The Ministry Of Gratitude

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 15, 1872,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE NEWINGTON.

"And immediately she arose and ministered unto them." Luke 4:39.

PETER'S wife's mother had been sick of a great fever and had been
restored by the touch of the Savior's hands and by the power of the
Savior's word. The Grace of God does not secure us from trial. The
house of Peter and of Andrew, (for it was common to them both), was a
highly favored one. The Grace of God had passed by many other houses
and had selected this for its dwelling place and yet in that abode
there was great sickness–the wife's mother lay sick of a fever and was
near death. This was no small grief to the household–but that grief
was for their lasting benefit.

God loves His chosen too well to let them always live without the rod.
If He loved us less He might allow us unalloyed pleasure, but the love
of our wise Father is too great to deprive us of the saved benefits of
affliction. Sickness came to that house not as an enemy but as a
friend, for it was the means whereby Christ's great power was made
manifest to that family and through His power His love. The wife's
mother could never have been so distinguished a subject of the
Redeemer's power if she had not been prostrated with fever. The malaria
from the marshes around the city occasioned her being made a trophy of
our Lord's Divine energy.

The worst of ills are often the black horses upon which the very best
of blessings ride to us. It was no small honor to Peter that his house
became the headquarters of the Savior. The sick thronged the door as
the sun went down and the Sabbath was over. The multitude brought
persons afflicted with all manner of diseases and panted to reach that
favored dwelling to lay them before the Lord. The healing power which
had displayed itself within poured forth from the house like a mighty
flood and all who drank of it were restored. That house contained the
springhead and was beyond measure honored by it. Surely for many a year
that house would be one of the most notable in the city–surely it
would be called the House of the Great Physician.

Not like that ancient house in Antwerp, detestable because it was the
den of the Inquisition, but dear to many of the healed ones and their
sons as the Hospital of Mercy, the Palace of Blessing. Peter among the
Apostles is singularly honored, for everything about him was in some
way or other connected with a miracle. His person–it was by a miracle
that he had walked the waters. It was by a miracle that he had been
saved from drowning when the Savior stretched out His hand and bade him
stand fast upon the liquid wave. There was a miracle in connection with
his boat, for it was from that boat that the miraculous draught of
fishes had been taken and it was filled so full that it began to sink
and Simon knelt down and adored the Savior.

There was a miracle in connection with Peter's rusty sword–he cut off
with it the ear of the high priest's servant, but the Master healed the
wound that his rash defender made. And here, in this case, there was a
miracle performed upon his relative–his wife's mother was restored
from a great fever by the almighty power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every Christian man should be ambitious to have the hand of God
connected with everything that he has, so that when he looks upon his
house he may see God's Providence in giving it to him. When he looks
upon the garments that he wears he may see them to be the livery of
love and may view the food upon his table as the daily gift of Divine
charity.

In looking back upon his whole biography, the Believer may see bright
spots where the Presence of God flames forth and makes the humblest
circumstances to be illustrious–but, above all, it ought to be his
prayer that God's hand should be very conspicuous in connection with
his relatives–that of every one of them it might be said, "The Lord
restored her," or, "The Lord gave him spiritual life in answer to my
prayer." May husband, wife, children, servants–all received healing
from "the beloved Physician." May our whole household be, "holiness
unto the Lord," and may all sing for joy because the Lord has done
great things for them whereof we are glad!

The occurrence about which we are to speak this morning happened on a
Sabbath. Sabbaths were generally Christ's great chosen field days to
break down the superstitiously rigid observance of the Sabbath among
the Pharisees and because it seemed as a holy day to be peculiarly
adapted for the display of the greatest works of the holy Savior. It
was a Sabbath and the poor patient was probably lying there complaining
in her soul that she could not go to the synagogue, or mingle with the
people where prayer was sure to be made. Perhaps her fever had reduced
her to such a state that she was quite unable to remember Christ the
Healer, and unable to breathe a prayer to Him.

