Without prolonging such inquiries, enough has been said, I hope, to enable you to apprehend what I mean by our being fellow-workers with God in all His works of providence that concern ourselves.  We believe that these things, whether of joy or sorrow, do not come by chance, nor through the agency of dead mechanical laws, but that a living Person is dealing with us wisely, lovingly, righteously,—­that, in truth, “the Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away,” and that, accordingly, there must be a design or purpose to serve in what He gives or withholds,—­that this never can be an evil purpose, but must, in every case, be good, and that we may derive good and a blessing from it.  Let us, then, be fellow-workers with Him in seeking, through faith and love, to have this purpose realised, and to have the end designed by God fulfilled in us or by us, so that every joy and sorrow may bring us nearer the glorious God, and make us know Him better, and love Him more, and thus possess “life more abundantly,” even “life eternal!”

But not only is there a work to be done in us, but also by us, in the doing of which we are to be “labourers together with God.”

This kind of labouring with others is illustrated by Saint Paul when he says, what I have already quoted, “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us:  we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.  For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.  We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.”  He is here, you perceive, addressing those who were enemies to God, and beseeching such to be “reconciled.”  But in what spirit does he plead with them?  In labouring to bring them into reconciliation with their Father, and to save their souls, he does not feel himself alone and solitary in his work and labour of love; as one prompted by his own goodwill to lost sinners, and his own wishes to redeem them from evil, yet in doubt or in ignorance as to what God’s wishes or feelings were in regard to them.  He does not proclaim the gospel to one or to many sinners with such thoughts as these:  “It is no doubt my duty to preach to them, and to plead with them, and from my heart I pity them, love them, and could die to save them; but whether God pities them or not, or truly wishes to save them, I do not know, for I am totally ignorant of His will or purpose.”  Surely such were not the apostle’s convictions!  Did he not rather engage in this work of seeking to save souls with intense earnestness, because he knew that however great his love, it was but a reflection, however dim, of the infinite love of God to them, and his desire to save them but a feeble expression of the desire of God?  Was he not persuaded, that in “beseeching” them to be reconciled, he could speak “as though God did beseech” them by him, as one “in Christ’s stead;” and that “in beseeching” them “not to receive the grace of God in vain,” he was but “a worker together with God?”