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1. To do everything for God's glory is the great law of the universe. For this the flower blooms, the bird warbles, the rivers murmur, etc., and from the standpoint of celestial science all seemingly anomalous facts and antagonistic forces yield to the same law.

2. This is also the law of God's moral universe; all actions of all spiritual creatures work out the same Divine purpose. Even sin is working out God's declarative glories — like the thick cloud, a background for His rainbows; like the black night, revealing His stars. The moving invitations of the gospel are not urged lest God should come short of His ultimate glory. Note: —

I. THE CONSTANCY OF THIS RELIGIOUS PRINCIPLE.

1. Our religious life is no more to be confirmed to Sabbaths and sanctuaries than is our eating and drinking. Holiness to the Lord ought to be inscribed as well on the bells of our horses as on the bells of our sanctuaries. And all the sounds of busy civilisation — the axe, the chisel, the saw, the wheels, yea, the joyous laugh, should blend with the new song of the redeemed in heaven unto the glory of God.

2. That it is not so, practically, we all know. To profess religion has come to mean little more than to go to church and partake of the sacrament. There may be during the entire six days an arrest of all thought of God. But now comes the Sabbath, and, lo! a sudden resurrection of buried Christianity. Practical Christianity is no sanctuary sensation; it is the conscientious discharge of all duty with a desire therein to honour Jehovah. It makes the whole world a temple, and the whole life a priesthood.

II. ITS UNIVERSALITY. The apostle speaks of actions seemingly trivial to be done religiously. The taste of our times is for great things in religion. As the summer tourist hurries carelessly by all the tamer beauties of the landscape, and can experience no rapture save on the height of some mountain, or in the spray of some waterfall, so nothing less than a powerful revival seems to many a season or sphere wherein God can be honoured. Now, against this disposition our text is launched. Its practical wisdom will appear if we consider —

1. That life is made up of little things and trivial occurrences. As in nature there is but one Mount Blanc, and one Niagara, so in grace there occur but few great crises. In the mass and in the main, if we do anything for God, it must be in the ever-recurring things of our daily life.

2. That though one might occasionally do some great thing for God, yet this neglect to honour Him in these small things would destroy all the good influence of the grander achievements. Let a man be as ardent as Peter, as eloquent as Paul, as loving as John, if in his common life he is vain, or proud, or selfish, then it will be as the dead fly of Solomon — the savour of his godliness is an offence.

3. That the absence of small graces destroys the very essence of the greater. So dependent are all Christian principles one upon another, that they cannot even exist separately. Let a man be all patience without courage, and he becomes more a sheep than a saint; let him be all courage without gentleness, and he is simply a tiger. Zeal without knowledge is a devouring fire in a harvest-field; and even love without labour is a scorching sirocco, withering the strength of the becalmed mariner.

4. That even in regard of His own actions God is more sensibly glorified in small things than in great. Strictly speaking, God's great things are only an aggregate of little things. Mount Blanc is but a masonry of sand-grains; Niagara only a multiplication of rain-drops. And to a simply philosophic mind God is more wonderful when feathering the insect's wing than when upholding the great orbs of astronomy.

5. How often false are our reckonings of what is great and small. Great actions are such only as produce great results: and so shortsighted are we in respect to life's issues, that we can never know when we are doing great things or small.

6. How it requires and manifests a higher style of piety to do well the small thing than the great. Naaman found it easier to conquer mighty cities than to go down in childlike obedience to the Jordan. Martyrdom itself, under the influence of a grand heroism, is among the easiest of all things. It requires less piety to do this splendid thing for God than to subdue every selfish and carnal thought, to love an insolent and provoking enemy. Paul found it easier to combat Ephesian beasts than to bear his thorn in the flesh; and Peter, who could plunge into the sea, and flash his sword for Christ, could neither keep his temper nor govern his tongue.

7. The importance of these smaller things in religion, inasmuch as they abound in the spheres of our pleasures. If we may eat and drink to God's glory, then as certainly we may gather bright flowers and listen to singing birds. We may gratify all taste of art, literature, and science. God wants His children, even on earth, to be happy. Conclusion: What a blessed world this would become under the full play of so heavenly a principle! What a prodigious power it would give to the gospel in the eyes of gainsaying men if, instead of this mere Pharisaism of sanctuaries and sacraments, it was seen to inspire its disciples with all the practical graces of truth, honour, public spirit, brotherly kindness, and charity.

(C. Wadsworth, D.D.)

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KJV: Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

WEB: Whether therefore you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.