Serving The Lord
A sermon
(No. 885)
Delivered on Sunday Morning, AUGUST 15, 1869, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Serving the Lord."- Romans 12:11.
THE harmony of Scripture is admirable. Everything is proportionate and
balanced. He who weighed the mountains in scales has had a clear eye to
the adjustment of truth in His Word. Within these pages you find a
sufficiency of doctrine, for it is the basis of practice. You read
abundance of promise, for it is the support of perseverance. But, you
meet, also, with frequency of precept, for it is the spur and guide of
holiness. We could not afford to dispense with a verse of Holy Writ.
The removal of a single text, like the erasure of a line of a great
epic, would mar the completeness and connection of the whole. As well
pluck a gem from the high priest's breastplate as erase a line of
Revelation.
Absolutely perfect are the proportions of inspired Truth and it is
noteworthy that practical Truth has the greatest prominence. It has
been remarked by an able Divine that for every exhortation that we have
in the New Testament to pray, we have five commands either to work or
to give. While the doctrinal part of Scripture is exceedingly full, the
practical part is not one whit less copious, and, indeed, the
proportion which, in Christ's ministry, was given to instruction in
practical godliness is vastly larger than the share allotted to it in
most modern ministries.
God has given to us in Scripture something concerning every necessary
thing, but most of all upon the most necessary, namely, holy living. As
the Lord distributes, so must we receive. We are not to neglect the
knowledge of the Doctrines of Grace. We are diligently to feed upon the
promises, but we are also, with affection and reverence, to regard the
precepts.
In the verse before us, this same harmony is noteworthy. "Not slothful
in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." The ordinary duties
of our calling we are not called upon to forget–we are not to neglect
the shop for the sanctuary–or the counting house for the class
meeting. The legs of a fool are not equal, but the holiness of a
Believer should always be well arranged. Whatever our position in life
may be we are so to order our conduct in it as to commend ourselves for
diligence and uprightness both to the Church and to the world. The
Christian is not to be a worse tradesman because of his religion, but a
better! He is not to be a less skilled mechanic, but he is to be all
the more careful in his work.
It were a pity, indeed, if Paul's tents were the worst in the store and
Lydia's purple of the poorest dye. At the same time observe how the
next clause calls our equal attention to the higher and more spiritual
matter. "Fervent in spirit." We must not neglect the spiritual because
of the pressing demands of the temporal. Perhaps we are more likely to
forget this precept than the former, therefore let us lay it the more
to heart. We are to maintain the holy fire within our souls constantly
burning, for that is the meaning of "fervent." Our love to God must not
merely be there in a small degree, but it must exist as a vigorous
flame. Our spirit must be kept warmly zealous, burningly affectionate.
Our spiritual nature is to glow like coals of fire.
The keystone of the arch of life is to be a desire for God's Glory. At
this point the public and the private, the bodily and the spiritual,
are to be as one–both in business diligence and spiritual fervency we
are to set the Lord always before us. Our everyday labor is to be
consecrated into priestly sacrifice, our inward fervor is to be like
temple incense and so, our bodies being temples of the Holy Spirit, we
are ever to remain "serving the Lord." My aim in this sermon will be to
call upon my believing Brothers and Sisters to fulfill in their lives
the meaning of the words which we have now selected as our text,
"Serving the Lord," or as it might be rendered, "doing the part of
servants towards God." "Servantizing"– waiting as servants upon the
Most High.
I. And first, I shall have to notice THE ESSENTIALS OF ALL TRUE SERVICE
TO GOD. NO one will fail to see that the very first essential must be
that the man who would render service must beforehand be accepted as a
servant. If a
stranger should, of his own accord, visit your farm and should commence
driving the horses, milking the cows, reaping the wheat and so on–if
you had never employed him he would be fulfilling the part of an
intruder rather than the office of a servant.
Now, it is not every man who is fit to be a servant of God. In fact, in
our fallen condition, none of us can be received into His household,
even as hired servants. How should the thrice holy God be served by
hands unwashed from sin? Lepers cannot stand at His altar, or the
deformed dwell within His gates. Unregenerate man cannot serve
God–their thoughts and ways are evil and defiled. Unto the wicked God
says, "What have you to do to declare My statutes?" No form of homage
rendered by the wicked can be acceptable. Until the person is
justified, the work cannot be received.
