Working for Christ: Service
“Be thy best thoughts to work divine addressed; Do something — do it soon — with all thy might: An angel’s wings would droop if long at rest, And God himself, inactive, were no longer blest.”
TT^VERY truly-consecrated life has been made over to Christ with all its powers. Faith implies full surrender: “Ye are not your own;’’ “Ye are Christ’s.” Christ owns us first by right of creation, then by right of purchase; and we acknowledge his ownership and all that it includes when we accept him as our Saviour and Lord. We voluntarily and heartily give ourselves to him. The first question, therefore, of the newbelieving heart is, “What shall I do, Lord?’ We want to begin to work for our new Master. We belong to him; we are his slaves: that is the word St. Paul used so much, and with such a thrill of joy as he thought of the honor it denoted
He was Christ’s slave: “Whose I am, and whom I serve,” was his working creed. We belong absolutely to Christ; he is our only Master. We are no longer our own in any sense, and have no right to our own way. “Thy will, not mine,” is henceforth the only true law of life for us. We are to wait at each step for Christ’s bidding. Our very thoughts must be brought into captivity to him.
This ownership covers and embraces all life. We are to live for Christ while at our commonest daily work, pleasing and honoring him in everything we do. A heart of love for Christ makes all work holy service, and even “drudgery divine.” It makes the sweeping of a room, the ploughing of a field, the sawing of a board, the making of a garment, the selling of a piece of goods, the minding of a baby, all actions as fine as the ministry of angels.
One way of working for Christ, therefore, is to be diligent in the doing of life’s common daily tasks. The true giving of ourselves to God exalts all of life into divine honor and sacredness. Nothing is trivial or indifferent which it is our duty to do. We are never to neglect any work however secular it may seem, in order to do something else which appears to be more religious. It is not a common fault, but there are some people who would be better Christians if they paid more heed to their own daily business and attended fewer meetings and did less “religious gossiping.” Ruskin says, “Neither days nor lives can be made holy by doing nothing in them. The best prayer at the beginning of a day is that we may not lose its moments; and the best grace before meat, the consciousness that we have justly earned our dinner.”
But, besides this living of the whole life for Christ, there is specific work for him in which every Christian has a part to perform. There are lost souls all about us, and every one who is saved should do something toward saving others. This is not alone the work of ordained preachers: “Let him that heareth say. Come.” The first thought of a truly saved person is of some friend or friends who are still in peril, and the first impulse of a renewed heart is to try to bring these lost ones to the Saviour. The cause of Christ in this world needs assistance in many ways, and it is the will of the Master that this cause should be advanced, not by the ministry of angels, not by Christ himself immediately and directly, but by his people — those whom he has redeemed and saved. The story of salvation must be told by lips that have first uttered the cry for mercy. The lost must be won by the love of hearts that have first been broken in penitence. The divine blessing of salvation must be carried in earthen vessels to the perishing.
Every Christian has something to do for Christ in this world. No one can be exempted. The fullest hands must make room for some little part of the Master’s work. Even the child that loves Christ may at least carry a cup of the water of life to some thirsty soul.
Every Christian should be deeply imbued with the missionary spirit. A portion of the responsibility for carrying the news of salvation to every creature rests on each follower of Christ. In these days of missionary activity there is no one who cannot do something to help send the gospel to heathen lands. Every young Christian should consider himself, from the moment of his consecration to Christ, a debtor to all men, near and far, who are not yet saved, and in prayer and work and gift he should seek to pay that debt to the last atom of his ability.
There is also very much of sorrow and suffering in this world, and every Christian should do all in his power to comfort the sorrow and alleviate the suffering. Here, as in all things, Christ himself is our example and his life is our pattern. We represent him in this world. He has gone away to heaven, but he has left his people here to carry on his work.
Christ’s early life was full of kindness and gentleness. There were a great many people about him who were troubled and unhappy. Some of them were sick, some were blind, some were lame, some were leprous, some had sorrow in one form or another. To all of these Jesus showed the sweetest spirit of kindness. He pitied them. He was touched with compassion as he saw their sufferings. He was deeply interested in every case. He gave real and true sympathy. Nor did he stop with tender emotion and kindly words: he put forth his power and helped the sufferers in whatever way they most needed help. The sick he healed; the troubled he comforted in such a manner that they never forgot his gracious love.