But Peter and Andrew went to Him and told the case and besought Him to
come and heal her. It is a blessing for you, my Friend, even though you
are sick in soul, to have saints for your relatives–to have some in
the household who will remember you in prayer and speak into the ear of
Christ on your behalf. If through despair or depression of spirit you
cannot pray for yourself, happy are you that there are compassionate
friends who will speak unto the King on your behalf! One Christian in a
family may bring a great blessing to it, but here were two, for Simon
and his brother Andrew were both here. And if two of you are agreed as
touching anything concerning the Master's kingdom, it shall be done
unto you.

The two prevailed with the Savior and, that Sabbath, when the patient
little dreamed it, the Savior came to her lowly room and standing over
her in infinite pity, He first spoke a royal word of rebuke to the
disease, and then, lifting her up gently in His own kind familiar
manner she found herself perfectly restored to health! What love she
must have felt to her gracious Benefactor! Little wonder is it that
thankfulness glowed in her heart and being healed, she rose at once and
began to serve her Healer. Her ministering commenced from the very
minute of her recovery. Of that ministering we are about to speak.
"Immediately she arose and ministered unto them."

I. Now, the fact that this restored woman began at once to minister to
Christ and to His disciples proves, first, THE CERTAINTY OF HER CURE,
and there are no better ways of proving the thoroughness of our
conversion than by conduct similar to hers. Suppose now, in order to
prove that this woman was really restored, we were critically to
examine the modes operandi of Christ? Suppose the Master had been
accustomed, as He was not, to use one set of ceremonies over everybody
whom He healed, and we were to say, "Well, He has done this, that and
the other, as He is accustomed to do. Therefore the woman is healed."

It would not be at all conclusive reasoning, yet this is the reasoning
of a great many today. This child was baptized. This young person was
confirmed and afterwards took the sacrament and consequently this
individual is regenerated in Baptism and established in Grace, and so
on! The ceremonies are correct and therefore the work is done! Some may
believe such reasoning but I marvel that they do–to us it seems that
there is a far better way of testing whether persons have Grace or not!
If these aforesaid baptismally-regenerated people and
sacramentally-confirmed people live in sin like other people, it
appears to us that they have none of the Grace of God in them, let them
pretend to have received it however they may! If the woman had still
been hot with fever and had all the symptoms of her disease continued
in her, it would have availed nothing to have said, "This has been done
and the other"–the woman would not have been healed. And if men live
like unregenerate sinners, depend upon it, the work of the Holy Spirit
is not in them!

Suppose the patient had lain there and had begun to talk about how she
felt, how much better she was, what a strange sensation passed through
her when the Savior rebuked the disease, and how strangely well she
felt? Yet if she had not risen up, but had lain there, still, there
would have been no evidence of her restoration–at any rate none that
you or I could judge of. So when persons tell us that they have felt
great changes of heart, that they know they are renewed because they
enjoy this and love that and hate the other, we are very hopeful and
desire to believe what they say. But, after all, trees are known by
their fruit–and converted people, while they will, themselves, know
their inward experience–cannot convince us by it! We must see their
outward ministering for Christ. If their actions are holy, if their
lives are purified, then shall we know, but not till then, that their
nature is renewed!

Suppose this good woman, still lying upon her bed, had begun to say,
"Well, I hope I am healed," and had begun to express some feeble
expectation that one day she would be able to exercise the functions of
health? We would not have known that she was restored. Something more
was needed than mere hopes and expectations. Or suppose she had leaped
out of her bed in wild excitement, rushed down the street and performed
strange antics–it would have been no proof that she was recovered–but
it would have made us feel sure that she was delirious and the fever
still strong upon her!

So when we see persons inactive as to holiness, we cannot believe that
they are saved. Or when we see them full of empty excitement about
religion but not serving God in the common acts of life, we think them
to be in the delirium of a sinful presumption, but cannot regard them
as healed by the cooling, calming hand of the Great Physician, who,
when He puts out the fever, restores the soul to quiet and peace.

