ctory in any career to which a man sets
himself do so in this; that, on the one hand, we shall never fail if in
earnest and saving the crumbs of moments, we give ourselves to the work
of Christian growth; and that on the other hand, no fine emotions, no
select moments of rapture and communion will ever avail to take the
place of the dogged perseverance and prosaic hard work which wins in all
other fields; and wins, and is the only thing that does win, in this one
too. If you want to be a strong Christian--that is to say, a happy
man--you must bend your back to the work and 'give all diligence.'
Nobody goes to heaven in his sleep. No man becomes a vigorous Christian
by any other course than 'giving all diligence.' It is a very lowly
virtue. It is like some of the old wives' recipes for curing diseases
with some familiar herb that grows at every cottage door. People will
not have that, but if you bring them some medicine from far away, very
rare and costly, and suggest to them some course out of the beaten rut
of ordinary, honest living, they will jump at that. Quackery always
deals in mysteries and rare things. The great physician cures diseases
with simples that grow everywhere. A pennyworth of some familiar root
will cure an illness that nothing else will touch. It is a homely
virtue, but if in its homeliness we practised it, this Church and our
own souls would wear a different face from what it and they do to-day.

II. Note the wide field of action for this homely grace.

I can do nothing more--nor is it necessary that I should--than put
before your mind, in a sentence or two, the various applications of it
which our letter gives.

First, note that in our text, 'giving all diligence, add to your faith.'
That is to say, unless you work with haste, with earnestness, and
therefore with much putting forth of strength, your faith will not
evolve the graces of character which is in it to bring forth. If, on the
other hand, we set ourselves to our tasks, then out of faith will come,
as the blossoms mysteriously and miraculously do out of an apparently
dead stump, virtue, manliness, and knowledge, and temperance, and
patience, and godliness, and brotherly mindedness, and charity. All that
galaxy of light and beauty will shine forth on the one condition of
diligence, and it will not appear without that. Without it, the faith,
though it may be genuine, which lies in a man who is idle in cultivating
Christian character, will b