Faith and Obedience: Work and Rest
A woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her bands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.” — xxxi. 30, 31.
HE lessons end, where they began, “in the fear of the Lord;” obedience is traced up to faith. In this last chapter the doctrine of the whole book is illustrated by a bright example. As we traverse the various phases of her character, we seem to be making our way over a well-watered and fruitful region, until we reach at last the fountain of its fertility. She “feareth the Lord:” here we look into the very eye of the well which clothed with verdure the landscape of this woman’s life; her faith sent forth these virtues, and then these virtues published her praise. Her good works flowed like a stream to refresh a desert neighbourhood; but the fountain which fed it was her heart’s trust in God. Those who are partakers of her precious faith will imitate her abundant labours. When you are led by the Spirit, and strive lawfully, faith and obedience do not jostle each other in your heart and life. To each its own place has been assigned it in the covenant of grace, and in true saints each keeps its own place silently and steadfastly, as if regulated by the laws of nature.
The concluding feature of this pattern character is a graceful and congruous termination to the Book of Proverbs as a whole. The key-note of all the hymn is found in the close: its theme throughout is, Righteousness the fruit of faith. We who live under the Christian dispensation should beware of a fatal mistake in our conception of its distinguishing characteristic. The gospel is not a method of bringing men to heaven without righteousness, or with less of it than was demanded in ancient times. The actual holiness of his creatures is the end of the Lord in all his dispensations, as certainly as fruit is the object of the husbandman when he plants, and waters, and grafts his trees. The death of Christ for sin is the divine plan, not for dispensing with obedi ence from men, but for effectually obtaining it. Keconciliation is the road to righteousness. God proclaims pardon and bestows peace, that the rebels may submit and serve him. They who feel more at ease in their alienation because they have heard that Christ gave himself for sinners, are trampling under foot the blood of the covenant. Alas! even God’s dear Son is made the stumbling-block over which men fall blindfold. A vague impression comes in and possesses a corrupt heart, that personal holiness is in some way less needful under the reign of grace. God is my witness, I have not in these pages taught that men should try their own obedience, instead of trusting in the Saviour for the free pardon of sin: but I have taught often, and once more tenderly repeat the lesson here, that those who do not like the obligation, to obedience, have no part yet in the forgiving grace.
Throughout these expositions it has been assumed that human life on earth is a life of labour. The world that man stands on is. not a rest for man: ever since it became the abode of sin, it is like the troubled sea that cannot rest, Toil and suffering are the lot alike of the evil and the good in this life. It is a poor portion for those who have no other. Ah! it is a sad thing to be weary, and have no rest in store! Jesus wept over wearied men, labouring in the fire for nought, and refusing to lay their aching headson his loving breast. Labouring, sin-laden men, He still says, “Come unto me.” If you refuse Him that speaketh, the universe will offer no resting-place, and eternity no resting-time.
But a rest remaineth for the people of God. The coming rest already casts the gentle foretastes of morning twilight over the dark surface of life’s labour here. Present toil will give zest to the joy of future rest, and the hope of rest softens and sweetens the labour while it lasts. What may be the enjoyments of those who were never weary we cannot tell, as a man born blind cannot appreciate the pleasures of sight. Those “flames of fire,” the angels who do God’s pleasure, are happy, doubtless, as they are holy; but they cannot share the rest of the redeemed from among men, for they were never weary. Only the weary r.est; and the greater the weariness the sweeter the rest. Heaven to the saved will be better than paradise to the unf alien. The effects of the fall are removed by Christ, and more; grace will abound more than sin abounded. God is greater than the author of evil. At the winding up of the world, it will not be a drawn battle between the introducer of sin and the Saviour of sinners; we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved us. The saved shall not only escape from bondage and hold their own, but spoil adverse principalities and powers. The enemy, when subdued, will be constrained to serve the children of the Conquerer; out of the eater shall come forth meat. The memory of sin will enhance the joy of holiness: the pain of labour will make rest more sweet.
The whole world consists of two classes, different in many things from each other but alike in this, that both are obliged to labour all their days: they are those who serve sin, and those who fight against it. Both experience pain and weariness; sin is a hard master, and a formidable foe. If you do its bidding, you are a miserable drudge if you’ war against it, you will receive many wounds in the conflict. It would be hard to tell whether of the two is the more wearied — the carnal who obeys the flesh, or the spiritual who crucifies it. Both are compelled to labour. Both are weary: the one is weary by sinning, and the other weary of sin. One of these strifes will soon be over: the other will never cease. If sin be your antagonist, there will soon be peace; for if sin cannot be taken wholly away from you, you will ere long be taken away from sin. But if sin be, and till death abide, your master, there is no deliverance from the yoke.
On the whole, for moral and immortal creatures there are only two masters, and no man can serve both; the one is sin, the other is the Saviour. Either we serve sin against Christ, or we serve Christ against sin. Both masters put their servants to labour. Let not disciples expect what their Lord has neither provided nor promised; He gives them many pleasures in this life, but these are the pleasures of labour, not the pleasures of rest. This world cannot be their rest, expressly “because it is polluted.” It may and should become their meat and drink to do their Lord’s will; but still it is a doing, a working, a bearing. They may — they will love the work; but still it is work. They who love the Lord that bought them, are in haste to do something for Him while they are in this distant world; for at home in heaven no such work is needed. Work is very joyful in the prospect of rest: rest will be very joyful when the work is done.
“Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.” Heaven and earth are both beautiful when God gives a shining light, and man possesses a seeing eye. Faith and obedience run sweetly into one.
Near the base of a mountain range, early in the morning of the day and the spring of the year, you may have seen, in your solitary walk, a pillar of cloud, pure and white, rising from the earth to heaven. In the calm air its slender stem rises straight like a tree, and like a tree spreads out its lofty summit. Like an angel tree in white, and not like an earthly thing, it stands before you. You approach the spot and discover the cause of the vision. A well of water from warm depths bursts through the surface there, and this is the morning incense which it sends right upward to the throne. But the water is not all thus exhaled; a pure stream flows over the well’s rocky edge, and trickles along the surface, a river in miniature, marked on both sides by verdure, while the barrenness of winter lies yet on the other portions of the field.
Such are the two outgoings of a believer’s life. Upward rises the soul to God in direct devotion; but not the less on that account does the life flow out along the surface of the world leaving its mark in blessings behind it wherever it goes. You caught the spring by surprise at the dawn, and saw its incense ascending; at mid-day, when the sun was up, and the people passing, that incense was still rising, but then it rose unseen. It is thus in the experience of living Christians in the world. At certain times, when they think that none are near, their intercourse with heaven may be noticed; but for the most part it is carried on unseen. The upright pillar is seldom visible; but the horizontal stream is seen and felt, a refreshment to all within its reach. True devotion is chiefly in secret; but the bulk of a believer’s life is laid out in common duties, and cannot be hid. These two, alternate and yet simultaneous, separate and yet combined — these two fill up a Christian’s life. Lift up your heart to God, and lay out your talents for the world; lay out your talents for the world, and lift up your heart to God.