The woman gave a much better proof than any of these could be. This
leads us to remark that the only irresistible proof with onlookers of a
person being spiritually healed by Christ must be found in the change
in his conduct, and especially in his from that moment on living to
serve Christ and to be obedient to Him. This is the test and nothing
short of it. When we see holy living in the man who was once a gross
offender, we are quite sure that Christ has healed him because the man
begins to do what he could not have done before.

Perhaps this poor fevered woman might have made some shift to have done
something for the Savior, but the unconverted man is dead in trespasses
and sin–he may go through forms of religion, but real holiness is far
above and out of his sight–he cannot obey the Law of God. His nature
is set against it–he is unable to walk in the way of God's
commandments. Therefore, when we see him doing so, we exclaim, "This is
the finger of God! God has healed that man or else he would not be able
to live as he is now living." Besides, the unconverted man, before
conversion, hates holiness. He is disinclined to it so that in his
case, when his life becomes pure and upright, when he spends and is
spent in the service of Jesus Christ, you know that this must be the
work of the Holy Spirit in his soul for nothing else could have changed
his nature but the same Omnipotence which first of all created him!
God's hand is in that conversion which is proved by the holiness of the
man's outward character.

Beside this, while the sinner is disinclined to everything that is
holy, we know that he especially despises the Savior and thinks little
of His people. Consequently, when a man is brought to serve the Savior
and is willing to do good to the children of God for Christ's sake,
there is a sure mark that a miracle has been worked in him which has
touched the secret springs of his being and altogether transformed him.
The woman's rising up to minister to our Lord was a sure sign of
returned health and the change of outward character which leads a man
to devote himself to the service of Christ is even more infallibly a
proof of true salvation!

I need you to note, however, dear Friends, for a moment, the nature of
the acts which this restored woman performed, because they are symbolic
of the best form of actions by which to judge of a person's being
renewed. Her duties were humble ones. She was probably the head of the
household and she began at once to discharge the duties of a
housewife–duties unostentatious and commonplace. Many persons who
profess to be converted aspire at once to preaching–a pulpit for them
is the main thing and a large congregation is their ambition! They must
do some great thing and occupy the chief seat in the synagogue!

But this good woman did not think of preaching–women are always best
when they don't. She thought of washing Christ's feet and preparing Him
necessary food which was her proper business. To these kind but simple
actions she devoted herself. Attention to humble duties is a better
sign of Grace than an ambition for lofty and elevated works. There is
probably far more Grace in the loving service of a mother towards
Christ in bringing up her children in the fear of God than there might
be if she were well known as taking a leading part in great public
movements. There may be more service for Christ done by a workman in
discharging his duties, as such, and trying to do good to his fellow
workmen than if he aspired to become a great leader of the minds and
thoughts of others.

Of course there are exceptions, for glorious was Deborah and great
shall be her name in Israel! And those who are sent of God to lead His
Church shall not be without their reward, but even then, when they have
to look for personal evidences of Grace they never dare say, "We know
that we are passed from death unto life because we preach the Gospel,"
for they remember that Judas did the same! They never say, "We are
confident of salvation because God has worked wonders by us," for they
remember that the son of perdition had the same distinction! No,
Brothers and Sisters, they fall back upon the same evidences which
prove the truth of the religion of humbler people–they rejoice in
testimonies common to all the elect–"We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the Brethren."

The humbler graces and duties are the best tests. Hypocrites mimic all
public duties but the private and concealed life of true godliness they
cannot counterfeit! And because they cannot "do so with their
enchantments" we feel like the men of Egypt, that, "this is the finger
of God." Remember, too, that this good woman attended to home duties.
She did not go down the street a 100 yards off to glorify Christ. She,
I dare say, did that afterwards, but she began at home. Charity

begins there and so should piety. That is the best religion which is
most at home at home. Grace which smiles around the family hearth is
Grace, indeed.

