Whatever we have to do, let us do it with all our hearts, and do it as for God, and then we shall be his apostles—­his sent ones.  Let me put the application of this subject in the form of some earnest, practical lines that I lately met with.  The lines only speak of boys, but they apply just as well to girls.  They are headed: 

DRIVE THE NAIL.

  “Drive the nail aright, boys,
    Hit it on the head,
  Strike with all your might, boys,
    While the iron’s red.

  “Lessons you’ve to learn, boys,
    Study with a will;
  They who reach the top, boys,
    First must climb the hill.

  “Standing at the foot, boys,
    Gazing at the sky,
  How can you get up, boys,
    If you never try?

  “Though you stumble oft, boys,
    Never be downcast;
  Try and try again, boys,
    You’ll succeed at last.

  “Ever persevere, boys,
    Tho’ your task be hard;
  Toil and happy cheer, boys,
    Bring their own reward.

  “Never give it up, boys,
    Always say you’ll try;
  Joy will fill your cup, boys,
    Flowing by and by.”

THE GREAT TEACHER

Teaching was the great business of the life of Christ during the days of his public ministry.  He was sent to teach and to preach.  The speaker in the book of Job was thinking of this Great Teacher when he asked—­“Who teacheth like him?” Job xxxvi:  22.  And it was he who was in the Psalmist’s mind when he spoke of the “good, and upright Lord” who would teach sinners, if they were meek, how to walk in his ways.  Ps. xxv:  8-9.  And he is the Redeemer, of whom the prophet Isaiah was telling when he said—­He would “teach us to profit, and would lead us by the way that we should go.”  And thus we know how true was what Nicodemus said of him, that “he was a teacher sent from God.”  John iii:  2.  Thus what was said of Jesus, before he came into our world, would naturally lead us to expect to find him occupied in teaching.  And so he was occupied, all through the days of his public ministry.  St. Matthew tells us that—­“Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues.”  Ch. iv:  23.  Further on in his gospel he tells us again that “Jesus went about all the cities, and villages, teaching in their synagogues.”  Ch. ix:  35.  When on his trial before Pilate, his enemies brought it as a charge against him that he had been—­“teaching throughout all Jewry.”  Luke xxiii:  5.  We read in one place that—­“the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching.”  Matt. xxi:  23.  Jesus himself gave this account of his life work to his enemies—­“I sat daily with you teaching in the temple.”  Matt. xxvi:  55.  And so we come now to look at the life of Christ from this point of view—­as a Teacher.  There never was such a Teacher.