i. 17. _Learn to do well._
Negative goodness is not enough to meet the Divine requirements.
Those who have "ceased to do evil" must "learn to do well." God
demands positive excellence.[1] The cultivation of well-doing is the
surest guarantee against evil-doing.[2]
+I. Well-doing is a thing to be learned.+ We have been too prone to
look at it in its other aspect only, as a thing springing from faith
and love, not as a thing to be cultivated. But see Phil. iv. 9;
1 Tim. v. 4; Titus iii. 14; Matt. xi. 29; Heb. v. 3 All _experience_
is in accordance with the teaching of these texts. Has any case
occurred in which at the beginning of the Christian life a person was
proficient in well-doing? Men are not born into the Christian life
with a perfect capacity to _do_ well, any more than they are born
into the natural life with a perfect capacity to _speak_ well.
Conversion is a beginning, not an ending.[3] We then begin to learn
the standards, methods, opportunities, and practice of excellence. In
the hour of conversion we do but pass into Christ's school, and begin
to be His _disciples._ Well-doing is not to be learned in one lesson,
nor in six lessons. [_Illustration:_ frequent advertisement, "French
in six lessons." Absurd!] It was only after a prolonged training and
most varied discipline that St. Paul could say, "I have _learned_ in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." Is _that_ a lesson
to be acquired in a day? Let our own hearts supply further proof.
Look within, and see the evils yet unsubdued, the excellences yet
unattained, the difficulty with which many a duty is discharged, and
you will see the necessity of _learning_ to do well. We have
_learned_ to do well only when it has become a _habit_ to us, when we
do it as easily and naturally as a well-trained merchant's clerk adds
up a column of figures correctly. But can any _habit_ be acquired
without prolonged practice?[4]
+II. Well-doing is learned much in the same way as other things are
learned.+ Learning a language involves study, patience, perseverance,
practice. Not otherwise can we learn to do well.[5]
+III. In learning to do well, we need both inspiration and help.+ We
have both; the _inspiration_ in the example of our Lord (Acts x. 38;
Heb. xii. 2); the _help_ in the gracious assistance of the Holy Ghost
(Rom. viii. 26). Therefore, difficult as the task is, we may address
ourselves to it with good hope of success.--_William Jones._