A Polished Shaft
‘<The best men, doing their best,
Know peradventure least of what they do:
Men usefullest i’ the world are simply used;
The nail that holds the wood must pierce it first,
And He alone who wields the hammer sees
The work advanced by the earliest blow. Take heart!”
E. B. BROWNING.
ISAIAH xlix. 2.)
ISLES of Greece, famed as the home of verse and song, ye were never summoned to listen to a voice so sweet as that which speaks in these words! Not Sappho, nor Homer himself, so well deserved your heed. And you, ye people of the world, though the speech be that of one of your obscurest tribes, an alien in a land of strangers, and itself falling into disuse, yet it contains words, which, once heard, shall be absorbed into all your many tongues, and recited in every dialect and language,
the world over: “Listen, O Isles, unto Me; and hearken, ye
peoples from far!”
And who is this that speaks in the Hebrew tongue, and presumes to address the world as his audience? We had thought the Jew-speech too exclusive, too conservative, too intolerant of strangers, to care to make itself heard beyond the limits of Judaism. The Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. To the Jewish mind, Gentiles are dogs beneath the table. Whence these world-wide sympathies? Whence this sudden interest in the great family of man? Ah! these are the words of the Messiah, the ideal Jew; speaking in the name of the elect race, and representing its genius, not as warped by human prejudice, but as God intended it to be. “He said unto me, Thou art My servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
There can be no doubt that this is the true way of considering these noble words. They were expressly referred to Jesus Christ by his greatest apostle on one of the most memorable occasions in his career. The little synagogue at Antioch was crowded to its doors. All the city was eager to hear the stranger, who had dropped down, so to speak, “from the snows of the Taurus.” But this seriously affected the Jews, with their proud susceptibilities, and galled their pride. ‘They were filled with jealousy, contradicted the things which were spoken by Paul and Barnabas, and blasphemed.” After awhile the preacher realized that the terms of his commission did not require him to expend his words on those who, at every syllable, refused them; so he suddenly changed his note. He had made an offer of eternal life, which had been rejected with disdain; there was nothing left but to turn to the Gentiles, and he quoted the climax words of this paragraph in defence of the course he thereupon adopted. “For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts xiii. 47, R.V.).
But, it may be asked, how can words, so evidently addressed to Israel, be appropriated, with equal truth, to Jesus Christ? To reply to this in full would take us too far afield. It is sufficient here to say that He was the epitome and personification of all that was noblest and divinest in Judaism. When, in spite of all that they had suffered in their exile, they for a second time failed to realize or fulfil their great mission to the world; when under the reign of Pharisee and Scribe they settled down into a nation of legalists, casuists, and hairsplitting ritualists — He assumed the responsibilities which they had evaded, and fulfilled them by the Gospel He spoke and the Church He formed. In the mission of Jesus, the heart of Judaism unfolded itself. What He was and did, the whole nation ought to have been and done. As the white flower on the stalk, He revealed the essential nature of the root. The very life of Jesus had a striking similarity to the history of the chosen people; and, therefore, Matthew with perfect propriety applies to Him a text, which Hosea wrote of the entire nation: “Joseph arose and took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt did I call My Son” (Hos. xi. 1; Matt. il. 14, 15, R.V.).
We are justified, therefore, in referring this paragraph to the Lord Jesus, as the ideal servant of God. And we may get some useful teaching as to the conditions of the loftiest and best service which, following his steps, we may render to his Father and our Father, to his God and ours.
I. THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE IDEAL SERVANT. — (1) 4 holy motherhood. ‘The Lord hath called me from the womb.” The greatest and best of men have confessed their indebtedness to their mothers; and not a few have, without doubt, enshrined in their character, and wrought out in their life, inspirations which ‘had thrilled their mothers’ natures from early girlhood. It is from their mothers that men get their souls. Many an obscure woman has ruled the world through the child in which her noblest self has been reproduced in masculine deeds and words. Rachel in Joseph; Jochebed in Moses; Hannah in Samuel; Elizabeth in John the Baptist; Monica in Augustine; the mother of the Wesleys in her illustrious sons. With all reverence we say it, Mary of Nazareth has attained an influence which the Church of Rome could never give her, through her Son who rules the ages. We know that in Him the male and female blend in perfect symmetry; and yet sometimes we think, in the human side of his wondrous nature, we trace the Virgin Mother — her delicate and quick sympathy; her keen appreciation of beauty; her reverent and accurate knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures.
