WORK OUT YOUR OWN SALVATION.
By Joseph Clarke
It cannot be worked out by your minister, nor can it be worked out by your friend. Christ intercedes before the Father, and pleads his blood; the Spirit convicts, and whispers of a Judgment; the angels wait to carry the tidings; saints warn and entreat, and pray; but all in vain unless you work. The pupil may be favored with accomplished teachers, and best of means; he may attend year after year with punctuality, yet all in vain unless he tax his own powers of thought, and application; and the more patiently and assiduously he labors, the more benefit he derives; and the less he depends upon his aids, and the more he relies upon his own efforts, the stronger he becomes. So in the school of Christ, we must work out salvation, not looking to earthly teachers or visible aids, but with the mind stayed solely upon God, must learn to look away from man whose breath is in his nostrils, learn to direct our own minds to the source of light, learn to watch, and pray, and labor, with fervency and constancy, always with Christ and the object in view. ‐For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.‐ Phil. ii, 13. Thus we are taught to realize our entire dependence. In vain we plough or sow, unless the rain descends and the sun shines. But we have the promise, ‐They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.‐ Let us press forward not waiting to be urged forward like timid children, but like good pupils, work out our allotted task with cheerful hope and uplifted eyes, not obstinate yet firm : not fickle, yet teachable.