a life of generous labor; and when He
called His disciples, He said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers
of men." Kempis, in his "Imitation of Christ," says, "by the words of
Christ we are taught to imitate His life and manner, if we would be
truly enlightened and be delivered from all blindness of heart." "Learn
of me," said Jesus, as well as "Come unto me. I have set the Lord
always before me, said David. What a glorious thing it is for the
servant of Christ to know that he is earnestly engaged in the work of
His Master. It is our labors of love that alone meets with the smile
and approbation of God, for He is cognizant of everything we try to
accomplish for His cause on earth. Oh, that we may say from the heart,
I must work the works of Him that sent me; the night cometh when no man
can work."

The trees of the Lord are full of sap, they are fat and flourishing. We
are all familiar with the work of blessed beneficence of Howard, the
great philanthropist, and Henry Martyn, the self-denying missionary. To
be a true Christian, then, requires a life of toil. "For man goeth
forth unto the work and to his labor until the evening." How sweet,
then, is rest to the laboring man. When the harvest is gathered in. A
harvest of souls for Christ. Here am I, Lord, and the children which
thou hast given me. Paul said that I may so preach and labor that I may
present every one of you perfect before God. This is no mean toil. What
prayers. What watching. What toil. What tears. Ah! but at eventide it
shall be light. Strange language.

What a beautiful and touching description does Burns give, in his
"Cottar's Saturday Night," of the sweet rest and joy that springs into
the soul when the weary work is over. He says:

The toil-worn cottar frae his labor goes,
This night his weekly moil is at an end,
Collects his spades, his mattocks and his hoes,
Hoping the morn in ease and rest to spend,
And weary o'er the moor his course does hameward bend.

The next stanza can be truly applied to our Elder in his Christian
experience:

The parent pair their secret homage pay,
And proffer up to heaven the warm request,
That He who stills the raven's clamorous nest,
And decks the lily fair in flowery pride,
Would in His way His Wisdom see the best,
For them and for their little ones provide,
But chiefly in their hearts with _grace Divine_ reside.

I think this is the most descr