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CHRISTIAN DILIGENCE,
[SERM. VIM;
abound
in
knowledge
and
wisdom,
or
he
shall
grow
rich
in grace and the fruits
of
righteousness
;
but
the slothful
wretch
shall
be
poor
indeed.
In
vain
doth
he sit with
folded hands, and
wish
for the
blessings
of
nature or
grace,
of
time
or eternity
:
-
The
idle hand shall
be
empty
still, he shall
desire
in vain,
and
shall never possess.
Diligence
is
the
appointed
theme
of
my
discourse, the
diligence of
man
or a
christian.
I
shall endeavour, first
to
describe
it
in
all
the
several
parts
of
it,
and then take
a
short
survey
of
the
blessings
temporal and spiritual
which
attend it;
and
by
the
way,
I
shall
give some
occa-
sional hints
of
the crime
and
punishment of
the
contrary
vices.
First,
Let
ús
enquire what are
the several things which
are
implied
in
true
diligence,
whether
it
relate
to
the
things
of
this
life,
or the
life
to
come.
1.
"
Diligence includes the employment
of
every
part
of
our
time
in
proper
business
;
and
thus
it
stands,
in
opposition
both
to
sauntering and doing nothing
at
all,
to
trifling,
or doing
what
is
to no purpose,
and to
mis-
timing the
businesses which
are
to
be
done."
Every person
in
the
world
has some
proper
business
to
do
daily,
for God, for themselves,
or
for the good
of
their
fellow-
creatures.
Mankind,
even
in
the golden age
of
innocence, was not
made for idleness. Adam
was
put
into
thé garden
of
Eden,
"
to dress
.and
keep
it
;"
Gen.
ii.
8,
15.
and
it
is
our duty
wisely to
enquire what
is
our
proper
work,
and
to
employ ourselves in
it.
But
how
many
idle
creatures are there
in the world
that
act
quite
contrary
to this
rule
?
1.
How many
do
we
find who
saunter
their
lives away,
and let their
days,
and
months,
and
years
rurt to waste
in
doing
nothing,at
all, as
though they
were
brought into
the
world
to eat,
drink and
sleep, to
gaze
away
life,
and
then
to lie down in
death
?
O
wretched abuse
of
these
precious
blessings, life
and
time
!
"
I
must
work,
saith
our
Lord,
while
it
is day,
I
must do the
particular
work,
for
which
my
Father sent
me
hither;
the
night
is
coming
when no
man can
work
;"
John
ix.
4.
Let
us all be
imitators of our
blessed
Jesus. The
business
of
the rich
is
to
render their.wealth
useful to
the
good
of the
world,
and
to
the interests
of
religion: The
business
of the poor
is
to.
labour
to
obtain their daily bread,
and not
be
bur-