But when we have done our best what may we expect?  All things.  They shall work together for good to those who love God enough to do their best for him in any plane of work.  One could preach fifty sermons on the great works done by men, obviously too great for man’s accomplishment.  Time would fail me to tell of Moses, Gideon, Paul, Luther, Wesley, Wilberforce, William of Orange, Washington, John Brown, Abe Lincoln, and thousands more of whom this world was not worthy, who, undeniably by divine aid, wrought righteousness.  One of the great sins of our age is that men do not see God immanent in all things.  We have found so many ways of his working that we call laws, so many segments of his power, that we have forgotten him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.  A sustainer is as necessary as a creator.  There are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all.  The next great service to be done by human philosophy is to bring back God in human thought into his own world.  Since these things are so, what are the conditions under which we may work the works of God by his power?

First, they must be his works, not ours as opposed to his, but ours as included in his.  All our works may be wrought in God, if we do his works, follow his plans, and are aided by his strength.

Second, they must be attempted with the right motive of glorifying God.  Christ is the pattern.  He came not to do his own will, but the will of him who sent him.  And he did always the things that pleased him.  In our fervid desires for the accomplishment of some great thing we should be as willing it should be accomplished by another as by ourselves.  The personal pride is often a fly in the sweet-smelling savor.  God would rather have a given work not done, or done by another, than to have one of his dear ones puffed up with sinful pride.  Great Saul must often be removed and the work be left undone, or be done by some humble David.

  “Inaudible voices call us, and we go;
  Invisible hands restrain us, and we stay;
  Forces, unfelt by our dull senses, sway
  Our wavering wills, and hedge us in the way
  We call our own, because we do not know.

  “Are we, then, slaves of ignorant circumstance? 
  Nay, God forbid! 
  God holds the world, not blind, unreasoning chance!”

How shall we secure the cooperative power?  There is power of every kind everywhere in plenty.  All the Niagaras and Mississippis have run to waste since they began to thunder and flow.  Greater power is in the wind everywhere.  One can rake up enough electricity to turn all the wheels of a great city whenever he chooses to start his rake.  The sky is full of Pentecosts.  Power enough, but how shall we belt on?  By fasting, prayer, and by willing to do the will of God.  We have so much haste that we do not tarry at Jerusalem for fullness of power.  Moses was forty years in the wilderness:  Daniel fasted and prayed for one and twenty days.  We are told to pray without ceasing, and that there are kinds of devils that go not out except at the command of those who fast and pray.