If your own household cannot see that you are godly, depend upon it,
nobody else can! And if your parents or children have grave doubts
about the sincerity of your religion, I am afraid you ought to have
grave doubts about it yourself. Peter's mother-in-law ministered to
Christ at home and that was clear evidence of her being restored to
health. And in your case it will be the best witness to your conversion
if you serve Jesus in the bosom of your family and make your house the
dwelling place of all that is kind and good and holy. She attended to
suitable duties, duties consistent with her sex and condition. She did
not try to be what God had not made her, but did what she could. She
attended to natural duties, duties which suggested themselves in a
moment and were not far-fetched and fanciful.

She set about doing present duties required then and there, and did not
wait to serve the Lord in a year's time. In a quiet natural manner she
pursued her calling as if it never occurred to her to do otherwise. If
somebody had thought it wonderful that she ministered to Christ, she
would have been surprised at them! It seemed to her the most natural
thing for her to do. Dear Soul, I dare say while lying in bed sick
there were 50 things she would have liked to have done–what housewife
would not in such a case see many grievous arrears of work all around
her? But Jesus being there, no sooner did she feel her health returned
than she at once arose to discharge the offices of grateful hospitality
as a matter of course. How could she do otherwise but wait upon Jesus
and His friends?

Now, observe that those good works which prove a man to be a Christian
are not such as he could boast of. He does them as a matter of course.
He feels he could not do otherwise and wonders that anybody else can.
Is he born of God? He yearns to teach others about the Savior–he
cannot help it–his tongue needs to be talking about Jesus! Then he
begins to give of his substance to the poor. It does not strike him as
being at all a remarkable or extraordinary thing–he wonders if anyone
can help being generous to real need! Now he begins to enquire about
the little children in the neighborhood–can he get them into the
Sunday school? Or he occupies himself with some other form of Christian
work and he does it because he feels it to be inevitable for him to do
so–it is one of the instincts of the new Nature which God the Holy
Spirit has implanted in him.

Those natural, commonplace duties which grow out of holy instincts
within are the best evidence of a work of Grace! The more genuinely
natural and unstrained the better. Vain is the religion which aims at
unnatural conditions and makes much of distinctions of a needless kind.
What is there in a peculiar garb, or affectation of speech, or
separation of residence? These minister to our own vainglory! True
godliness aims not at her own honor, but is content to labor among the
many, to be a man among men, yet differing in nothing but character.
Ours it is, as the true salt, to mingle with the masses–not to seek a
proud isolation. We are men, not monks! And our Sisters are women, not
nuns! All that interests men interests us–we only differ from our race
by being conformed to the image of Jesus, while they wear the image of
the fallen Adam.

May God grant us Grace to exhibit the Christianity of common life–the
real and practical Christianity of every day. Christianity is not with
hermits in their cells, nor nuns in their convents, nor priests in
their cloisters–those are all cowardly soldiers who shun the battle of
life! The true faith is the joy and strength of all who love the Lord
and fight His battles on the broad plains of life. True religion must
be manifested in your workshops, in your houses, in the streets, in the
fields, in the nursery and in the parlor. This celestial flower reveals
its richest perfume, not in the conservatories of unnatural seclusion,
but under the clear sky of human life, for "as a flower of the field so
it flourishes," where God has planted it.

One other point before leaving this–these things become a conclusive
proof of Divine Grace in the heart when they are voluntarily rendered
as this good woman's ministry was. I do not read that she was asked to
do anything for Christ, but it suggested itself to her at once without
command or request. Her work was done promptly, for, "immediately she
arose" and did it. She no sooner had power to work than occasion was
seized without delay. Promptness is the soul of obedience–"I made
haste and delayed not to keep Your commandments." I doubt not she did
her ministering cheerfully. There is all the air of cheerfulness about
the words, "She arose." It reads as if with alacrity, vigor,
sprightliness and eagerness she entered into the service.

That is the best service for God that is done promptly, without delay;
voluntarily, without pressing; generously, without grudging; heartily,
without complaining. With us it is not, "This you should do, and this
you must do," but we serve Jesus because we love to do so and because
labor for Him is to us a joy and a delight!

