The Work of the Lord

Ast summer at Lake Mohonk the guests would gather on the west porch every evening to watch the sunset. It was always wonderful. When the sun had sunk out of sight there would frequently be a marvelous afterglow. But the splendor did not last long. While we watched, it faded. While the wondrous beauty was in the heavens, groups of earnest people sat on the porches and in the parlors talking quietly of matters that interested them. They were not conscious of making impressions on each other by the words they were speaking. But touches were put upon lives in those conversations which never shall fade out. We are always impressing other lives. The touches of beauty which the mother puts into a child’s life in her home will never fade. The influences of friendship

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are immortal. It is diviner work which we do upon each other’s lives in our common mingling together than if we could help God paint clouds in the skies. In one sense all the work we are ever called to do is work of the Lord — the affairs of business, the housekeeper’s tasks, the mechanic’s labors. Jesus said at the age of twelve that he must be about his Father’s business. Then for eighteen years he did the common tasks of a boy at home and worked in the carpenter’s shop. All this lowly, common work was his Father’s business.

In a more definite sense, the work of the Lord is what we do in the church, and through the church. The young man who joins a church becomes a partner with all fellow church-members and is assigned to some particular place and duty. The young woman who becomes a Christian enters the kingdom of Christ and has her part to do in the Father’s business. She is not merely a boarder — she is one of the family, and there is nothing in the household of God that does not concern her. [290]

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The mission of the church is to save the world. We are to do good to men in every possible way. When two young people love each other and enter into the marriage relation, starting a home of their own, they want to be happy. They build their nest primarily for their own enjoyment. But if they love Christ, they have a wider desire and purpose — they want their home to become a center of blessing. They want to make one little spot about them brighter, sweeter, purer, gladder, better, in every way. Dean Stanley says, “Each of us is bound to make the small circle in which he lives better and happier; each of us is bound to see that out of that small circle the widest good may flow.” The home you build only for yourself, to shut out the cold and roughness only from you and your household, to shelter you and yours alone from the storm, to be a little refuge for selfishness, is not a home at all. Only love can make a home, and love is always unselfish, always thinks of others, always seeks to share its best with those who lack. [291]

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This principle runs through all phases of Christian life. We are to conduct our business not only to make a living for ourselves and our household, but also to make our community more prosperous and more attractive. We are to seek the good of our neighborhood in every way. A good Christian should always be a public-spirited citizen. He who plants a tree or a row of trees before his house is doing something which will be a blessing to his neighbors. The woman who has her little garden, if only jfive feet square, or who has but her window box filled with flowers, makes the world a little brighter. Religion thinks always of others and seeks to make the place in which one lives brighter and sweeter.

It is not enough for us to be good — we must also do good. This means, first, that we are to be on the side of every good cause, of every true reform, of every effort to drive out evil from the community. Whatever concerns the good of men, the safeguarding and sweetening of our homes, the protection of our [292]

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children, the upbuilding of the kingdom of God among us is part of the work of the Lord. “The gospel must concern itself with impure politics, with dishonest commercialism, and with improper marital relations. It is a dwarfed, unmanly, unchristian gospel which refuses to put on its armor and fight for truth and God.” It ought never to need inquiry or investigation to find out where a Christian stands regarding any moral question or reform.

To be engaged in the work of the Lord means, also, that we are always to be doing good in practical ways. What was Jesus Christ in the place he lived? What was his attitude toward the needs of the people.? What did he think of the suffering about him, and what did he do to relieve it? Where did he stand regarding the wrongs and oppressions of the people.? Did he care when he saw the poor despised, the weak crushed, the laborer robbed of his wages.? Did he look with indifference on the sorrowing, the bereft, the lonely, the tempted, the misled, the unled, children beaten [293] mt (Siatt Beautiful

and abused, widows and orphans the victims of man’s greed and avarice? The story of Christ in the Gospels answers these questions. The ideal church should be as Christ himself living in the place where the church stands. To be abounding in the work of the Lord is to be the friend of men, a refuge for the storm-tossed, a shelter for the unsheltered, a comforter of sorrow, a succorer of the tempted.

“Quit you like men, he strong:
There’s a burden to hear,
There’s a grief to share,

There’s a heart that hreaks ‘neath a load of care — But fare ye forth with a song.

