1. That there is infinite grace, through which a certain equity shines,
in the things which God has provided for all who have wrought, even
though feebly and tardily, at His work. The work is honour and
happiness; the want of it is shame and pain. The early labourers are the
enviable; the late labourers are the pitiable. But God in His boundless
grace adds a boundless gift to all: “the gift of God,” which “is eternal
life, through Jesus Christ our Lord.” But through the grace a certain
equity shines. Man was made for Life, he was born for it. To miss the
glorious boon which God has the power to bestow on him through Christ,
were to miss the very end and issue to which God touched his spirit. A
well-nigh infinite capacity of being, loving, and enjoying, is in him,
which God only can satisfy and eternity only can complete. And God in
His boundless love and mercy meets him in his idleness and degradation,
and proposes to him a work which His grace will crown with glorious,
everlasting joy.