Dear Friend, think of this! You must, first of all, be taken into the
Lord's employment before you can render Him service! Let me ask you,
then, are you in very deed and truth a servant of the Lord? Have you
been bought with the great Master's money? In other words, have you
been ransomed by the death of Jesus Christ? Have you been redeemed, not
with corruptible things as with silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Jesus? For only the redeemed ones are reckoned by the Lord as
servants in His household. The ungodly are slaves to Satan and even in
their attempts at religion they display their vassalage to the powers
of evil. You must, first of all, be loosed from your natural bondage
and set free with a price! And then, and then, only, can you be the
servant of the Most High.
Answer this question to your heart and conscience, dear Hearer! He that
is God's servant has been won by power as well as bought with price.
How does this fact strike you? Has a strong hand snatched you from
servitude to your former tyrant? Have you been compelled by Divine
Grace to leave your sins and to commence another course of life? No man
comes to Jesus except he is drawn of the Father. No man leaves the
service of folly unconstrained by Divine Grace. Have you been so drawn?
Israel would forever have made bricks in Egypt if the Lord had not
brought forth His people with a high hand and an outstretched arm. Do
you know what the mighty working of His power means? Has Sovereign
Grace subdued you? Have you in very deed been translated out of the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son? If you know not
these things, little avails it that you pretend to hear the Lord, for
your profession is hollow and vain. True servants of God, again, are
always such as are born in His house as well as bought with His
money–"You must be born again." Preliminary to all holy service must
be regeneration. The fruit of the wild olive will still be wild, water
it as you may. That which comes from the crab will still be sour, plant
the tree where you will.
Man's nature must be changed. A lion cannot plow as an ox, or carry a
rider as a horse. A sinner is unsuitable for service till he is newly
created. Have you received, then, from God, a change–a radical change
which has affected your nature and made you a new man in Christ Jesus?
If so, then you may not only talk of service, but joyously enter into
it! But if not, to labor to perform holy works is to try to bear
flowers without roots, to build a house without a foundation, to make a
garment without cloth. You must begin with faith in Jesus. You must
first experience a work done within you by God before you can go
forward to work for the Lord.
Next to this, it is vitally necessary that in all our service we
sincerely and simply render our obedience to the Lord Himself. Much
that is done religiously is not done unto God. A sermon may be preached
and contain excellent truth and the language in which the Truth of God
is stated may be everything that could be desired and yet the service
rendered may be to the hearers, or to the man's own self and not to God
at all. You may go to your Sunday school class and with great
perseverance you may instruct those little children, but yet you may
have served your fellow teachers, or the general community rather than
have served your God.
To whom do you look for a reward? Whose smile is it that gladdens you?
Whose frown would depress you? Whose honor do you seek in all that you
are doing? Remember that which is uppermost in your heart is your
Master. If your deepest motive is to seem to be active, to appear to be
diligent and to win commendation for taking your share in the Church's
work, you have not served God–you have sacrificed unto others. O
Beloved, this is a point which, though it is very simple to speak of,
is very searching, indeed, if it is brought home to heart and
conscience–for then much of that which glitters will be found not to
be gold–and the glory of much apparently excellent serving will
dissolve in smoke.
The Lord must be the sole object of your labor! The pursuit of His
Glory must, like a clear crystal stream, run through the whole of your
life, or you are not yet His servant. Sinister motives and selfish aims
are the death of true godliness. Search and look lest these betray you
unawares. Furthermore, in all true service of God it is essential that
we
serve Him in the way of His appointment. You would be grievously
plagued if you had in your house a woman who was continually running up
and down stairs, roaming into every room, opening every closet, moving
this piece of furniture and dusting that and generally keeping up a
perpetual stir and worry. You would not call this service, but
annoyance.
All that is done contrary to orders is disobedience, not service. And
if anything is done without orders, it may be excessive activity, but
it certainly is not service. Alas, my Brothers and Sisters, how many
think they are serving God when they have never looked to the Statute
Book–they have not turned to the Commandments of the great King as we
have them written in His Word–but have rendered to Him will-worship?
They worship after their own fashion and fancy, thinking this to be
good because it is artistic. Believing that to be proper because it is
usual. Conceiving a third thing to be right because it is antique, but
forgetting that the Word of God is the standard and nothing is service
which is not commanded in Holy Scripture.
