tweigh the gold. Christ's sword is in the scale, and it weighs more
than the antagonism of the world and the active hostility of hell. 'His
hands have laid the foundation; His hands shall also finish it.'

III. Still further, here is encouragement for despondent and timid
Christians.

Jesus Christ is not going to leave you half way across the bog. That is
not His manner of guiding us. He began; He will finish. Remember the
words of Paul which catch up this same thought: 'Being confident of this
very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perfect the
same until the day of Jesus Christ.' Brethren! if the seed of the
kingdom is in our hearts, though it be but as a grain of mustard seed,
be sure of this, that He will watch over it and bless the springing
thereof. So, although when we think of ourselves, our own slowness of
progress, our own feeble resolutions, our own wayward hearts, our own
vacillating wills, our many temptations, our many corruptions, our many
follies, we may well say to ourselves, 'Will there ever be any greater
completeness in this terribly imperfect Christian character of mine than
there is to-day?' Let us be of good cheer, and not think only of
ourselves, but much rather of Him who works on and in and for us. If we
lift up our hearts to Him, and keep ourselves near Him, and let Him
work, He will work. If we do not--like the demons in the old monastic
stories, who every night pulled down the bit of walling that the monks
had in the daytime built for their new monastery--by our own hands pull
down what He, by His hand, has built up, the structure will rise, and we
shall be 'builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.'
Be of good cheer, only keep near the Master, and let Him do what He
desires to do for us all. God is 'faithful who hath called us to the
fellowship of His Son,' and He also will do it.

IV. Lastly, here is a striking contrast to the fate which attends all
human workers.

There are very few of us who even partially seem to be happy enough to
begin and finish any task, beyond the small ones of our daily life.
Authors die, with books half finished, with sentences half finished
sometimes, where the pen has been laid down. No man starts an entirely
fresh line of action; he inherits much from his past. No man completes a
great work that he undertakes; he leaves it half-finished, and coming
generations, if it is one of the great historical works of the world,