To make a man, God begins with his mother. How necessary it is, then, that young girls should be carefully trained to lofty thoughts and pure imaginings, that shall afterwards reappear in the strongest, fairest characters; and how important it is that young women should carefully watch their hearts, restraining what is vain and evil, and reaching out after whatsoever things are true, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, not only in outward seeming, but in the inner chambers of the heart: for there the formative influences are ever brooding and maturing.
Few of us realize the immense importance attaching to thie education of girls. Those who bear the children make our times. She that rocks the cradle rules the world. The Zenanas of India must be taken for Christ before that great continent will yield to the Gospel. Any one, therefore, that can influence women by speech or pen, by education or example, has an almost unrivalled power over the destinies of our race. It is only a shallow and superficial critic who will sneer at a congregation of servant-girls. The tendency of the present day notwithstanding, the highest function of woman is to give noble children to the world; in this she gives herself, and for this all education and environment should prepare her.
(2) Incisive speech. “He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword.” Speech is the most God-like faculty in man. Christ did not scruple to be called the Word or Speech of God. “The tongue of man,” says Carlyle, “is a sacred organ. Man himself is definable in philosophy as an incarnate word; the word not there, you have no man there either, but a phantasm instead.” At the bidding of the human voice conceptions of beauty and thought emerge, darkness is dispelled, truth is unfolded, resolutions are born, inspirations conceived, crusades set on foot. Before the voice of man the lower creation trembles; and with his voice man joins in the ascriptions of adoration and praise which are ever arising around the eternal throne.
This regal faculty is God’s chosen organ for announcing and establishing his Kingdom over the earth. He uses silence, the uncomplaining passivity of the down-trodden and oppressed; He uses deeds, erecting vast structures as their monument; He uses books, the seed-baskets of thought: but He especially uses words. When John was cast into prison, Jesus came preaching. He opened his mouth and taught; He bade his disciples go into all the world and preach his
Gospel to every creature. By the foolishness of preaching, it is God’s pleasure to save them that believe. And so long as the pulpit is content to be the mouthpiece of the living Spirit, it cannot be superseded by the press.
Our mouth must be surrendered to God, that He may implant there the sharp two-edged sword that proceeds from his own lips (Rev. i. 16). We must see to it that we do not speak our own words, nor think our own thoughts; but open our mouths wide, that He may fill them with the Word of God, which is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. iv. 12). “He hath made” — precious words, denoting on the one hand the submissive attitude which yields itself to receive; and on the other, the touch of the living God, who promises to be with the mouth, and teach what we should say. Who does not want to speak as Peter did, when, on the day of Pentecost, many were pricked in their heart ? — or as Stephen did, when, in the Sanhedrim, we are told that his opponents were cut to the heart by his incisive speech? We do not want to give mere sword-play to delight the eyes of our hearers; but to pierce to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, so that those who are unbelieving may be convicted and judged, and the secrets of their hearts revealed.
(3) Seclusion. “In the shadow.” We must all go there sometimes. The glare of the daylight is too brilliant; our eyes become injured, and unable to discern the delicate shades of colour, or appreciate neutral tints — the shadowed chamber of sickness; the shadowed house of mourning; the shadowed life from which the sunlight has gone. But, fear not ! — it is the shadow of God’s hand. He is leading thee. There are lessons that can only be learnt there. The photograph of his face can only be fixed in the dark chamber. But do not suppose that He has cast thee aside. Thou art still in his quiver; He has not flung thee away as a worthless thing. He is only keeping thee close till the moment comes, when He can send thee most swiftly and surely on some errand in which He will be glorified. Oh, shadowed solitary ones, remember how closely the quiver is bound to the warrior, within easy reach of the hand, and guarded jealously! (4) Freed from rust. “A polished shaft.” Weapons of war soon deteriorate. A breath of damp leaves its corroding mark; and the rust shows where the metal is slowly burning away. In archery, a rusted arrow-point will fail to penetrate, and glance away from the target; and so, in war, a sword or spear corroded by rust would not cleave its way through helmet or shield.