O that the Church, in all her activities, would look to this, for she
cumbers herself with much serving and for the most part the cumbering
does not come from duties prescribed for her by her Lord, but from
observances which she has invented for herself. Upon you, dear Friends,
I press this point. How are your lives ordered? I ask you the question,
for I desire to ask it of myself. Have you had an eye to your Master's
mind in what you have done in religious matters? Has it occurred to you
frequently, and does it occur to you constantly to see what the Lord
would have you do? Otherwise I warn you that you may be borne along the
rapid stream of Church activity in the channel of mere tradition and
may never render acceptable homage to your Lord.
Or you may be restlessly busy on your own account and after your own
will, but your exertions will not be service to God because you
consulted not His will. As a disciple you must bow your neck to the
yoke of Christ! As the eyes of handmaidens are to their mistress, so
must your eyes be unto the Lord for direction and command. What the
King bids you, you must do. What He does not bid you has no power over
your conscience, even though pope and prelate decree it. Have you all
had respect unto His Commandments? I will ask concerning one of
them–have you, as Believers, been obedient to His command to be
baptized? Have you given this answer of a good conscience towards God?
"He that believes and is baptized shall be saved."
As plainly as anything in Scripture, it seems, at least to us, that
Believers' Baptism is commanded! Have you attended to it? No, some of
you know your duty, but you do it not. I pray the Holy Spirit to
convince you of your sinful neglect and to lead you into all the
commandments of your Lord. Our will must bow and our heart must obey,
or otherwise we shall be strangers to "serving the Lord." Furthermore,
it is essential to all true and acceptable service that we serve God in
His strength. Those who attempt to perfect holiness without waiting
upon the Holy Spirit for power will be as foolish as the Apostles would
have been if they had commenced preaching at once and had forgotten the
Master's exhortation, "Tarry at Jerusalem until power be given to you
from on high."
"You cannot serve the Lord," said Joshua to Israel–they were very
earnest, they were very intent upon it, but he knew the weakness of
their nature and he said to them–"Fou cannot serve the Lord." None of
us can honor the Lord except as we daily derive strength from the
Fountain of all power. My dear Hearer, are you accustomed to fall on
your face before the living God, conscious of your weakness? And do you
plead with Him to gird you with strength and then, in that God-given
vigor, do you go forth to the field of labor? If not–if your work is
done in the strength of the flesh– it shall be but fleshly work and
shall wither as the green herb. You will be sure to give yourself the
honor of your own doings and therefore God will not accept or confirm
what your own strength has worked.
The last testing hour, which shall try every man's work, of what sort
it is, will be certain to consume all that came from carnal nature.
Solemn thought! Nothing will last but that which was worked by Divine
power. All the works of man shall be burnt up. No achievement of our
own will appear on the record of celestial fame. Whatever we may have
thought we had done, if it has been performed in the strength of the
flesh, shall as certainly dissolve as the iceberg floating in the warm
current of the gulf stream melts as it is borne along. O Holy Spirit,
help us, that our works, being done in Your strength, may be
established of God!
Once more, it is essential to the perfection of Christian service that
we stand continually ready to obey the Lord's will in anything and
everything without distinction. We cannot serve the Lord if we pick and
choose our duties. He who enlists in the army of the Most High
surrenders his will to the discipline of the army and the bidding of
the Captain. Whatever Christ bids any of us do in the future, we must
unhesitatingly perform. It may be that His finger will point to distant
lands–there we must go cheerfully. We must follow the pillar of cloud
without repining. We may be called to posts of labor for which we feel
ourselves to be inadequate. We may be bid to attempt work from which
our spirit as yet recoils– but if we are called to it, it is not ours
to ask the reason why–it is ours, if necessary, even to dare and die
in serving the Lord.
What have you to do with finding strength? It is His to give it to you
in your hour of need. What have you to do with likes or dislikes?
Servants must like that which their masters bid them! Man, your will
must be subdued! Your prejudices, instead of being pampered, must be
destroyed! You must be as willing to be a hewer of wood and a drawer of
water as to be a prince and a standard-bearer. You must be as content
to teach a little child his letters for Christ as to testify the Gospel
before an audience of kings. To you it must be equal whether you shall
sit on a throne for Christ or rot in a dungeon for Christ! He only is a
sincere servant who is intent upon doing the whole of his Lord's will,
let that will be what it may.
