brought into harmony with His, we see how excellent the work is, that
we can be, not labourers only, but "_fellow_-labourers" with God;--not
workers only, but "workers _together_ with Him."

Consider, for instance, _the work of God in our own souls_. This is,
as far as we ourselves are concerned, the most important work in the
universe. Upon it depends whether the universe shall be to us a heaven
or a hell. "What will a man give in exchange for his soul?" is a
question which assumes that to the man himself nothing can be so
valuable. But has God any work to do in our souls? Has He ever
expressed any wish as to what He would have us believe, become, or
enjoy, or revealed for what end or purpose He made our spirits? Is
there no wrong state or condition in us with which He is "angry" and
"grieved," and no right state with which He is "delighted," and over
which He "rejoices?" Has He laid no command upon us to "work out our
own salvation with fear and trembling?" and has He given no intimation
of His "working in us to will and do?" Or is it to Him the same
whether we are wrong or right? Surely we can have no difficulty in
replying to such all-important questions! If a man loses faith in the
reality and sincerity of God's wish, that he personally should have
his guilty soul freely pardoned, and his unholy soul sanctified, and
his whole being renewed after God's own image,--that he himself should
be a good, a great, a happy man, by knowing and loving his God; and if
a man brings himself to such a state of practical atheism as to doubt
whether God knows or cares anything about him;--then it is impossible
for such a man to be "a fellow-labourer," a "worker together" with God
in his own soul; for he does not know and has never heard of any work
of God required _there_. But if he believes that God is indeed his
"Father in heaven;"--that He has goodwill to him, and therefore
desires his good by desiring him to _be_ good;--that, for the