Therefore, he says, in this very chapter, Do what if right, just because
it is right. It is sure to pay you in the long run, somehow, somewhere,
somewhen. Cast thy bread on the waters--that is, do a generous thing
whenever you have an opportunity--and thou shalt find it after many days.
Give a portion to seven, and also to eight, for thou knowest not what
evil shall be on the earth. Every action of yours will bear fruit. Every
thing you do, and every word you say, will God bring into judgment,
sooner or later. It will rise up against you, years afterwards, to
punish you, or it will rise up for you, years afterwards, to reward you.
It must be so, says Solomon; that is the necessary, eternal, moral law of
God's world. As you do, so will you be rewarded. If the clouds be full
of rain, they must empty themselves on the earth. Where the tree falls,
there it will lie. As we say in England, as you make your bed, so you
will lie on it. That does not (as people are too apt to think) speak of
what is to happen to us after we die. It speaks expressly and only of
what will happen before we die. It is the same as our English proverb.

Therefore, he says, do not look too far forward. Do not be
double-minded, doing things with a mean and interested after-thought,
plotting, planning, asking, will this right thing pay me or not? He that
observeth the wind, and is too curious and anxious about the weather,
will not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. No; just
do the right thing which lies nearest you, and trust to God to prosper
it. In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine
hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, this or that, or whether
they shall both be alike good. Thou knowest not, he says, the works of
God, who maketh all. All thou knowest is, that the one only chance of
success in life is to fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the
whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with
every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

Whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

He does not say only that God will bring your evil deeds into judgment.
But that He will bring your good ones also, and your happiness and good
fortune in this life will be, on the whole, made up of the sum-total of
the good and harm you have done, of the wisdom or the folly which you
have thought and carried out. It _is_ so. You know it is so.