Rust can best be removed by sand-paper or the file. Similarly we must be kept bright and clean. There must be no rust on our hearts resulting from inconsistency or permitted sin. To keep us from thus deteriorating is God’s perpetual aim; and for this purpose He uses the fret of daily life, the chafe of small annoyances, the wear and tear of irritating tempers and vexing circumstances. Nothing great or crushing, but many things that gall and vex — these are the sand-paper and the file that God perpetually employs to guard against whatever would blunt the edge or diminish the effect of our work.
Il. APPARENT FAILURE. — “But I said, I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nought and vanity.” This heart-break seems inevitable to God’s most gifted and useful servants. It is in part the result of nervous overstrain; as, after the great day of Carmel, Elijah threw himself down beneath the juniper-tree, and asked that he might die. But in part it results from the expanding compassion of the soul, becoming aware how little one man can do to mitigate the anguish of the world. We are so long in learning how to work, we have to unlearn so much, we have to return from so many paths that lead nowhere; it is already afternoon when we commence to use the experience we have gotten, and pursue the right tracks that we have at last discovered; then, after an hour or two of bright labour, our strength begins to wane, the sun of our brief day to near the western hills, and all is over. The night has come, in which no man can work. How often we thought our mothers hard when in childhood they said that we must come in and go to bed! And the most strenuous
workers will feel like that when God calls them home; unless G they are very tired and lonely because so many of their companions have left them — shez they will perhaps be glad.
The heart is capable of infinite yearnings and compassion, while the physical strength is limited and finite. Evil is so hydra-headed and Protean. The bias to evil in each generation is so strong and inveterate. The restless sea of which the prophet spoke is so constantly sweeping away the embankments and walls reared against its incursions. It seems so impossible to reach the root, the secret spring, the heart. The circle of light only makes the surrounding darkness more pitchblack. What can one weak man effect against such overwhelming odds!
There are three sources of consolation. First, that failure will not forfeit the bright smile of the Master’s welcome nor the reward of his Judgment-seat. He judges righteously; and rewards, not according to results, but to faithfulness. “Yet, surely, my judgment is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God” (4). .Secondly, the soul leans more heavily upon God: “my God is become my strength” (5). Thirdly, we turn to prayer. How sweetly God refers to this, saying, “In an acceptable time have I answered thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee” (8).
Thus God deals with us all. He is compelled to take us to the back side of the desert, where we sit face to face with the wreck of our fairest hopes. There He teaches us, as He only can, weaning us from creature-confidence, and taking pride from our hearts. Then from the stump of the tree, hewn almost to the ground, comes the scion of a new life, which fulfils the promise that seemed for ever annulled.
III]. ULTIMATE SUCCESs. — When Jesus died, faz/ure seemed written across his life-work. A timid handful of disciples was all that remained of the crowds that had thronged his pathway, and they seemed disposed to go back to their fishing-boats. Man despised Him; the nation abhorred Him; and the rulers set Him at nought. But that very cross, which man deemed His supreme disgrace and dethronement, has become the stepping-stone of universal dominion. Israel shall yet be gathered, and the Gentile Church become as the sand of the sea.
Thus it may be with some who peruse this page. They are passing through times of barrenness, and disappointment, and suffering. But let them remember that the Lord is faithful (7). He will not suffer one word to fail, one seed to be lost, one effort to prove abortive, one life to be wasted. And Jdecause of this, they shall be preserved; lands which they have discovered * and cultivated shall teem with men; measures that they have concerted shall effect the liberation of the blind and the enslaved; trees they have planted shall become forests, and beneficially affect the climate of the world. Yea, these shall be light things, to be succeeded by greater and yet greater, as the circle of their influence widens through the universe, and the throb of their life reacts on coming ages.
Whilst Christ from the throne of his glory sees the travail of his soul, He is assuredly satisfied; and when, from the hills of glory, as from another Pisgah, we behold the results of our life-work, the way by which God led us, and answered our prayers, and blessed our feeble attempts to serve Him, we shall forget the pain and disappointment amid the gladness of the overwhelming and transporting spectacle.