Responsibility of Servants

If a rich farmer set a poor man to work to dig a ditch, or cast up a bank; if he be afterward trottbledfor it his master is co7icernedto bearhi?n harmless. David saith, ‘O Lord, truly lam thy servant; lam thy serva7it, and the son of thi?ie handmaid: thou hast loosed 7?iy bonds.’ Whilst we are engaged about our Master’s business, and in his work, he is engaged to protect us,ajid bear us out in it.’’ If what we do is done under the command of God, the responsibihty of its result does not lie with us. He who made the law will answer for those who keep it. If a man should, through obedience to the law of the Sabbath, lose his situation,his poverty would be no fault of his. If through strict honesty he should be despised of his employer, and forfeit his place he need not blame himself for his dismission. These things are to be taken joyfully as a part of our living sacrifice to God. We need not fear that God will fail to justify us if we walk in the way of his commandments. Our quarrel is his quarrel if it be occasioned by our following his orders. Jesus asks of every persecutor, “Why persecutest thou me?” When his servants are molested he is wounded. He will see us through with the business, and teach our opposers that in us they oppose him also.

When we go a way of our own choosing, we must bear our own hazard; but when our path is mapped out for us, we have the Lord engaged with us, and his name and honour would be compromised should we fail. Oh, happy condition! We are in the same boat with Jesus. He bade us trust, promising us salvation by faith and, as we have trusted, he must and will save us. He bade us come out from the world, and, as we have come out, he must be a Father unto us. He bids us preach the gospel, and, as we do preach it, he must save men thereby. Let us more and more pledge the honour of his name, resting sure that he will never allow his orders to be discredited.