Necessity Is Laid upon Me
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“For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of: for necessity is laid upon me.’’’ — I CoRiNTHiANS ix. 16.
LTHOUGH it seems a paradox, it is nevertheless certainly a truth, that in the Lord’s service those work best who work under compulsion. Christ himself directs .us to pray the Lord of the harvest that he would thrust out labourers into his harvest. In this strong-handed way have the greatest ministers of the gospel been seized and sent out. In the text Paul describes the constraint under which he laboured; and Luther, when, in similar circumstances, friends advised him to retire from danger, replied, “Here I stand; I cannot otherwise do. God help me.” The peculiar force which was manifest in the ministry of those chief apostles was due to the divinely imposed necessity of working, which lay like a mountain over their hearts. Not the servants only, but the Head himself was subject to this law. In this matter Christ was made like unto his brethren. He acted throughout his ministry under an irresistible compulsion: “Wist yc not that I must be about my Father’s business?” Be it that his own spontaneous love laid the pressure on, the pressure was not on that account less commanding — the compulsion that brought the Son of God from the throne of heaven to the manger of Bethlehem and the cross of Calvary.
It is a ministry of necessity like this that Christ calls for, that the world needs, that a revived Church supplies to-day. We need not ministers that may or that will, but ministers that must preach the gospel. We need members not that may or that will, but that must live the gospel Consider — -
I. The Work: what they do.
II. The Motive: what compels them to do it
I. The Work: what they do. — They preach the gospel. The terms point in the first instance, I confess, to the public ministry of the word by those who are relieved from other labours and set apart for that special service in the Church; but it is as certainly applicable to every Christian according to the measure of his gifts and opportunities. Among the disciples of Christ, responsibility in this matter is diversified not in kind, but only in degree. From the tallest tree of the forest down to the hyssop that springeth out of the wall, vegetable life is of one common character, and is subject to essentially the same conditions of life and growth. In like manner, all specimens of the spiritual life are subject to substantially the same laws.
Ill the Christian Church there is no privileged order of priesthood. The regenerated are one family. All are in one point of view children, and in another priests. One is our Master, and no man is lord over us. With this liberty the Lord has made us free. But every privilege carries a duty in its bosom. If we claim the high privilege, we must volunteer for work. By two short links every believer is scripturally bound to minister for the Lord. “Let him that heareth say, Come.” We have heard the word of life, and therefore we should speak it. We have received the blessing, therefore we should spread it. “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
I confess that the first application of the text points to those on whom the Lord has bestowed gifts, and to whom the brethren have given leisure. If a thousand ministers were assembled to-day in this place, and I were called to speak to them, I would, as God might enable me, urge them to be wise in winning souls. I would especially endeavour to open the fountain of redeeming love on high, and permit it so to stream upon their hearts, that its mighty volume might carry all their life before it, and compel them to lay out their energies in the service of the Lord that bought them. To them and to myself I would preach the gospel as one that must give an account. But as I have not such an audience, — as I have, by the special providence of God, an assembly of private persons, I turn towards them that side of the word that belongs to them, and press it home with all my might on you.
And are we all bound to propagate the gospel? Is there no ground on which one is entitled to claim exemption? Yes, there is one. If you have not received, you cannot be expected to give it. So, then, when some are sent by the King to enlist soldiers for his war, they may obtain exemption for one if they are able to report, — “He cannot make Christ known, for he does not know Christ.” But, ah, what exemption is this i* — without work indeed in Christ’s cause, but also without Christ.
The Lord stands yet over against the treasury, and sees what every entrant casts in. If he condescends to accept the mite of the poor widow, the poor widow is by that very fact bound to cast in her mite. His willingness to accept small gifts is reason enough for giving them.
Apart from the public ministry of the Word, there is a multitude of smaller ministrations which lie within reach of every one, and which together produce great effects, as many drops converged constitute the volume of a river.