I wish I could, in more attractive style, describe this service, but
let this suffice–I am persuaded, Brethren, that serving the Lord is
not a merely external and outward religion–it is a matter of the heart
and of the soul. It is a matter of the conscience and of the
affections. Serving the Lord is not a thing of fits and starts, spasms
and excitements–it is a constant, thorough, practical, universal
subservience to the mind of the Most High. Serving the Lord is not mere
thought, scheme, plan, resolution–it is actually spending and being
spent! It is the exercise of all the energies of nature and of all the
energies of Divine Grace in the cause of Him from whom all energy is
derived. May a life of holy diligence accurately expound in our case
what it is to be "serving the Lord."
II. I shall now mention, in the second place, for the help and guidance
of earnest spirits, SOME OF THE MODES IN WHICH WE MAY AT THIS DAY SERVE
THE LORD. It was an ordinance of king David that all the soldiers in
the army should share in the spoil. Certain of the warriors did not go
down to the fight, but guarded the supplies, as guards of the baggage.
But these were accounted to be as true soldiers as those who joined in
the actual conflict. Therefore I would say a word, first, to those of
you who cannot serve the Lord in the direct activities which are
required of the most of us–I mean those who are prevented by the
Lord's own Providential act from fulfilling all that is incumbent upon
others.
Dear Brothers and Sisters–if from sickness, lack of education, or from
your position in life you have had no opportunities to preach the Word
or even to teach it to a few–well, be it yours to remember that a
quiet holy example is true service of God! If the tongue speaks not,
yet if the life speaks, you shall have done God no small homage. If
your actions are so guarded with holy care that your character in your
station adorns the doctrine of God your Savior, though you shall
scarcely be able to utter a sentence of actual Gospel Truth, yet your
life shall ring in the ears of the unconverted! They shall take
knowledge of you that you have been with Jesus and your example shall
be blessed to them!
If you cannot help the great cause of God in any other mode, at any
rate there is open to you that of fervent prayer. How much may be done
for the Master's kingdom by the "king's remembrancers," who put Him in
mind day by day of the agonies of His Son and of His Covenant and
promise to give Him a widening dominion! I doubt not that many sick
beds in England are doing more for Christ than our pulpits! Oh, what
showers of blessings come down in answer to the prayers and tears of
poor godly invalids whose weakness is their strength and whose sickness
is their opportunity!
In all buildings there must be some unseen stones and are not these
very often the most important of all? In the very foundation of a
Church I should place those who are mighty in prayer! They are hidden,
as it were, beneath the soil of obscurity where we cannot see them, but
they are bearing up the entire structure. My dear afflicted Brothers
and Sisters, when at any time you are cut off from the active
ministries which have been your delight, solace yourselves with this–
that your sacred patience under suffering and your fervent prayers for
the promotion of the Redeemer's kingdom are a sacrifice of a sweet
smell–holy and acceptable unto God!
But surely it will be possible in some way for the very weakest and
those in the worst circumstances to add something to this! Can you not
speak, at least now and then, a word for Christ? Opportunities must
occur to those placed in the most difficult positions. Will you not
seize them? I think once, every now and then, to the most ungodly
husband, brother, or son, there must be an opportunity of saying a
gracious word. At least sometimes to the friend visiting your sick bed
there is an opportunity of dropping a word of consecrated admonition. I
can conceive some of you who are
servants to be so placed that it would be wrong for you to be attending
many assemblies for worship, or to be spending much time in
evangelizing others. You are never to offer to God one duty stained
with the blood of another.
But I imagine that even under the worst conceivable circumstances there
must be opportunities which I hope you do not find it in your heart to
neglect. Dear Mother, with those babes around you, you have a field of
labor among them. Their little hearts, tender as they are and so deeply
susceptible to your influence–surely you can operate upon them! Nurse
girls, governesses and household servants–you need not go abroad for
sacred labor! You have your proper spheres at home and if you love God
you can serve Him right well in your position. You whose occupations
engross your time from the first hour of the morning till the last at
night–I cannot imagine that God has given, even to you, a light which
is covered with a bushel!
You must have at least some cranny, some little slit from which your
light may shine upon a dark world! Look for it and remember that if
your holy living and your prayers can only be accompanied with the
smallest possible service–if it is all that is possible–you shall be
as much accepted as those who do far more. They who give thousands to
the cause of Christ do well–but they do no better than the widow who,
having two mites, gave all. Take care that you give all, and giving all
you have offered as much and more than some of us whose opportunities
are ampler and whose responsibilities are greater.