II. I have thus brought before you the first point of our discourse,
now notice the second one which is most interesting. This woman's
ministry for Christ and His disciples showed, secondly, THE PERFECTION
OF HER CURE. It may not strike you for a moment, but just think about
it. She was sick with a fever. Supposing a Prophet should visit your
house and restore your friend from a great fever. Yet the person healed
would not be able to rise from the bed for some time–fever leaves
extreme weakness behind and when the fever itself is entirely gone, it
needs some two or three weeks, and sometimes more–before the person
who has been prostrated by it will be able to go about his daily work.

This was healing from God, indeed, a Divine work emphatically because
the woman was so healed that all her weakness vanished and she was able
to proceed to her work without difficulty! And, Beloved, it is our mark
of a work of Grace in the soul when the converted man becomes at once a
servant of Christ. The human theory of moral reformations makes time a
great element in its operations. If you are to reclaim a great offender
you must win him first from one vice and then from another. You must
put him through a process of education by which he gradually perceives
that what he has been accustomed to do is bad for himself and wakes up
to the conviction that honesty and sobriety will be the best for his
own profit.

Time is required by the moral reformer or he cannot develop his plans.
He ridicules the idea of effecting anything in an hour or two. Man, the
creature of time, must have time for the accomplishment of his very
imperfect works–but to the eternal God time is nothing! His miracles
annihilate time. A man who is converted is cured at once of his
sins–the tap root of his sins is cut away then and there and though
some of his sins linger, yet every one has received the stroke which
will prove its deathblow. Once and for all, in a moment–when a man
believes and is born-again–the axe is laid at the root of all the evil
trees within him! Sin is then and there condemned to die and what is
more, all Divine Graces are in a moment implanted in the soul, not in
perfection–they will have to grow. But they are all sown in the man in
a moment in embryo so that the renewed sinner, though he has only been
born-again five minutes, has within him the embryo of the perfect saint
who shall stand before the Throne of God–this is one of the marvels
which certify the work to be Divine.

For note, Beloved, those who have just been converted to God can
worship God, can praise God, can pray to God, can love God though they
were strangers to these things up to then. And some of the sweetest
worship that God Himself ever hears comes from the hearts of the newly
regenerate. Of all the prayers that strike the Christian's ear like
music, surely among the sweetest are the broken pleadings of those who
have just found the Savior! I delight in the expressions of faith of
elderly and full-grown Christians–they are exceedingly instructive and
precious. But, oh, that first grip of the hand, that first flash of the
eye, that first tear of joy when a soul has seen Christ for the first
time and stands astonished at the matchless vision of incarnate love!
Why, there is no worship sweeter beneath the sun!

The woman arises at once and ministers to Christ and the sinner arises
at once and begins to adore Christ. Did not I say that the
newly-converted sinner can love and does love his Lord as soon as ever
he is born to God? I must correct myself. He not only can and does
love, but he loves beyond most others, for very seldom do men's
after-love exceed in fervency the love of their espousals, which is
also called their first love! This standard love is implanted in us at
once, all blooming and full of perfume. Hating Christ one minute,
hearts have been brought to be ravished with His love the next! The men
were enemies to God an hour ago, and now they could die to defend His
Gospel, so changed are their natures!

This must be a Divine work! If that which was water flood, quenching
every spark of fire, should suddenly blaze and glow like
Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, God alone could have worked the change! Say,
who has turned the waters of raging hatred into the flame of holy love?
Who has done it but the mighty God Himself? If the iceberg suddenly
becomes a flaming beacon, who can have worked this marvel but the
Miracle Worker who alone does great wonders? Glory be to God, we often
see it and He shall have the praise of it!

How pure some men's lives become at conversion–pure at once, though
before they were polluted with every vice! Certain sins we may have to
fight with all our lives, but a renewed man usually has no difficulty
whatever with the grosser sins. For instance, I have known a man
habituated to blasphemy who probably never did, since he was a boy,
speak a dozen sentences without an oath, and yet, after he had been
converted the profane habit has never molested him.