I. Without opening his lips to teach, or putting his hand to missionary work, every one who bears Christ’s name either helps or hinders the gospel by his spirit and his life. Thousands of opportunities are thrown away through thoughtlessness, and a self- pleasing, worldly habit of mind. When you are closing a bargain or paying an account, although you lack courage and skill to address a word of religious instruction to the person with whom you are dealing, you may yet find and use a precious opportunity of serving God in the 186 NECESSITY IS LAID UPON ME.
gospel of his Son. Perhaps your correspondent is one of those men who have been led to believe that a profession of piety is a cloak drawn over deceit. If, in his dealings with you, he feels he has to do with a transparent honesty and a brotherly tenderness, the stumbling-block that kept him back from the Saviour is in a moment taken away. The course of his history and the condition of his mind may be such that it is precisely such an example of Christianity in common life that is needed to snap asunder the last thread of the band in which the Tempter has held his soul distant from the Friend of sinners. Stand in awe as you tread the streets and mingle with fellow-men, for at any moment you may meet one who is trembling on a narrow edge between “the tynin’ and the winnin’.” Your gentleness, or trueness, or brotherliness, touching his spirit where it is chafed and sore, may become the very instrument in God’s hand of saving the man. “Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” I suppose among the surprises that a modest, true Christian, will meet when he enters rest, this will be none of the least, that here and there, among the just made perfect, one and another will accost him with gratitude as spiritual father. Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or sick, and ministered unto thee.!* Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, ye did it unto me.
What if a fretful or false word of mine should become the narrow point turned in the wrong direction, which shall meet the train of an immortal life as it comes up, and send it off on the track that leads to the second death! As we thread through life’s promiscuous throng we are touching right and left immortal beings, giving them a bias by the contact to the right or the left. Oh, great is the influence of a life among other lives, for good or for evil!
“Aunt,” said a little girl one day as she returned from school, “is every word of the Bible true?” “Yes,” replied the lady. “But why do you ask?” “Because it says, ‘A soft answer turneth away wrath;’ and to-day Catherine was angry with me, and I gave her a soft answer, but it did not turn her anger away. She continued angry all the same.” Here was a ministering child.
“Well done, good and faithful servant: continue to be faithful in the work, and the Master will give you reward in due time.” Duty is yours, results belong to God. The soft answer dealt upon the transgressor a stroke on the right side; if it did not altogether turn her to righteousness, perhaps the next may succeed; and in the meantime, the soft answer is its own reward, rebounding on the speaker’s bosom.
2. Another department of ministry is word and work directly contributed to the kingdom of Christ. The methods and opportunities are manifold and various as the characters and circumstances of Christians. “She hath done what she could” is the standard of measurement.
The more obvious methods are, a Sabbath-school; a 188 NECESSITY IS I A ID UPON ME.
mission district to visit families; to carry a religious tract into the households. In these departments a greater number of labourers is required.
More private doors are also open. If you cannot undertake to visit for evangelic message a close or a stair, you may perhaps discover some family, or one person, who is in need. You might make yourself useful in a time of distress; and your word would then, as a still small voice in their ears, go deeper than mine or any minister’s in the public assembly. As to work for the Lord, the rule is the same as in getting from the Lord: the rule for both is, “Seek, and ye shall find.”
But a sphere lies open to those who shrink from even the most private walks that I have as yet enumerated. If you cannot make up to other people, and evangelize, as it were, on a foreign field, you may have your hands filled with remunerative labour at home. If you are bashful in presence of others, you may surely be bold in dealing with yourself Here is an opportunity of doing mission-work. The kingdom of God is within you: go work in that vineyard. Within you the kingdom requires either to be first introduced, or established and extended. Labour here may be well laid out. We have often ground of regret when we send missionaries to a foreign field, that a considerable period of time is lost in preparation, before any execution can be done. The missionary may be employed for years in learning the language and ways of the people ere he can begin to preach. In the home field no such preparatory labour is necessary. Where should a man be at home, if not in his own heart? Walk into it, and search its sins. Reprove them in the name of the Lord. Report the lurking-places and strongholds of the King’s enemies, for you may know them well. You have been art and part with them in all their rebellion, and when you turn King’s evidence against them, none can better reveal their haunts and designs. Bring them forth, those that would not have this Man to reicrn over them; brinothem forth and slay them before him. If you cannot preach the gospel to other men, preach it to yourself. Successful work there will yield a large return to the Lord. If that field become ripe, seed from it will be carried away on the wings of the wind to make the desert fruitful. The multitude of thoughts within you, when they are made subject to Christ, will go out in legions to serve their new Master.
II. TJie Motive: what compels them to do it. — “Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.”
It is worthy of remark here, at the outset, that the apostle confesses frankly he was kept at his work as a slave is by the sound of the whip behind him. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel. He anticipated that if he should slacken, the lash would descend. Is any one startled at this representation, as if it savoured of bondage and were at variance with the love and liberty of the gospel .? Turn the subject over, and give it a second thought: you will see that this is God’s way of keeping his servants to their work, and that his way is very good.
