as more
heavenly-minded. What a blessed return it will be for God's mercies to
me, if I, who am like a brand plucked out of the burning, be allowed,
through His great mercy, to recommend that Gospel to others which He
has revealed to me, and to recommend it, as on the one hand by my
strictness in attending God's ordinances, in discountenancing vice and
folly, and by a conscientious walk; so, on the other hand, by all that
is of good report in social life, by uprightness, honesty, prudence,
and straightforwardness, by good temper, good-nature, and brotherly
love!"

3. Thankfulness to Almighty God, nay, and the inward life of the Spirit
itself, will be additional principles causing the Christian to labour
diligently in his calling. He will see God in all things. He will
recollect our Saviour's life. Christ was brought up to a humble trade.
When he labours in his own, he will think of his Lord and Master in
His. He will recollect that Christ went down to Nazareth and was
subject to His parents, that He walked long journeys, that He bore the
sun's heat and the storm, and had not where to lay His head. Again, he
knows that the Apostles had various employments of this world before
their calling; St. Andrew and St. Peter fishers, St. Matthew a
tax-gatherer, and St. Paul, even after his calling, still a tent-maker.
Accordingly, in whatever comes upon him, he will endeavour to discern
and gaze (as it were) on the countenance of his Saviour. He will feel
that the true contemplation of that Saviour lies _in_ his worldly
business, that as Christ is seen in the poor, and in the persecuted,
and in children, so is He seen in the employments which He puts upon
His chosen, whatever they be; that in attending to his own calling he
will be meeting Christ; that if he neglect it, he will not on that
account enjoy His presence at all the more, but that while performing
it, he will see Christ revealed to his soul amid the ordinary actions
of the day, as by a sort of sacrament. Thus he will take his worldly
business as a gift from Him, and will love it as such.

4. True humility is another principle which will lead us to desire to
glorify God in our worldly employments if possible, instead of
resigning them. Christ evidently puts His greater blessings on those
whom the world despises. He has bid His followers take the lowest
seat. He says that he who would be great must be as the servant of
all, that he who humbleth himself shall