Where Is Your Place?

A PLACE for every man, and every man in his place! This motto is as good for Christ’s church as it was for the army during the war. But what is every Christian’s right place?

We answer that it is the one for which God made him and for which the Holy Spirit converted him. ‘To mistake it is a sad blunder; to desert it is a disgrace. The Bible acknowledges that God made his servants for some special ‘niche,’ for it says, ‘‘ Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given us, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.’’ ‘The principle here laid down is that every man or woman who loves Jesus should select and should fill that post of

j 4 y ‘ 1 a duty for which his or her gifts have fitted them. But “let no man neglect the gift that is in

pupa”?

Some men — like Spurgeon and Newman Hall and Bishop Simpson — were created for the pulpit. God gave them clear heads, warm hearts, strong lungs and eloquent tongues, and a hunger for saving souls. ‘To possess such gifts is a clear call to the ministry. And thousands of humbler preachers who cannot attract Spurgeon’s crowds are yet as clearly called to the ministry of the

Word as the London Boanerges was himself.

But the vainglorious creature who cannot attract an audience except by sensational ‘‘clap-trap’’ or by Barnumish advertisements was certainly never called of God to the sacred ministry. He may draw auditors, but he commonly draws them away from places where they would be more profited.

Suppose a man feels convinced, after deep

prayer and self-examination, that God has not

called him to the pulpit; what then? Must he be silent? Are all the speaking gifts of the pious lawyer or doctor or merchant or mechanic a to run to waste? No, verily! Let such proclaim the glad tidings of Christ and the story of — their own Christian experience in the prayer- f meeting or the mission-school or the cottage conference-meeting, or wherever they can find souls to plead with. How successful this lay-labor — may be made, let such men as Harlan Page and — Richard Weaver and George H. Stuart and D. — I,, Moody and John Wanamaker bear witness. Let the powerful lay-preaching heard every day in ‘‘Fulton Street’? answer. Some of the best discourses I have ever heard were but five or ten minutes long and were delivered in my own — prayer-meeting. Christian lawyers ought to do more of this tongue-work. As a class they are — too silent in our meetings and Sunday-schools. — God is opening a wide field for laymen to act on — ‘‘picket-duty’? and as skirmishers and sharp-shooters in the spiritual warfare. Ae

What our churches most need (next to the baptism of the Holy Ghost) is the development of all the members. So much is thrown upon

the ministry that some of us can hardly catch a

spare hour for our own family and fireside. A

city pastor is often expectdd to prepare three sermons or lectures, to visit the flock, to see the

sick, to bury the dead, and to act on a dozen comuinittees and to make two or three speeches, all in a single week! The church becomes Dr. aE ’s church or Mr. B ’s church or Dr. Cc ’s church, or some other man’s church, instead of being the people’s church, with some gifted man as its overseer and pastor. id Now I love to work exceedingly, but not one whit more than I love to see my congregation work. And no man in my flock has any more right to turn his spiritual work over upon me than he has aright to send me to market for him or to cook or eat his dinner for him. He needs

his work as much as I need mine. In revival

times the whole church is alive and busy. But where and when did the Master ever give a ““furlough’’ to three-fourths of our people to quit the ranks just as soon as a revival campaign

“is over?

A Christian who is keen for work will soon find his place. If he is ‘‘apt to teach,’’ he or she will soon gather the Sabbath-school class, and will be there, Bible in hand, every Sunday, even though the rain is pattering on the pavements. Commend me to the teacher who wears a ‘‘ waterproof’’ and always consults conscience sooner than the barometer.

Whoever has the gift of song should join God’s great choir and sing at every religious service. The owner of a good voice must give account for that voice at the day of judgment. We never shall have genuine congregational singing until every redeemed child of Christ sings from duty and consecrates the gift of music to the Lord. Those who expect to sing in heaven had better practise here.

Tract distribution is going too much out of fashion. It is a blessed and heaven-honored agency for doing good. Every one who has some spare time and a tongue and a little pious tact can go out with a bundle of tracts to the abodes of ignorance and irreligion.

aa ‘Those who cannot exhort or teach in a Sun- day-school or distribute tracts, can at least live

for Jesus at home and aL and join in the prayrs of the prayer-meeting. The oldest, the timest, the least gifted, can do surely as much as is. Every one too can give something when contribution-box is passed. The gift of a “cup of cold water’? in Christ’s name has its reward. Every one whom Jesus saves has a B place assigned to him in the vineyard. rae idle Ny Christian is a monster!

‘ Friend, have you found your place?

CONSCIENCE IN RELIGION.