Analogy will help us here. In our physical constitution, provision is made for the entrance of pain. We smart when our flesh is wounded or a bone is broken; we suffer severe pain when we are in want of water or food. These pains — or at least the machinery that produces them — have been inserted into our constitution by the hand of God. Behold, they are very good: they are the stern executioners of a wise and benevolent government, charged to watch when danger approaches us, and sharply prompt us to ward it off. The pain of a wound is our Maker’s messenger to send us forth quickly in search of a cure; the pain of thirst, his messenger to send us forth quickly in search of living water.
It is the same wisdom and mercy that compel our spirits, by a kind of lashing which they feel, to avoid hurts and seek earnestly that which heals. It is consonant with God’s ways to keep his creature busy with useful work by pressing him with pain if he indolently or ignorantly cease. Paul preached the gospel to Jews and Gentiles, to friends and foes, in season and out of season, — preached night and day, by sea and on dry land, — preached without intermission, for this among other reasons, that when he relaxed he was scourged as with scorpions. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.
By the secret line fixed in the conscience, which God in heaven holds in his own hand, many a man is compelled to run errands of benevolence who otherwise would sit at home in indolent ease. I knew a boy once who, when he was doing some work for his father on the wayside near the house, was asked for an ahiis by a passing beggar. The boy refused; the beggar passed, — not, however, before he had pierced the youth by a certain languid look from a pale face and a drooping eye. The youth continued, mechanically, to handle his tool for the next half hour, scarcely knowing what he did. Woe, woe was coming in like a flood upon his soul, because he had not given the beggar a penny. This woe increased and accumulated until it became unbearable. The boy threw his instrument on the ground, and ran off through the fields by a shorter route, until he struck the public path in advance of the spot where the wearied beggar was trudging along. Coming back and meeting him, he silently placed the penny which he possessed in the beggar’s hand, and ran home again to his work. The woe lashed him to duty, and then left him light of heart as the birds that sang beside him on the tree.
Ask no questions about that beggar’s want or worth. Although the penny were the same evening thrown into the sea, or, what is worse, into the public-house, it was the best laid-out penny the lad ever won. From pennies so spent, fortunes spring. From such pennies come the riches of grace and the kingdom of God.
Look to some of the particular forces which press a human soul to diligence in the work of the Lord, — unfold for minuter inspection some of the strains of that three or four or five fold cord that bends the servant to his task.
1. The first and chief is that whit:h the same apostle elsewhere expresses, — “The love of Christ constraineth us.” He went forward boldly, strongly, unweariedly in his mission, never enticed aside by the world’s smiles, and never deterred by its frowns; but then he could not do otherwise. The love of Christ had warped itself round his heart, and was drawing him on. He had no power to resist, and no will to resist. His will was taken captive, too, and led whithersoever the Master beckoned the way. Paul could not help going forward through every difficulty and danger to the goal of his grand career, any more than a ship can help going forward through the billows when its sails are full and its helm held aright. The affections of that man’s soul rose indeed from earth to heaven, but they could not do otherwise: a pressure was upon his heart to force them upward, as great and commanding as the pressure that compels the waters of the sea to rise and constitute the clouds of the sky.
2. Another power, steady and strong, that plies the missionary and keeps him to his task, is the new appetite of the new creature. Distinct from the power of Christ’s love, although acting in unison with it, as when two engines yoked in one gearing together drive the same beam round, the appetite for good, like natural hunger and thirst, contributes its quota to the propulsion of a Christian life. The Lord himself was borne forward in this manner, and owned it. When he was weary at Jacob’s well; when his disciples, knowing well his weariness, tenderly desired to afford him a time of rest; and consequently expressed their surprise to find him toihnjr under a burning sun, preaching out of season to a poor despised Samaritan, he said by way of exphmation, “Liv meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” Now this is a power of nature within the kingdom of God, ever acting from age to age, like streams of water descending from the heights. Whenever human hearts are fitted into place, and exposed to it, they are gently, sweetly, mightily impelled onward and ever onward in their mission. Our Creator has not left it to our memory and judgment and thoughtfulness to take food in the quantities and at the times that shall be best fitted to sustain life: he has set in our frame a natural power, never-ceasing and self-regulating, wdiich sends the living creature to his meals in due season, and lashes him if he neglect. In like manner it has pleased God, in the covenant of his grace, not to trust entirely to the reasoning faculty and the memory for the due discharge of the functions of life in the Christian community. He has implanted in the new nature a species of appetite for doing good, similar to bodily hunger, and hence the greatest doers of good to their fellows have ever been the most modestly unconscious of their own merits. Praise pains them, because they inwardly know it is undeserved. They feel that they deserve no thanks for what they did, because they could not have done otherwise. If they had refrained from doing good when a needy brother was within their reach, a great pain would have crept over their spirits, and gnawed like hunger at their hearts.
