Pleasure Forgets Labour

“In hu7iti7ig fowlitig, and fisJiing though there be as much labour as in our ordinary employments yet we count the toil nothing, because of the delight we have in themP It is wonderful what fatigue men will bear to hunt a fox or shoot a partridge, and yet they make nothing of it, but call it sport. In like manner many a zealous worker for the Lord Jesus will preach, and teach, and labour, and call it his recreation, with which he fills up his leisure hours. We know many such, and we hope we shall yet know more. Love makes labour light. Men will do voluntarily that which they would never undertake for pay, and they will keep up freely under an amount of pressure which would crush the hireling. There lies the grand secret. Make holy service a delight, and you can do any amount of it.

Lord, thy servant has no need to reckon thy service to be his pleasure, for it is indeed so. Could he but serve thee perfectly, without hindrance and without mistake, it would be heaven to him. No avocation is like our divine vocation for pure delightfulness. It would be far more wearisome not to serve thee, O my God, than it ever can be to perform the most arduous labour for thy love’s sake.