But while we have thus made room for comfort for those who stay with
the supplies, we do not desire to console the idle, and therefore we
remind you that few now present are among the class so graciously
excused the rougher conflict. We have here a goodly company who are
quite able to go down to the battle–unto those I shall now speak.
Brethren, the form of service our Master most desires of us is
comprehensively this–that we make known the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It
has been said that it is not our duty to convert nations, nor even to
save a single soul. and I believe there is truth in the assertion. It
is not our duty to do what we cannot by any possibility do, since only
God Himself can convert or regenerate a soul! Jesus did not command us
to make men accept the Gospel, but He has bid us to make known the
Gospel to every creature.
In this London of ours, there ought not to be a single man or woman
ignorant of the letter of the Gospel. It is a sad proof of our
idleness, our gross lack of zeal, that London is still so grossly
ignorant of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! In these British Isles there
ought not to be a child that has attained the years of responsibility
and yet is not instructed in the things of the kingdom–not one! For if
Christians were but a tenth as numerous as they are, they would be
sufficient for the evangelizing of the United Kingdom. Yes, Brethren,
had the Church in the past been faithful and were the Church in the
present faithful to God and to His Christ, there is no reason why there
should remain a district upon the surface of the globe, that is
accessible to trade, which should not speedily be enlightened by the
clear shining of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We are not responsible that the Hindu worships his idols. We are not
responsible that the African adores his fetish. But we are responsible
that the Hindu does not know the Gospel and that the African has not
heard of the atoning sacrifice of Christ! We are to preach the Gospel,
and whether it is a savor of death unto death, or of life unto life is
left in God's hands. Whether men receive it or reject it is not with
us–it is ours to preach to all men–to sow, though the wheat falls
among tares, though it wastes on the highway, though it perish
ultimately on the stony ground. To sow everywhere is our duty and the
whole world is our field.
I ask, then, every Christian man here to listen to the voice of his
risen Lord, and let His command appeal to his conscience. It is your
bounden duty, every day of your life, to be making men to know the
mystery which has been hid for ages, even the Gospel of Jesus
Christ–the glorious fact that He came into the world to save sinners,
even the chief! How much are you doing for Christ, my Brother? How much
have you been doing for His cause today? How much are you going to do
before the sun has set?
Now, under this and through this, if we would serve the Lord Christ, we
should, every one of us, aim at the conversion of sinners. I said that
to convert them was not our duty–but I append to that statement this
other assertion–that to aim at their conversion is our duty and our
privilege and we are not to be self-complacently content with having
merely spoken the Truth of God–we are to look for signs following. I
am to deliver the Gospel message come what may. But I may well suspect
some fault in myself or in my testimony if the conversion of sinners
does not follow upon it in some measure–for a true Gospel is a
soul-saving thing. When it comes, though all men are not saved
by it, yet some are! And a company whose hearts God has touched will
surely be brought out where His Truth is honestly, earnestly,
faithfully, prayerfully dispensed.
It is a Christian's duty to be seeking always the salvation of all who
come in his way. But I think especially of certain individuals who are
laid on His heart. I shall now put a question which I daresay has
passed through your minds before, but which I would like to tarry
there. How many, my dear Friend, were you ever the means of bringing to
Jesus? You believe that they must perish everlastingly unless they have
faith in Christ. How many have you personally prayed for? How many did
you ever break your heart about? You believe that they must love Christ
or be damned. How many have you ever talked to concerning Him who is
the only Savior? To how many have you borne your testimony of His
kindness and His Divine Grace? Upon how many have you laid the tender
hand to press them to follow after the Savior?
Ah, well, the questions sound so trite as I put them and perhaps as
they come to your ears you are weary with them as being so commonplace.
But by the great day of the appearing of our Lord, when He shall
require of you an account of your stewardship, I implore you answer
these enquiries, even if they humble you in the very dust! If the
answer is painful, seek in the future that your course is mended, and
as servants of Christ yearn over souls and long and sigh and cry until
at last you shall be able to say, "If they perish I have done my best
and their blood will not be required at my hands."
I think I hear the devil whispering to some of you, "But that is the
preacher's business." No, Sirs, it is no business of mine to do your
work. My work is stern enough. My responsibility is heavy enough–I
cannot undertake yours. In the winning of souls no Christian can be
proxy for another. The idea of supporting a missionary or supporting a
minister to do my work for God is an idea that never ought to have
crossed the Christian's mind! Jesus did not save you by proxy! He did
not die for you in the person of another! He gave His own Person–body,
soul and spirit–wholly for you. And by the love you bear Him, if,
indeed, it is sincere, I pray you consecrate yourself this day anew to
the bringing home of His banished ones, that Jesus may see of the
travail of His soul.
