
Unchanging in thy change,
Teach me thy earnest ways,
That mine may be a life of steadfast work and praise.
HORATIUS BONAR.

3. _We should carry earnestness into our religious life_.--This above
all. There are many who tolerate earnestness in other things, but who
look upon it as dangerous in connection with religion. It is regarded
as of very questionable value, and spoken of with doubt and suspicion.
Let a man become earnest in prayer, earnest in work, or rise in any way
above the dead level in which so many are content to rest, and he will
be often spoken of in tones of pity, sneered at as a fanatic, or
denounced as an impostor. This suspicion with which earnestness in the
Church of Christ is often regarded may be accounted for. (_a_) There
has been a vast deal of zeal in the Church about religion which has not
been zeal for religion: about matters of ritual, Church government, and
the like. (_b_) Zeal has been often expended in contentions about
small points of doctrine; often about those very points which are
shrouded in mystery. (_c_) Zeal has been often manifested in the
interest of sect and party rather than of Christ. (_d_) Zeal has often
taken persecution for her ally, and wielded among men the weapons of
earthly warfare. For these reasons its appearance in the Church is
often regarded as we might regard the erection in a town of a gunpowder
magazine which, at any moment, might produce disorder, ruin, and death.

_Yet Scripture regards earnestness in religion as
essential_.--Indifference and lukewarmness it regards as hateful (Rev.
iii. 15, 16). It calls us to a solemn choice and to a lifelong
service. Its heroes are those who lived in the spirit of Brainerd's
prayer, "Oh, that I were a flaming fire in the service of my God."
There is an allegory of Luther wh