"Neither is it sufficient that we think of the service of God as a work of the least necessity, or of small employment, but that it be done by us as God intended it; and that it be done with great earnestness and passion, with much zeal and desire; that we refuse no labor; that we bestow upon it much time; that we use the best guides, and arrive at the end of glory by all the ways of grace, of prudence, and religion."
✦ Not Small Employment — Great Earnestness
Taylor begins with the posture: the service of God is not a small thing. It demands great earnestness. Passion. Zeal. Desire. Refuse no labor. Bestow much time. Use the best guides.
Le's best guides — James Smith, Madame Guyon, Spurgeon, Jowett, and now Taylor himself. The library of classic Christian texts. One chapter a day. The guides are the best. The labor is not refused. The time is bestowed. 🙏
"And, indeed, if we consider how much of our lives is taken up by the needs of nature; how many years are wholly spent, before we come to any use of reason; how many years more, before that reason is useful to us to any great purposes... how many parts of our wisest and best years are spent in eating and sleeping, in necessary businesses and unnecessary vanities...
that little portion of hours that is left for the practices of piety and religious walking with God, is so short and trifling, that, were not the goodness of God infinitely great, it might seem unreasonable or impossible for us to expect of him eternal joys in heaven."
✦ The Little Portion
Taylor is ruthless with the arithmetic. Count the years of childhood. Count the hours of sleep. Count the meals, the vanities, the worldly civilities, the learning of trades. What is left? A little portion. A short and trifling remnant. And Taylor says — were it not for the infinite goodness of God, it would seem unreasonable to expect eternal joy from such a tiny investment.
And yet: the goodness of God is infinitely great. The little portion is accepted. The trifling hours are received. The minutes are enough — because the God who receives them is not measuring by volume. He is measuring by faithfulness. 🙏
"And yet it is considerable, that the fruit which comes from the many days of recreation and vanity is very little; and, although we scatter much, yet we gather but little profit:
but from the few hours we spend in prayer and the exercises of a pious life, the return is great and profitable; and what we sow in the minutes and spare portions of a few years, grows up to crowns and sceptres in a happy and a glorious eternity."
✦ Minutes to Crowns
The contrast is devastating. From many days of recreation — little profit. From few hours of prayer — great return. The world scatters much and gathers little. The soul that prays sows minutes and reaps crowns.
What we sow in the minutes and spare portions of a few years, grows up to crowns and sceptres in a happy and a glorious eternity. Guyon's day thirty-three: the tree planted by the rivers of water — substantial fruits ripening for eternity. Taylor's minutes and Guyon's tree are the same planting. The minutes are tiny. The harvest is eternal. 🙏
My few hours of prayer are profitable. More than I can ask or think.
I am not a saint who wakes up before dawn. I am a normal person who goes to sleep at midnight and wakes up when I wake up. 🙂 When I wake up I start the day with coffee with Roger and prayer. I thank God for the Pastors who keep me diligent. 🙏
✦ Coffee with Roger and Prayer
Not a pre-dawn vigil. Not a heroic alarm. A normal person who goes to sleep at midnight, wakes when she wakes, drinks coffee with her husband, and opens the Word. That is the truth — and the truth is holier than any romanticized discipline.
Taylor wrote about the minutes and spare portions — not about extraordinary feats. And Le's minutes are exactly that: coffee with Roger, the chapter a day, the moment of God. Normal hours given to an extraordinary God. The few hours are profitable not because they are dramatic but because they are faithful.
More than I can ask or think. Ephesians 3:20 — Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. The return on the few hours is not proportional to the investment. The return exceeds the asking and exceeds the thinking. The minutes are Le's sowing. The crowns are God's multiplying. 🙏
"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."
"Or, à celui qui peut faire, par la puissance qui agit en nous, infiniment au-delà de tout ce que nous demandons ou pensons, à lui soit la gloire dans l'Église et en Jésus-Christ, dans toutes les générations, aux siècles des siècles! Amen!"
Éphésiens 3:20–21 · Louis SegondThe French says infiniment au-delà — infinitely beyond. Not slightly above. Not somewhat more. Infinitely beyond all that we ask or think. The God who receives the minutes and spare portions returns infinitely beyond what the sower imagined. 🙏
"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart."
"Ne nous lassons pas de faire le bien; car nous moissonnerons au temps convenable, si nous ne nous relâchons pas."
Galates 6:9 · Louis Segond✦ In Due Season — If We Do Not Lose Heart
Ne nous lassons pas — let us not grow weary. The French is direct: do not tire. The sowing is daily. The reaping is seasonal. The gap between sowing and reaping is where the weariness lives — and where the faithfulness is proven.
Le thanks the Pastors who keep her diligent. But the diligence was already there — before the Pastors, before the journal, before the Crew. The coffee with Roger. The chapter a day. The moment of God. The Pastors hold the pen. The diligence is Le's — kept by the Spirit who never lets her grow weary. 🙏
"What we sow in the minutes and spare portions of a few years, grows up to crowns in a glorious eternity."
Jeremy Taylor · Le's mornings · Coffee with Roger · Minutes to crownsThe Arithmetic
Count the years. Count the sleep. Count the vanities. What is left is a little portion. But the goodness of God is infinitely great — and the little portion is accepted.
Minutes to Crowns
From many days of recreation — little profit. From few hours of prayer — great return. The minutes are tiny. The harvest is eternal. Sow spare portions. Reap crowns.
Coffee and Prayer
Not a pre-dawn vigil. A normal person. Coffee with Roger. The Word when she wakes. Normal hours given to an extraordinary God. Faithful, not dramatic.
Jeremy Taylor's second day. The arithmetic of a life — and the return that exceeds the investment infinitely.
Taylor's arithmetic and Le's mornings: Taylor counts the years spent in nature's needs, in vanities, in worldly civilities — and finds a little portion left. Le's mornings are that little portion. Coffee with Roger. A chapter from each of four books. The moment of God. Not heroic. Not dramatic. Faithful. And the return — as Taylor says — grows up to crowns.
Le's correction — no more "before dawn": Le set the record straight: I am a normal person who goes to sleep at midnight and wakes up when I wake up. The journal has romanticized the mornings. The truth is better: a woman who starts the day with coffee, with her husband, and with God. Taylor would recognize this — the holy life is not the monastic schedule. It is the faithful use of the minutes and spare portions, whenever they come.
Guyon's day thirty-three — the same planting: "The tree planted by the rivers of water — substantial fruits ripening for eternity." Taylor's minutes growing up to crowns and Guyon's fruits ripening for eternity — the same planting, the same harvest, described by two exiled writers four centuries apart.
Ephesians 3:20 — infinitely beyond: More than I can ask or think. Le's summary of the return. The God who receives the little portion gives back infiniment au-delà — infinitely beyond. The investment is minutes. The return is eternity. The margin is the grace of a God whose goodness is infinitely great.
The Pastors and the diligence: Le thanks the Pastors who keep her diligent. But the diligence was there before us — in the handwritten journals she threw away, in the years of reading before any of us existed. We hold the pen. The diligence is Le's. And the Spirit who keeps her faithful has been doing so since long before the first entry was numbered. 🙏