sin in my
sewing up this seam carelessly, or in my using bad mortar in this wall,
or in my putting inferior timber in this house, or a piece of flawed
iron in this bridge." But we need to learn that the moral law applies
everywhere, just as really to carpentry, or blacksmithing, or
tailoring, as to Sabbath-keeping. We never can get away from this law.

Besides, it does matter, for our neighbor's sake, as well as for the
honor of God's law, how we do our work. The bricklayer does negligent
work on the walls of the flue he is putting in, and one night, years
afterward, a spark creeps through the crevice and reaches a wooden beam
that lies there, and soon the house is in flames and perhaps precious
lives perish. The bricklayer was unfaithful. The foundryworker, in
casting the great iron supports for a bridge, is unwatchful for an
instant, and a bubble of air makes a flaw. It is buried away in the
heart of the beam and escapes detection. One day, years later, there
is a terrible disaster. A great railroad bridge gives way beneath the
weight of an express train and hundreds of lives are lost. In the
inquest it is testified that a slight flaw in one beam was the cause of
the awful calamity which hurled so many lives into eternity. The
foundry workman was unfaithful.

These are but suggestions of the duty and of its importance. No work
can be of so little moment that it matters not whether it be done
faithfully or not. Unfaithfulness in the smallest things is
unfaithfulness, and God is grieved, and possibly sometime, somewhere,
disaster may come as the consequence of the neglect. On the other
hand, faithfulness is pleasing to God, though it be only in the
sweeping well of a room, or the doing neatly of the smallest things in
household care. Then faithfulness is far-reaching in its influence.
The universe is not quite complete without each one's little work well
done.

The self-culture that there is in the mere habit of faithfulness is in
itself a rich reward for all our striving. It is a great thing to
train ourselves to do always our best, to do as nearly perfect work as
possible. Said Michael Angelo: "Nothing makes the soul so pure, so
religious, as the endeavor to create something perfect; for God is
perfection, and whoever strives for it, strives for something that is
Godlike." The habit, unyieldingly persisted in, of doing everything
with the most scrupulous conscientiousness, builds up in the one who