A third form of usefulness must not be forgotten and it is this–it
should be the aim of all Believers not merely to bring in the ungodly,
but to endeavor to reclaim backsliders. Some backsliders, I fear, are
apostates for having brought dishonor upon the Christian Church. They
nevertheless are far from being humbled, but impertinently thrust
themselves and their supposed claims to attention upon the Church whom
they have grieved and injured. Their much-talked-of repentance appears
to us to be more early than deep and to be more pretentious than true.
But at the same time, if a man has fallen and even if the Church is
obliged to put him away, we do not deliver such a one to Satan that he
may blaspheme, but that he may learn not to blaspheme.
The object of Church discipline should always be the good of the person
who has to endure it. There is no more Christ-like work anywhere than
for elder Christians to be watching over the young ones, checking their
first declensions, nipping the evil in the bud–no nobler work unless
it is the restoration of those who have actually gone astray. Oh, as
you would that others should seek you in a similar case, Beloved, seek
the wandering sheep, remembering that there will be more joy in the
presence of the angels of God over one restored wanderer than over 99
that went not astray!
Another mode of usefulness is for Christians to seek the edification of
one another. It is as great a good to the State to maintain a citizen
in health as to introduce a stranger into citizenship. How much might
some of you do for the edification of younger Christians if you would
but seek opportunities? Ah, Christian Man, I fear you accumulate
experience and you gather knowledge–but the whole of it becomes
unprofitable because you are not diligent in its use for the good of
the Church! Furthermore, Brethren, some of you may not be able to
accomplish these things to any large extent, but God entrusts you with
wealth. Then make use of your substance for Him–and in truth, whatever
the form of your gift, let your work correspond to it. According to the
Grace given let the work rendered be. Let each pound yield its own
interest.
As you are set in the body as a member, exercise the office of your
peculiar membership and be not slack in it. Let there be no
sluggishness, but let us all, in the name of Him who on yonder tree
poured out His life, endeavor that from this day, with double zeal, we
may be found "serving the Lord."
III. So I shall pass on very briefly, indeed, to notice, in the third
place, THE COMMENDATION which is due to this service. To serve the Lord
is surely the natural element of godliness. Heavenly spirits enjoy
unbroken rest, but they find their rest in serving God day and night.
If you could restrict the Christian from the service of God, you would
debar him
from his highest joy. Surely it is as much the element of a Christian
to do good as for a fish to swim, or a bird to fly, or a tree to yield
her fruits. Oh, then, if you would let the new-born nature fully
develop itself, you must be serving the Lord!
To serve the Lord is the highest honor. How men pride themselves on
being attached to the train of great men! How proud they are of wearing
the livery of princes! But what must it be to have God, the Eternal,
for your Master? To have Jesus Christ as your gracious Helper? To have
the Holy Spirit as your Divine Guide in all that you are called to do?
To serve the Lord is to stand on a level with the angels–to worship
the same Master as they do who are in the Presence of the Divine
Majesty!
It is better to serve God than rule a kingdom! No, he is both a king
and a priest who has thoroughly entered into the service of the Most
High. To serve God is to enjoy the highest pleasure. I will guarantee
you that the happiest members of any Church are the most diligent.
Those who sit still easily imagine sorrows. Idlers are those who
indulge in criticism of other people's service and find themselves most
happy when they can pull other men's work to pieces. This bitter spirit
dies in the atmosphere of hard work. Doubts and fears fly before sacred
activity. There is a kind of spiritual indigestion which seizes on the
great proportion of professors so that they never appear to enjoy life
at all. It were a pity that they should–it were a pity that those
should have happiness who will not render unto God the tribute of
grateful labor.
The Prayer Meeting is neglected by them. They are not teaching children
nor exhorting grown-up people. They are neither helping others to work
nor working themselves and yet they reckon that they are to have the
rewards of Divine Grace. A whip for their shoulders is surely a portion
far more suitable than a promise for their souls! God usually takes
good care to give a man the file if he will not brighten himself by
service. He that will not keep off the filth by the constant scour of
activity shall find himself cast into the pungent lye of
trouble–wherein he shall be fretted and consumed until the rust is
removed.