“Quit you like men, he strong:
There’s a battle to fight.
There’s a wrong to right.

There’s a God who blesses the good with might — So fare ye forth with a song.”

There is a call to-day for a higher type of Christian conduct and character, for a diviner [294]

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conception of the duties of church-membership than has ever yet been realized. The world is growing better every day. Such achievements of Christianity as we are now witnessing were never witnessed before. Recent years have marked the rising of a loftier sentiment regarding public and private morals than was ever before felt. Bad as much in our politics undoubtedly is, there are foretokens of a better day coming. There are indications that commerciahsm is being born again. This is not saying that politicians, railroad kings, captains of industry, and statesmen and leaders of finance are becoming saints; it is saying, however, that the religion of Christ is at work with mighty, resistless energy in all the world’s life and that out of the travail of souls the new birth of a better righteousness is coming. Never was so much demanded of Christian men and women as to-day. Those who profess to live religiously are now in the fierce light of public sentiment as never before. We must prove our faith and our creed by a life that is [295]

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worthy and true. It is life itself that makes the deepest impression upon men, not mere profession. Our unconscious influence is a tremendous factor in our life. No one lives to himself alone. Have you ever thought of what other people’s lives mean to you, how they impress you, how you are sometimes kept from giving up by the example of another man who does not give up, how you are saved sometimes from falling by another person’s belief in you.^ A young man said the other day, referring to the young woman he expected to marry: “I would not dare do a mean thing, an unworthy thing, while I call her my friend. She never preaches to me, she never says a word about what I do, but her life is so beautiful, so spotless, so true, so strong, that I could not consciously do anything wrong and look into her face afterward. She believes in me, and her belief in me compels me to strive to be what she thinks I am.”

There is many a man out in the midst of the

fierce struggles of life who is holding firmly

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to the true and the right and keeping his feet in the clean path of honor and faithfulness, because some quiet, noble friend believes in him and expects him to be loyal and strong. He could never look into the face of this friend if he failed or faltered. When others believe that we will be true we must be true. When worthy friends are confident of our power, know that we can accomplish certain results, reach certain ends, their faith in us compels us to be true and do our best. It is a great thing to be believed in. We should ever keep in mind the influence on others of our faith or our belief in them. We do not begin to realize how it weakens the faith of others about us to have us who are Christians lose heart, show the white feather, in some time of testing. Nor can we ever know how it cheers others and makes them brave to have us keep brave. If you have a friend carrying a heavy burden, or waging a hard battle and growing faint and discouraged, you must be careful lest something you do, or some word you say shall cause him to [297]

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give up and sink down. Do not for the world say a timid word then, a word sympathizing with his discouragement. You must speak courageously, inspiringly, then. You have your friend’s success or failure in your hand. To be a discourager in such an hour would be a crime against love.

“Turn to the world a courage brave,
There is some one you may inspire.”

Part of the work of the Lord always is the guardianship of other lives. Of course this is true of parents and the children committed to them, also of teachers and the young lives that are intrusted to them. But it is true also in the widest way. When we have a friend, the friend’s life is in our keeping, in a deeper sense than we dream. We must beware that never by a word, by a touch, by an act, by an influence, we harm or weaken our friend’s life, or in any way misdirect him. We must be sure that we always shelter, guard, keep inalienably and inspire the life committed to us. [298]

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A business man who employs a number of young persons has a responsibility for them far beyond the paying of their weekly salaries and the providing of physical safety and comfort for them while they are at work for him. He is responsible also for the moral environment he sets about them, the influences amidst which he places them. The same is true of all who become in any way the caretakers of others. We are responsible to the full extent of our ability for the keeping, the protection from harm and the advancement of the interests of all who are thus intrusted to us.

“Keep this man,” was the charge; “if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life.” Later, the man reports, “As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone.” It is thus that God is continually putting others into our care, bidding us keep them, guard them, influence them for good. Are we faithful to our trust.’’ There is not one of us without some such responsibility. God is always sending people to us in provi- [299]

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dential ways. We do not know why they come to us, why they pass within the range of our influence. But in whatever way they are sent to us we have some errand to them. They may need our sympathy, our encouragement, our comfort, our protection, the influence of our friendship. Let us be careful lest while we are busy here and there they are gone without having received from us the help, the blessing, the influence which God intended us to give Ihem.