despise.' There is such a thing as
pardon; pardon full and free, for the sake of the precious blood of
Christ. Lent may be a time of awe and of shame: but it is not a
time of despair. Meanwhile remember this; that God has set before
you blessing and cursing, and that you may turn your life and God's
whole universe, as you will, either into that blessing or into that
curse.

SERMON XII. WORK

(Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.)

Proverbs xiv. 23. In all labour there is profit.

I fear there are more lessons in the Book of Proverbs than most of
us care to learn. There is a lesson in every verse of it, and a
shrewd one. Certain I am, that for a practical, business man, who
has to do his duty and to make his way in this world, there is no
guide so safe as these same Proverbs of Solomon. In _this_ world, I
say; for they say little about the world to come. Their doctrine
is, that what is good for the next world, is good for this; that he
who wishes to go out of this world happily, must first go through
this world wisely; and more, that he who wishes to go through this
world happily, must likewise go through it wisely.

The righteous, says Solomon, shall be recompensed in the earth, and
not merely at the end of judgment hereafter: much more the wicked
and the sinner.

That is the doctrine of the Proverbs; that men do, to a very great
extent, earn for themselves their good or their evil fortunes, and
are filled with the fruit of their own devices; and it is that
doctrine which makes them the best of text-books for the practical
man.

For the Proverbs do not look on religion as a thing to be kept out
of our daily dealings, and thought of only on Sundays: they look on
true religion, which is to obey God, as a thing which mixes itself
up with all the cares and business of this mortal life, this work-
day world; and, therefore, they are written in work-day language; in
homely words taken from the common doings of this mortal life, as
our Lord's parables are. And, like the most simple of those
parables, the most simple of the proverbs have often the very
deepest meaning.

'In all labour there is profit.' Whatsoever is worth doing, is
worth doing well. It is always worth while to take pains. In
another proverb, homely enough--but if it be in the Bible, it is not
too homely for us--'Where no oxen are, the crib is clean,' Solomon
says the same thing as in the text. He says, 'Where no oxen are,
th