If you would educate your soul, you must be active! No man grows to be
a perfect Christian by lying on the bed of sloth. Our manhood is
developed by exercise. The soldier grows into the veteran amidst the
smoke of battle. Sailors learn not their crag on dry land and Christian
men can never be educated so that the whole of their spiritual manhood
can be developed by merely listening to sermons or witnessing the holy
example of others. That strength which is to be increased must be used.
That knowledge which is to be multiplied must be communicated. To be
content with what you have done is to go backward! To use what you have
is to make progress and to be enriched. Onward, then, for perfection
lies ahead of you!
My dear Brothers and Sisters, there are 10,000 things that I might say
with regard to Christian activity, all of which ought to excite your
minds to present action. Are you patriots? You cannot serve your
country better than by serving your Lord! Are you philanthropists? You
cannot bless the human race more effectually than by seeking to extend
the kingdom of Jesus Christ in it! Do you sigh and cry over the woes of
others? You cannot better redress them than by the Gospel, which is the
universal remedy. Do you deplore the abundant ignorance around you? No
light can scatter it like the knowledge of Christ's Gospel! Are you
afraid of the future? Do you dread revolution and anarchy? Nothing can
settle the pillars of order like the testimony of Christ Jesus! In
fact, there is nothing you can do that is holier, more worthy of your
best nature, more filled with blessing than "serving the Lord."
' IV. And now, to close, I shall speak for a minute upon THE PRESENT
NEED OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE. Brethren, there is always need to be serving
the Lord for your own sake. You cannot be holy and happy. You cannot be
what a Christian ought to be unless you are evermore engaged in
Jehovah's cause. There is great need for you, my dear Brother, to serve
God, because I fear so few professors are doing so. I would not judge
harshly, but as I look down the roll and notice the number that have
given their names to the Church, I cannot help fetching a sigh over one
and another as I remember that the name is all that we at present can
call our own, so far as we can judge.
Oh, if only the Christians in London who are joined in fellowship in
our Churches were all zealous, I am sure we should see brighter and
better days than we do now. Do not, however, be quick to accuse others,
but seek to be aroused yourself. There is need enough of diligence in
this wretched city. I was reading but the other day that thrilling
book, "The Seven Curses of London," and any one of these seven curses
is enough to give a man heartache if he will thoroughly understand it.
That curse of drink, especially–what is to be done with it? How few
Christians take to heart the abominable intoxication which pollutes the
masses of our population!
While again our social evil, the very mention of which is enough to
make a man sick–are we forever to shut our eyes to it and talk as
though we were dwelling in a Jerusalem–when this city is infinitely
more like to Sodom? Why, the ignorance, the poverty, the misery, the
iniquity of London reek and stink in the nostrils of Almighty God and
yet we gather in a little quiet place by ourselves and we use the rose
water of self-complacency and think that everything goes well. The
devil is swallowing men wholesale! Hell enlarges herself! The Christian
Church scarcely makes any progress at all–certainly no progress at all
comparable to the advance of the population. Souls are not saved! Error
is rampant! On all sides there are signs of great degeneration and if
Christians do not arouse themselves now, we might almost say to them,
"Awake, arise, or be forever fallen."
If you could but stand by one deathbed where a soul is taking its leap
in the dark. If for once in your lives you could hear the cries of a
spirit as it enters into the thick darkness which is to be its
everlasting abode. If you could but have painted before your eyes in
truth the last tremendous day and the multitudes on the left hand! If
you could but gaze for a moment at the Heaven which your own children,
I fear, may miss through your indifference. Or if you could but look
but for a second upon that Hell to which multitudes of your neighbors
are descending every day, surely you would be down on your knees
saying, "Forgive me, great God, for all my past neglect and from this
hour cleanse me from the blood of souls by the blood of Jesus and help
me to be instant in season and out of season in instructing my fellow
men. Never from this day until I die may I neglect an opportunity of
telling men how they may be saved."
Ah, dear Friends, I had hoped to have spoken to you most earnestly, but
I fear I have been to you, myself, only a model of that coldness which
I have condemned. Woe is me that I, too, should be guilty! I chide the
evil far more in myself than in you and pray to be saved from it. May
we all, as pastors, deacons, elders, members, Sunday school teachers
and workers of all sorts, be, indeed, from this good hour much more
with God in prayer and much more zealous in our labors, that it may
never have to be laid to our charge, again, that while we were not
slothful in business we were unfervent in spirit and were not serving
the Lord. God bless you. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Romans 12.