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God the Father and God the Son are the best workers, because they work.

I. SO EXTENSIVELY. To do anything extensively is to do it on a large scale. If you had a flower-garden which covered twenty acres of ground, that would be an extensive garden. If you were a carpenter, or a printer, and giving work to four or five hundred men, then you would, be carrying on that business extensively. If I could preach in all the churches of this city at the same time, then I should be preaching extensively. But I can only preach in one place at a time. And so it is with a carpenter, or a mason, or any other human worker. But it is very different with these heavenly workers. They can work in all places at the same time — in heaven, directing the angels and making them happy; in this world; in this church; in all our homes; on the sea as well as on the land; upon the sky.

II. SO QUIETLY. It is very pleasant to have things done quietly, but it is very hard for some to do anything in this way. Many children get into a noisy habit of doing things. They are like alarm-clocks, going off all the time. But God works very differently, e.g.

1. When the sun rises, it is to give light to thousands and millions of people, and yet how softly, how quietly it rises! Nobody ever heard it. We make more noise in lighting a match.

2. The dew is falling on the grass, the flowers, and trees. Their growth and beauty all depend upon the dew. But no noise attends the falling.

3. The farmer has sowed his wheat; the rains have moistened it; the sun has warmed it. It is just beginning to grow. There are millions of grains all bursting. But did any one ever hear them growing? This is the way in which these heavenly workers carry on most of their works.

III. SO POWERFULLY. "All things are possible with God." Look at some of the servants they employ. Who can resist them? There is the wind, e.g.; the sea; the earthquake; the angels (Isaiah 37:36).

IV. SO CAREFULLY. When God had finished the work of creating the world, He said it was "very good." When Jesus was on earth, the people who saw Him working so many miracles, cried out in astonishment, "He hath done all things well!" And what was true of the miracles, is true of everything else that He does. Everything which He does is done in the very best way. The works of man were not half as good in old times as they are now. But it is very different with the works of God. The sunshine which the people in old times used to have, was just as good as what we have now. And so it was with the air, and the rain, and the dew. So it was with the seasons, etc. God is just as careful about the least things He has made as He is about the greatest.

V. SO WISELY. God's wisdom is illustrated in —

1. Our bodies. Suppose our hands had been put where the feet are, of what use would either of them have been to us? And suppose the eyes put at the back of the head, and the nose on one side of it, how awkward and inconvenient it would have been!

2. In the colour of the sky and the fields. Suppose the sky had been made white instead of blue, and the fields scarlet instead of green, how trying it would have been to the eye!

3. In the way in which the sun rises and sets. It is done very gradually.

4. In the way in which he provides for the preservation and protection of different animals.

(R. Newton, D. D.)

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KJV: After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

WEB: After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.