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Life is work, and life is warfare; and these are ever commingled. Our text is but an epitome and sample of that larger and longer work which fills the broad area of all human history.

I. THIS LIFE IS TO MEN A SCENE OF TOIL. "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" is the universal and unchanging law of human life. Inaction is no blessing. The spirit of man stagnates and sickens under it, and it issues in a weariness which is worse than the fatigues of labour. Activity is needful to the true enjoyment of life. Adam was not inactive in paradise (Genesis 2:15). Heaven is a rest, but not a rest of indolence. There "His servants do serve Him." The true labour of life involves self-denial, apprehension, patience, fatigue, disappointment. Every man has a work that is specific and peculiar to him. The great Taskmaster never set two of His creatures the same task. Amid much general sameness, there is the strictest individuality. Life's work is twofold.

1. The secular department. How great is the number of human avocations! And in each of these avocations what a number of workers! And each one has a task given him to do which is as distinct as himself, which no one can do but he, and which is defined by his circumstances, his relations and his endowments.

2. The spiritual department. The work of the soul and of eternity; the end of which is — "to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever."

II. THIS LIFE IS ALSO A SCENE OF CONFLICT. We have to fight —

1. Against ourselves. As internal wars are ever fiercest and most painful, so the battle-ground of a Christian's own heart is that on which he is called to wage the severest fight and win the hardest victory. We have to overcome our sluggishness, our unbelief, our sensuality, our concupiscence, the heavy clog of sense, and the fierce impulse of corruption.

2. Against men. This enemy is called the world. And by it we mean that vast mass of maxims, opinions, beliefs, pursuits, ways, habits, opposed to the mind and service of God, which characterise human society.

3. Against spirits. The devil and his angels, numerous, powerful, malignant (Ephesians 6:12).

(R. A. Hallam, D. D.)

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KJV: They which builded on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those that laded, every one with one of his hands wrought in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon.

WEB: They all built the wall and those who bore burdens loaded themselves; everyone with one of his hands worked in the work, and with the other held his weapon;