Earthen Vessels
We have this treasure in earthen vessels.’’ — 2 Cor. iv. 7.
THERE is something wrong when the vessel robs the treasure of its glory, when the casket attracts more attention than the jewel which it bears. There is a very perverse emphasis when the picture takes second place to the frame, and when the ware which is used at the feast becomes a substitute for the meal. There is something deadly in Christian service when ‘“the excellency of the power” is of us and not of God. Such excellency is of a very fleeting kind, and it will speedily wither as the green herb and pass into oblivion. 5
Our God delights to put His treasure into unobtrusive vessels. He loves to put His bounty into modest hands. How often He manifests His power in conditions which excite surprise in all who see it! We cannot explain how such power appears in such simplicity. It seems as if such a radiant flame should be in a more ornate and attractive lamp. Moody’s excellency was in an earthen vessel, and many doctors of divinity have wondered at the strange association. There are thousands of men who are better speakers than Moody, and there are thousands who are better singers than Sankey; the vessels are more chaste and striking, but the treasure is not there in overwhelming glory!
What mighty power God pours through the earthen vessels of plain and simple speech! He does not wait for eloquence. Indeed, there is a form of eloquence of which the Lord seems to be afraid, and He leaves it to fly by and “‘ lose itself on desolate seas.’ And then again, what marvellous power is packed into broken prayers! The eloquent prayer may attract attention to itself, and we may admire the suppliant instead of reverently adoring the Lord; but the simple prayer, broken it may be by a hundred hesitancies, reveals the sacred force which takes the Kingdom of Heaven by storm.
And then how God honours simple and unshowy methods in the ministry of the Kingdom! The spectacular organisation is just a splendid emptiness, while some quiet and unobtrusive fellowship is just laden with the excellent glory of the Lord. I think we are living in a time when the earthen vessel has become a costly exhibit. We like large things, showy things, sensational things, noisy things, while God still delights in the earthen things, and He still chooses ‘‘ the things which are not, to bring to nought the things which are.”
And so we must be prayerfully thoughtful at all times lest we appoint vessels to the service of the Kingdom which will absorb the glory which belongs to God alone. But to be thoughtful is not to be careless.
Grace puts no premium upon shabbiness and disorder. We must not offer to the Lord of that which costs us nothing. Our best and hardest pains must be devoted to getting rid of all that is theatrical, spectacular, and vainglorious; and we must present to the Lord a lamp which is clean and burnished, but which will not distract attention from the Presence and glory of the Lord.
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