with panting breath and strained muscles. There will be long
stretches of level commonplace where speed is not needed, but 'pegging
away' is, and the one duty is persistent continuousness in a course. But
whether the task of the moment is to 'run and not be weary,' or to
'walk and not faint,' crises and commonplace stretches of land alike
require continuous effort, if we are to 'run with patience the race that
is set before us.'

Mark the emphasis of my text, 'Go thy way _till_ the end.' You, my
contemporaries, you older men! do not fancy that in the deepest aspect
any life has ever a period in it in which a man may 'take it easy.' You
may do that in regard to outward things, and it is the hope and the
reward of faithfulness in youth and middle age that, when the grey
hairs come to be upon us, we may slack off a little in regard to outward
activity. But in regard to all the deepest things of life, no man may
ever lessen his diligence until he has attained the goal.

Some of you will remember how, in a stormy October night, many years
ago, the _Royal Charter_ went down when three hours from Liverpool, and
the passengers had met in the saloon and voted a testimonial to the
captain because he had brought them across the ocean in safety. Until
the anchor is down and we are inside the harbour, we may be shipwrecked,
if we are careless in our navigation. 'Go thou thy way _until the end_.'
And remember, you older people, that until that end is reached you have
to use all your power, and to labour as earnestly, and guard yourself as
carefully, as at any period before.

And not only '_till_ the end,' but 'go thou thy way _to_ the end.' That
is to say, let the thought that the road has a termination be ever
present with us all. Now, there is a great deal of the so-called devout
contemplation of death which is anything but wholesome. People were
never meant to be always looking forward to that close. Men may think of
'the end' in a hundred different connections. One man may say, 'Let us
eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' Another man may say, 'I have only
a little while to master this science, to make a name for myself, to win
wealth. Let me bend all my efforts in a fierce determination--made the
fiercer because of the thought of the brevity of life--to win the end.'
The mere contemplation of the shortness of our days may be an ally of
immorality, of selfishness, of meanness, of earthly ambitions, or it may
lay a cooling hand