We must try to repeat this part of (Christ’s ministry. There are troubled ones about us all the time — those who are sick or poor or carrying some heart-burden of care or grief; those who have been crushed by adversity or trodden down in the dust of failure and defeat; those who are suffering from wrong or injustice. We do not know half the sorrows that the people whom we meet every day are enduring. Here is a wide field for most Christlike and most helpful ministry. What we need for it is a spirit of sympathy and kindness that shall never fail. We may not be able to do much to relieve those who are troubled: we certainly cannot work miracles as Christ did; but we may have a heart of love which shall manifest itself toward every one in a spirit of patient gentleness and kindly thoughtfulness. It does a great deal of good just really to care for people who are in trouble and to show them that we care for them — to be truly interested in them and willing to try to help them. Sincere sympathy is ofttimes better than money. People in distress generally need a friend more than they need gift or miracle God sends no angels to earth whose ministry leaves more benedictions of joy, of help, of inspiration, of uplifting, of restoring, than are left by that of the angel of true human sympathy.
Here is Christian work, too, that every Christian can do. In this kind of service we do not need money, or eloquence, or brilliant gifts, or a fine education: we need only to have in us the true spirit of Christ, a spirit of unselfish love, and then blessing will flow from our lives even without effort or purpose, unconsciously, as fragrance pours from a flower, as light streams from a lamp.
“As some rare perfume in a vase of clay Pervades it with a fragrance not its own, So, when Thou dwellest in a mortal soul,”
All heaven’s own sweetness seems around it thrown.”
Christ did other kinds of work, but it was the same spirit that wrought in all his ministry. He taught the people; he scattered the words of truth; he lifted up his voice against wrong and sin; he sought the lost and led them back to the Father; he went to the cross in the room of sinners. In all forms of personal ministry we are to strive to follow in his steps. The golden seeds of heavenly truth which his lips dropped we are to seek to scatter everywhere in life’s desert-fields. The very best thing we can do for people in this world of sin and sorrow is to get the words of Christ into their hearts. It is like scattering flower-seeds on the black lava-beds about the fiery mountain’s base: in the crevices the seeds will root and grow, and sweet flowers will bloom by and by. Christ’s words are living seeds from which spring up heavenly plants to beautify and bless bleak and dreary lives over which sin’s fires have rolled. The tiniest hand and the weakest can scatter these seeds in some bare spot where they will grow.
It is the little things that all of us can do in Christ’s name that in the end leave the largest aggregate of blessing in the world. We need not wait to do great and conspicuous things. One Amazon is enough for a continent, but there is room for a million little rivulets and purling brooks. A life that every day gives its blessing to another and adds to the happiness of some fellow-being by only a word of kindness, or a thoughtful act, or a cheering look, or a hearty hand-grasp, does more for the world than he who but once in a lifetime does some great thing which fills a land with his praise. Nothing done for Christ ia lost. The smallest acts, the quietest words, the gentlest inspirations that touch human souls, leave their impress for eternity.
“Drop follows drop, and swells
With rain the sweeping river;
Word follows word, and tells
A truth that lives for ever.
“Flake follows flake, like sprites
Whose wings the winds dissever;
Thought follows thought, and lights
The realm of mind for ever.
“Beam follows beam, to cheer
The cloud a bolt would shiver;
Throb follows throb, and fear
Gives place to joy for ever.
“The drop, the flake, the beam.
Teach us a lesson ever;
The word, the thought, the dream,
Impress the soul for ever.”
Then, while we are giving out blessings to help and to enrich other lives, we are receiving also into our own hearts. The words of the Master are literally true: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” The song we sing to cheer a weary spirit echoes new cheer into our own soul. The sacrifice we make to help one in distress leaves us not poorer, but richer. Love’s stores are not wasted by giving: the more we give, the more we have left. The way to grow rich in the treasures of kindness and aifection is to show kindness and affection to all who need. If we find our spiritual life languishing, its resources growing small, the true way to refresh it is not by closer economy in giving out to others, but by greater generosity.
“For the heart grows rich in giving:,
All its wealth is living grain;
Seeds which mildew in the garner,
Scattered, fill with gold the plain.
“Is the heart a living power?
Self-entwined, its strength sinks low:
It can only live in loving,
And by serving love will grow.”
In every living church there are various organized forms of Christian activity; in some one or more of these every member should in some way be engaged. Let the young Christian at once choose the particular class of work to which he decides to lend his hand, and promptly identify himself with the organization or society or band which has in view the special work he has selected. There should not be one idle Christian in any church. One of the most withering curses uttered in the Scriptures is against uselessness — against those who come not up to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
Thus Christian work is not only a duty, but a means of grace. It is not the rest of inaction to which Christ calls us, but the rest of loving service. Every power of our being we should give to him to be used. Every gift we possess should be employed in doing good. That day is a lost day in which we do nothing to bless some other life in the name of Christ.
“Work for some good, be it ever so slowly; Cherish some flower, be it ever so lowly: Labor! all labor, is noble and holy; Let thy good deeds be a prayer to thy GUxL** yi.