st, because we had great possessions; or to
choke the seed of the Word as with thorns, so that it should bring
forth no fruit to perfection! Can it be possible that He has spared
our family, and enriched us with so many friends, in order that, being
"so happy" with them, we should never wish to know God as our Father,
Christ as our Brother, or have any desire to become members of the
family of God? Has He given us so much pleasant, useful, or necessary
labour in the world, that we should forget the one thing needful, and
leave undone _the_ work for which we were created? Has He given us the
Church, the ministry, the Sabbath, the sacrament, that we should make
these ends instead of means--instruments for concealing, rather than
revealing our God and Saviour? And if the Lord has taken away, and
visited us with sharp sorrows and sore bereavements, was this "strange
work" done by Him who does not "willingly afflict" His children, in
order that we should have the pain without the "profit," "faint under"
or "despise" the chastisement, or become more set upon the world and
the creature, more shut up in heart against our Father, more dead to
eternal things, or fall into despair, and curse God and die?

Without prolonging such inquiries, enough has been said, I hope, to
enable you to apprehend what I mean by our being fellow-workers with
God in all His works of providence that concern ourselves. We believe
that these things, whether of joy or sorrow, do not come by chance,
nor through the agency of dead mechanical laws, but that a living
Person is dealing with us wisely, lovingly, righteously,--that, in
truth, "_the Lord_ giveth, and the _Lord_ taketh away," and that,
accordingly, there must be a design or purpose to serve in what He
gives or withholds,--that this never can be an evil purpose, but must,
in every case, be good, and that we may derive good and a blessing
from it. Let us, then, be fellow-workers with Him in seeking, through
faith and love, to have this purpose realised, and to have the end
designed by God fulfilled in us or by us, so that every joy and sorrow
may bring us nearer the glorious God, and make us know Him better, and
love Him more, and thus possess "life more abundantly," even "life
eternal!"

But not only is there a work to be done _in_ us, but also _by_ us, in
the doing of which we are to be "labourers together with God."

This kind of labouring with others is illustrated by Saint Paul when
he says