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Instead of claiming credit for having done it, they confess that a woe, mighty and steadfast, like the rising tide, would have overwhelmed them if they had not done it.
Faith, hope, charity; but the greatest of these is charity. By these two, faith and hope, you get in, for your own soul’s satisfying; but by charity you give out to satisfy the needy from the treasure you have received from the Lord. Among the graces of the Spirit, the outgiver is greater than the ingetters. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
3. There is yet another cognate power that works in harmony with those already named to keep the worker busy, if his own life is hid with Christ in God — the need of a sinning, suffering world. A brother ready to perish lies a heavier weight than lead upon a loyal, loving heart, and produces that haste to the rescue at which the giddy world, ignorant of the moving power, gazes as an inexplicable phenomenon. Ah, brethren, if the secret machinery of the Christian life within us were well oiled and free of rust, we should move quickly in these days; for the appropriate kind of power is playing on us in a mighty volume all the day long. A world’s miseries, rushing down like a river in flood, become the specific power which presses a Christian into the service of Christ.
All great philanthropists have been reckoned wonders in the world. On no other conditions could a greatly philanthropic life emerge. If the world did not stare in astonishment at the phenomenon, the fact would prove that the world was in such a state that great philanthropy was not needed to bind up its sores. Paul himself was a wonder in his day — Howard a wonder — Brainerd a wonder. People saw the mighty movements of a life proceeding against the forces of nature, as nature was experienced in themselves. They knew not the power that moved the ship against the stream. The breath of the Spirit is unseen. If you are so placed as not to feel it, you wonder at its effects.
In a cleft of a mountain, high above the city, where groups of manufacturing industry are gathering, you are led through a door in a lofty, massive wall, to a spot where you see a slow, steady, vast, mysterious movement. The sight is half the disk of a great water-wheel; it is the rising half You see a series of strong, heavy beams, of great length, green and dripping, rising up at the further extremity, although the leverage is very great, — rising and ever rising, like a giant ever lifting his outstretched arms. And you see, moreover, that besides lifting up without ceasing their own vast weight, these solemn, silent beams, are driving a wheel which imparts motion to the machinery of a neighbouring factory. You stand and gaze at these huge arms, ever rise, rising, till you grow giddy; and if your imagination is lively, you are conscious of vivid pity for the painful toil of the mute labourers.
Your guide now removes the covering from the other side, and the secret of this patient, steadfast toil, is revealed. Opposite the rising arms are arms that fall; for a constant stream of water is playing on their extremities, and the weight of this water ever flowing compels the arms on the other side to rise. You wonder no longer at the patient, persevering power, which these beams put forth, ever rising, and ever impelling, as they rise, all the machinery of the factory.
Ah! if, after gazing on the labouring life of a great missionary, we could get a door opened into his heart, and thereby get a glimpse of the inner life, we should behold the mystery revealed. We should discover that the sins and sufferings of humanity have been collected and led on to the affections of the man, and that the constant pressure of the volume absolutely drove his whole being into a ceaseless round of laborious activity. He could not help it: he could not help it any more than the mill-wheel could cease from its revolutions while the stream flowed on its circumference. Woe is me if I preach not the gospel — if I do not good-news it — if I do not bear messages of mercy to a sinning, suffering world! As long as the stream flows on, the arms must rise and toil. And the stream will not soon cease — “The poor ye have always with you.” Rest 1 — no; this is not your rest, because it is polluted. A rest rcmaincth for the people of God.
The life that is placed under the play of these three kindred powers will be an active life. The love of Christ — the appetite of the new nature — the sins and sufferings of the world, — these three may well stir the stiffest out of all his fastenings to the earth, and send him off, like flaming fire or stormy winds, on errands of mercy at God’s command, and for man’s good.