INVALIDS have often been immensely benefited by being roused from morbid occupation with their real or partially imagined ailments and forced into active service for one they love, whose ease was manifestly more serious than their own. And there is little doubt that it would be well for many sickly, self-occupied believers if they could be awakened to the fact that there is much useful and even urgent service for them to do if they had but the heart to do it. Do they forget that the One who loves them has been hated without a cause, apprehended in the night like a common thief, nailed to a gibbet as a malicious malefactor, and then insultingly cast out of this world altogether; and all this in the very act of serving them? Do they forget that it is He who desires their service today? for He still has interests here even ink the place of His rejection. Yet they seem to go aimlessly gliding on, save as they think of their own personal comfort and enjoyment.
Even a worldly man’s servant would hardly be able to enjoy an entertainment if he found that, though he had managed to push his own way into the concert hall, his master had been excluded. But how would he feel if the vain, selfish pleasure seekers around him had not only crowded out his master, but had, with gross insults, rudely pushed him off the steps of the building? How would he enjoy the entertainment, think you, when he discovered that some of these very people were amongst the performers at that entertainment? Would he not instantly leave their company, and go forth to seek and serve his master, even if only to express his sympathy, and to ask what he could do for him?
Now listen to the words of the blessed Saviour, “If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honor” (John 12:2626If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honor. (John 12:26)). And He said this in the solemn contemplation of His own rejection and death. But be it remembered that true service is not confined to prominent deeds or public speeches.
The writer was once privileged to visit an aged believer who, during her years of bodily strength and daily toil, had been the means of bringing many sinners to the knowledge of the Saviour. She lived in a very humble cottage in the country. Her means were small and her sufferings great. There she lay, under a little lean-to roof, which was only just high enough on one side to admit the bed. Naturally she might have found plenty to complain of, if she had compared her lot with the mercies enjoyed by others, but not a single murmur escaped her lips. One thing there was, however, which she longed for, and you could not easily guess what that one thing was. But as nearly as the writer can remember her own words, you shall have them. It was no worldly advantage for any member of her large family that she sought, and no special mercy for herself. Christ, her Saviour, and His present position filled her thoughts. “I should like to be a comfort to Him while I stay here,” she said. “He has been cast out of His kingdom; the world has rejected Him; and I should like to be a comfort to Him!”
What real service was this in that secluded bedchamber! How grateful to the Lord’s own heart, and what a treasure to the rejected One in glory, must be every such desire in the bosoms of His saints on earth!
Oh, how happy she looked! And no wonder. For what was the secret of her joy? She was in full accord with the mind of Heaven. Thoughts of self were dropped, and by His Spirit she entered into the feelings of her absent Lord.
Consider His position yourself, my reader. Men cut short His day of unparalleled service here, but having been by the right hand of God exalted, He will serve them from thence—serve them as persistently and unremittingly as ever. He will send His Spirit; He will furnish His servants with suited gifts for the carrying on of His work for man’s blessing. He will take them into His confidence; He will tell them His secrets; He will allow them to serve Him in this day of His rejection; allow them to share both in His sufferings here and His glories there.
There is no better cure for self-occupation on the one hand, and worldliness on the other, than the consideration of His present position—how He reached it, and why He has so long remained, in it. If man’s hatred made Him an exile from this world, His love will still serve man in that world. And more than this. He will reproduce His precious grace in the souls of others, and cause them to serve according to His own work. What a Saviour! What a Friend!
A woman with whom the writer is personally acquainted was, after her conversion, turned out of house and home by her Roman Catholic husband. “How can I best serve Christ under such circumstances?” was her great thought, and she not only maintained herself by her own hands, but every day, watching her opportunity, she went to the house during his absence, prepared his meals, and left all spread ready for him when he came home from work. The result was that his opposition was broken down and in the end he also was converted. Oh, what victories grace has won!
Has this grace of the Lord Jesus Christ yet won your heart, my reader, so that it comes out in your daily life? Is there anyone on earth or in heaven who has been a gainer by your affection for Him? Or are you content with only a name to live? Are you content, as far as your service is concerned, to go to heaven alone? Has the professed knowledge of His love made no, difference in you? Depend upon it, no heart feels a slight so keenly as His; and no heart more truly appreciates even one look of responsive affection.
Outward correctness and even orthodox creeds fall far short of His desires. He saw all this in her who had left her first love—the Church at Ephesus (Rev. 2:1-51Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 2I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 3And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. 4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. (Revelation 2:1‑5)). He wants our hearts.
He died to win them, and He lives to keep the fire burning. “Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity,” said the apostle by the Spirit (Eph. 6:2424Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. <<To the Ephesians written from Rome, by Tychicus.>> (Ephesians 6:24)).
Just one word of caution here. No self-effort, and not even the conviction of what we ought to be, can produce the affection He desires. Love alone can beget love. It is the mighty winning power of the love of God in Christ Jesus that is filling heaven. The countless multitudes of those who will sing His praises forever will gladly confess the blessed truth with one accord, “We love Him because He first loved us.”
“O ye, who walk in darkness,
Ever mourning for your sin,
Open the windows of your soul,
Let the warm sunshine in;
Every ray was purchased for you
By the matchless love of One,
Who has suffered in the shadow
That you might see the sun.”
If this suffering love has won our hearts, let us not forget that the world still hates Him. Daily may we remember how soon our time of service for Him here will come to an end. “The night cometh, when no man can work.” Thrice blessed will it be to get His heart-filling “Well done,” and then to rest in His presence forever.
“Our Lord is now rejected,
And by the world disowned;
By the many still neglected,
And by the few enthroned;
But soon He’ll come in glory—
The hour is drawing nigh;
For the crowning day is coming
By-and-by.”
GEO. C.