"Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?"--
Luke, ii. 49.
"My meat and my drink are to do the will of Him that sent me, and to
finish His work." That _one_ object brought Jesus from heaven--that
_one_ object he pursued with unflinching, undeviating constancy, until
He could say, "It is finished."
However short man comes of _his_ "chief end," "Glory to God in the
highest" was the motive, the rule, and exponent of every act of that
wondrous life. With us, the magnet of the soul, even when truest, is
ever subject to partial oscillations and depressions, trembling at times
away from its great attraction-point. _His_ never knew one tremulous
wavering from its all-glorious center. With Him there were no ebbs and
flows, no fits and starts. He could say, in the words of that prophetic
psalm which speaks so preëminently of Himself, "I have set the Lord
_always_ before me!"
Reader! do you feel that in some feeble measure this lofty life-motto of
the sinless Son of God is written on your home and heart, regulating
your actions, chastening your joys, quickening your hopes, giving energy
and direction to your whole being, subordinating all the affections of
your nature to their high destiny? With pure and unalloyed motives, with
a single eye, and a single aim, can you say, somewhat in the spirit of
His brightest follower, "This _one_ thing I do"? Are you ready to regard
all you have--rank, name, talents, riches, influence,
distinctions--valuable, only so far as they contribute to promote the
glory of Him who is "first and last, and all in all"? Seek to feel that
your heavenly Father's is not only _a_ business; but _the_ business of
life. "Whose I am, and whom I serve,"--let this be the superscription
written on your thoughts and deeds, your employments and enjoyments,
your sleeping and waking. Be not, as the fixed stars, cold and distant;
but be ever bathing in the sunshine of conscious nearness to Him who is
the sun and center of all happiness and joy.
Each has some appointed work to perform, some little niche in the
spiritual temple to occupy. Yours may be no splendid services, no
flaming or brilliant actions to blaze and dazzle in the eye of man. It
may be the quiet, unobtrusive inner work, the secret prayer, the
mortified sin, the forgiven injury, the trifling act of self-sacrifice
for God's glory and the good of others, of which no eye but the Eye
which seeth in secret is cognizant. It matters not how _small_.
Remember, with Him, motive dignifies action. It is not _what_ we do, but
_how_ we do it. He can be glorified in _little_ things as well as
_great_ things, and by nothing more than the daily walk, the daily
life.
Beware of any thing that would interfere with a surrender of heart and
soul to His service--worldly entanglements, indulged sin, an uneven
walk, a divided heart, nestling in creature comforts, shrinking from the
cross. How many hazard, if they do not make shipwreck, of their eternal
hopes by becoming _idlers_ in the vineyard; lingerers, like Lot;
world-lovers, like Demas; "do-nothing Christians," like the inhabitants
of Meroz! The command is, "Go, work!" _Words_ tell what you _should_ be;
_deeds_ tell what you _are_. Let those around you see there is a reality
in walking _with_ God, and working _for_ God!
"ARM YOURSELVES LIKEWISE WITH THE SAME MIND."
Fourth Day.