thy
life-work? Do crowds gather around thy steps and throng thy
audience-chamber? Do not attribute them to thyself. They are all the
gifts of God's grace. He raiseth up one and setteth down another.
Thou hast nothing that thou hast not received; and if thou hast
received it, see to it that thou exercise perpetually the faculty of
receptiveness, so that thou mayest receive more and more, grace on
grace. The river in its flow should hollow out the channel-bed through
which it flows. Be thankful, but never vain. He who gave may take.
Great talents bestowed imply great responsibility in the day of
reckoning. Be not high-minded, but fear. Much success can only be
enjoyed without injury to the inner life by being considered as the
dear gift of Christ, to be used for Him.

Hast thou but one talent, and little success?--yet this is as God has
willed it. He might have given more had He willed it so; be thankful
that He has given any. Use what thou hast. The five barley loaves and
two small fishes will so increase, as they are distributed, that they
will supply the want of thousands. Do not dare to envy one more
successful and used than thyself, lest thou be convicted of murmuring
against the appointment of thy Lord. Here, too, is the cure of
jealousy, which more than anything else blights the soul of the servant
of God. To an older minister, who has passed the zenith of his
popularity and power, it is often a severe trial to see younger men
stepping into positions which he once held and has been compelled to
renounce. He is mightily tempted to disparage their power, and condemn
them by faint praise; or, if he praise, to add one biting comment which
undoes the generosity and frankness of the eulogium. Why should this
younger man, who was not born when his own ministry was at full tide,
now carry all before him, while the waves are quietly withdrawing from
the margin of seaweed they once cast up! Thoughts like these corrode
and canker the soul; and there is no arrest to them, unless, by a
definite effort of the Spirit-energised will, the soul turns to God
with the words: "A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from
heaven. I had my glad hours of meridian glory, and have still the
mellow light of a summer sunset. It was God's gift to me, as rest is
now; and I will rejoice that He raises up others to do his work. I
will rejoice that the Kingdom is coming, that Christ is satisfied, that
men are being