We have known some who have been troubled with a ferocious temper which
made them like demons, but from the moment of conversion they have been
remarkable for their singular gentleness and meekness. We have known
misers instantly display the freest generosity and thieves become
scrupulously honest.

Though the temptation to old sin may return, yet for the most part
those who have been saved from gross vices have been the greatest
loathers of the very mention or name of their former abominations. Such
is the work of God in the soul, that these evils are driven out at once
and sent right away–and then the man who before had been an adept in
all manner of evil work becomes as much an expert in all manner of holy
labor! He may not at once have picked up the technicalities of
religion–perhaps it would be as well he never did–but he gets to the
bottom of it, the secret of it and goes to work for Jesus Christ in his
own fashion and way, with wonderful wisdom and extraordinary skill from
the very

first!

Some of the best evangelists we have ever seen have been those who
learned at once to evangelize–who seemed to have known it from the
first hour in which they were converted to God–taking to it from
inward love as the young swans take to the stream. Some of the best
persons who speak to others about their souls, privately, began to do
so as soon as they have found the Savior! They have attained to the
sacred art–and a blessed art it is–as though they were in a moment
touched by the hand of God and inspired for the service He meant them
to render.

Now, what is the practical drift of this second remark but this? As it
proved the real divinity of this woman's cure that she was able,
immediately, to go to work for Christ, so you young converts should
hold the honor of Christ in great esteem and prove the reality of His
Grace in your souls by bringing forth immediate fruit to His honor. See
if you cannot at once rise and minister to Him! Be as zealous as the
dying thief–he had no sooner known Christ than he confessed Him and he
did the only thing he could do for his dying Lord–he rebuked the other
malefactor who had reviled the Savior. Oh, if you love Jesus, do not
wait till you have been 10 years a Christian! Serve Him now!

If you are healed from sin, do not wait for experience–with your
inexperience of everything except the new birth, go and seek the good
of others! Do not suppose you must be trained for this war through a
long process of spiritual drill, but march forward at once with all
your heart and soul in the freshness of your newly-given life. It may
be you will achieve greater triumphs than some of the older ones, for
alas, some of them are dry and sapless and have long forgotten their
early days of enthusiasm. In too many Christians the peach has lost its
bloom, the flower has withered from the stem–they are not now loving
and earnest–they have declined into the sere and yellow leaf of
religion. Go with the dew of the morning still upon your spirit and I
know not what great and gracious works the Lord may do by you!

III. Now we pass on to a third head briefly. Peter's wife's mother in
ministering to Christ proved HER OWN GRATITUDE. Her acts of hospitality
were an exhibition of her thankfulness. Brethren, if we need to
evidence our gratitude to Christ we had better do it in the same way as
she did. There is no record of her having fallen at Jesus' feet and
saying, "Blessed be Your name." She may have done so–the Bible has not
room for many holy expressions, though it finds space for gracious
acts.

I do not know that she sat down and sang a hymn, perhaps she did–good
women before her have done so and I hope they will after her–but the
hymn is not recorded. Holy Scripture has not room for all the hymns
which good people sing, but it finds a corner for the actions which
they perform. We have the Acts of the Apostles, through we have not the
devotional emotions, the hymns, or the pious resolutions of the
Apostles. This good woman proved her gratitude by tangible deeds. Did
she not say to herself, "The Lord has served me; I will serve Him"? It
never strikes an awakened person that mere words are a fit return for
the Grace of God. Can you give for the Lord's healing fruit a handful
of mere leaves from the tree of talk? It looks like mockery! Give Him
the leaves, but wrap the fruit up within them! Let Him have true action
and consecrated service–for this is the fittest fruit of a grateful
heart.

