Free, Yet Not Without Labour

‘’^ There is a difference between merit and means j a schoolmaster may teach a child gratis, a7id yet the boy must himself take pains to get his learning. There is, moreover, a diff’erence between cause a?id effect, and the mere order of coming. Mercy is never obtained but in the use of means: wisdom! s dole is dispejised at wisdom’s gate P {Prov. viii. 34.) This is a very important remark, and tends to screen from the charge of legality those who earnestly exhort men to gospel duties. There is no merit in seeking the Lord; but we may not hope to find him without it. Prayer does not deserve an answer, and yet we are to pray without ceasing, neither may we hope to have if we refuse to ask. The cup must be held under the flowing fountain or it will not be filled, yet the cup does not create the water or purchase it. All the exertion which a man makes in running the heavenly race will not merit the prize of eternal life; but it would not 1 herefore be right for him to lie in bed and hope to win it. The lather freely gives the bread of heaven without money and without price, and yet Jesus bade men labour for it.

Lord, thou hast taught me to see a great distinction between the idea of meriting thy favour and the truth that earnest effort is necessary to salvation. Help me to work as if my salvation depended on my working, and then keep me trusting in thee alone, as if I worked not at all. Thou givest me all things, the end and the means to that end. That measure of holy labour which I put forth is first wrought in me, and therefore would I be doubly diligent. I would work because thou workest in me, and strive for victory because thou givest me both the strength and the crown.