Observe that it is not said that she waited upon Christ before she was
healed. The fevered patient is first restored and then she begins to
minister. I am far from exhorting any of you to serve Christ in your
lives if your inner life is not first of all renewed by Him. There must
be a regenerated heart through His blessed touch, or else a renewed
life may be imitated but cannot be truly possessed. First the healing,
then the serving! The healing is first, but note well that the serving
follows close at its heels. If you are saved, arise and work out your
own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that works in you
to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Since the light is now
kindled, let it shine forth from

you–since Christ has opened in your soul a well of living waters–let
it flow out of the midst of you as a river of water for His service and
the benefit of your fellow men.

This good soul knew to what end she had been raised up. She knew from
Whom she had received the healing–it was from the Lord alone. She knew
from what she was restored, namely, from the very jaws of death. She
knew to what she was restored, for she felt that health and strength
had returned to her, and therefore she guessed rightly for what she was
restored, namely, that she might wait upon the Lord. You, my Brother,
are saved from Hell. You are lifted up into spiritual life and
acceptance. You are ennobled and made an heir of Heaven. Why was this
done but that you might minister to your Lord here and glorify Him
hereafter? Our gratitude ought to teach us the Divine object of Grace
and we ought to take care that it is attained.

The Lord cannot have saved us at such an expense as the death of His
own Son for any reason less than that we should live unto Him! What is
the reckoning of all our grateful hearts about this? Is it not this,
that if we are bought with a price, we are not our own? That if the
Holy Spirit has given us a new Nature it must be that we should lead a
new life, and that our new life must be consecrated to Him who is the
Author of it? Beloved, true gratitude always leads us to serve and it
distinctly makes our healing Lord the object of our service–it puts
Him in the forefront. "She arose and ministered unto them." To Him
first, and to His disciples next–to the Head and for the Head's sake
to all the members. To the Redeemer and because of Him to all the
redeemed.

I put to each one here present who has been healed from sin and saved
from spiritual death by Christ, this question– What are you rendering
unto your Lord? What are you doing for Him? Begin with Him. Do it as
unto Him. Do what you do in His Presence and present it at His dear
feet–then I know you will be doing something for His people, too! His
poor you will befriend. His backsliding ones you will seek to gather
in. His sick ones you will visit. His comfortless ones you will
console. His wandering ones–as yet uncalled–you will seek after them.
His lost sheep, your anxieties will go out for them. You will minister
to Him and to His chosen–to all the members of His body.

What are you doing, Brother? What are you doing, Sister? I do not ask
you now in my own name, for I am no master of yours–neither are you
accountable to me–but I ask it in the name of Him whose hands were
pierced for you and whose heart was opened by the soldier's spear for
your redemption! Oh, what are you doing for Him? Do you love Him? If
you love Him feed His lambs and His sheep. If you love, serve! And if
you serve, serve Him first and serve His children and His people next,
and you will prove your gratitude.

IV. But now, lastly, this woman's ministering to Christ proved in the
fourth place, THE CONDESCENSION OF THE PHYSICIAN. He who healed her of
the fever did not need her to minister to Him! He who had power to heal
diseases had certainly power to subsist without human ministry. If
Christ could raise her up He must be Omnipotent and Divine–what need,
then had He of a womanly service? Might He not have used the grand
style of the Old Testament, and said, "If I were hungry I would not
tell you, for the cattle on a thousand hills are Mine"? But instead of
this the mighty Master of all angels condescended to be waited upon by
a poor female.

It was great condescension on Christ's part that He needed ministry and
great gentleness that He so often chose woman's ministry. He came to
earth and the first garments of His Infancy were wrapped about Him by a
woman's hands, and here He dwelt till at last He died and holy women
bound Him up in the cerements of the tomb and laid Him in the
sepulcher. Matchless marvel was this of condescension, that He who is
Almighty and ever-blessed should stoop from Heaven to need the ministry
of human beings! He has ministered to us by humbling Himself to accept
mortal ministry! Peter's wife's mother was one of the despised poor,
but Jesus honored her. What was she but a fisherman's wife–at any rate
the mother of a fisherman's wife, a poor, obscure, illiterate woman,
yet Christ allowed her to wait upon Him–an honor which Herodias the
royal princess never had!

So the Lord today should be beloved of us for His humility in allowing
us to wait upon Him–in allowing me, in allowing you–to do anything
for His dear name's sake. I do not wonder that Christ allowed Paul and
Peter and John to serve Him, but that He should suffer me to do it? I
am overwhelmed with astonishment at it! Do you not marvel, also? It
seems easy enough to believe that the blessed Virgin and Mary Magdalene
and other holy women were honored of God. But that you, dear Sister,
should be allowed to take a part in His service, is not this marvelous?
Will you not bless Him and minister with the utmost cheerfulness
because you feel it to be so great a Grace? Is it not gracious on our
Lord's part to leave room in His Church for ministry?

Suppose, now, the Lord had made all His people rich? Then there would
be no room for the generosity of His people to help His poor saints and
you would not have the opportunity of proving your love to Him as you
now can. Suppose He had converted all His elect by the secret working
of His Spirit without any teaching? Then He would not have needed you
in the Sunday school, nor you with your tracts, nor me with my
sermons–and we should have had nothing to do for Christ–we should
have been sighing and crying, "The good Master has not permitted us to
give Him anything! Why, on our birthdays our little children love to
give their father something, if it is only a bunch of flowers out of
the garden, or a four-penny piece with a hole in it!"

They like to do it to show their love and wise parents will be sure to
let their children do such things for them. So is it with our great
Father in Heaven. What are our Sunday school teaching and our preaching
and all that, but these cracked four-penny pieces? Just nothing at all!
But the Lord allows us to do His work for His own love's sake. His love
to us finds a sweetness in our love to Him. I am most thankful that in
the Church there is room for such a variety of ministries. Some
Brethren are so strangely constituted that I cannot tell what they were
made for–but I believe if they are God's people there is a place for
them in His spiritual temple!

A man who was accustomed to buy timber and work it up, on one occasion
found a very crooked stick of wood in his bargain and said to his son
as he put it aside, "I cannot tell, John, whatever I shall do with it.
It is the ugliest shaped piece I ever bought in my life." But it so
happened, while building a barn, that he needed a timber exactly of
that shape and it fitted in so thoroughly well that he said, "It really
seems as if that tree grew on purpose for that corner." So our gracious
Lord has arranged His Church so that every crooked stick will fit in
somewhere or other, if it is only a tree of His own right hand
planting–He has made it with a purpose and knows when it will answer
that purpose.

How this ought to rebuke any who say, "I do not see what I can do."
Dear Friend, there is a peculiar work for you. Find it out–and I think
it will not be far off–the exercise of a little rejection will soon
enable you to discover it. Be grateful that this is a certain fact,
without exception, that every child of God who has been healed has some
ministry which he can render to Christ and which he ought to render at
once! May the Lord allow every one of you to show your gratitude in
this way, and while you do it, let it always be in an adoring spirit,
saying, "Lord, I thank You I am allowed to go to my Sunday school
class."

Do not look at your work as a burden! Say, "Lord, I thank You I am
permitted to do it." "O God, I bless You that I am allowed to go round
that little district and call at the houses." You Bible Women, bless
God that He has let you be Bible Women! And you city missionaries,
thank God that you are allowed to be city missionaries. "Oh," says one,
"I can hardly do that because I suffer so much abuse and so much
ill-treatment." Bless God, dear Brother, that He counts you worthy to
suffer for His name's sake! You know the old story of Sir Walter
Raleigh. When Queen Elizabeth, one day, came to a miry place in the
road, he took off his cloak for her to walk upon.

Did he regret it? No, he was delighted at it, and half the court wished
for another muddy place that they might be able to do the same! Oh, you
that love your Lord, be willing to lie down for Christ's sake and pave
the miry parts of the way by being despised for His name's sake! This
honor you should covet and should not shun! Arise, and minister, you
healed ones! And as for you who are not healed, may you believe in Him
who is able to restore you with His touch. He is mighty to save.
Believe in Him and you shall live forever! Amen.
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My Prayer