"Only a drop in the bucket,
But every drop will tell,
The bucket would soon be empty,
Without the drops in the well.
"Only a poor little penny,
It was all I had to give;
But as pennies make the dollars,
It may help some cause to live.
"A few little bits of ribbon,
And some toys--they were not new,
But they made the sick child happy,
And that made me happy, too.
"Only some out-grown garments;
They were all I had to spare;
But they'll help to clothe the needy,
And the poor are everywhere.
"A word now and then of comfort,
That cost me nothing to say;
But the poor old man died happy,
And it helped him on the way.
"God loveth the cheerful giver,
Though the gifts be poor and small;
But what must he think of his children
Who never give at all?"
God loves to work by little means. We see this when we think of the
men whom Jesus chose to be his apostles. The first thing about this
subject is--_the men_.
_The second thing to speak of, in connection with this subject,
is_--THE WORK--_they had to do_.
What this work was we find fully stated in the fourteenth chapter of
St. Matthew. In this chapter Jesus told the apostles all about the
work they were to do for him, and how they were to do it. In the
seventh and eighth verses of this chapter we have distinctly stated
just what they were to do. "As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of
heaven is at hand; Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead,
cast out devils."
On this occasion Jesus sent his apostles to do the work committed to
them, not among the Gentiles, but only among the Jews; or as he calls
them--"the lost sheep of the house of Israel," v. 5,6. But, after his
resurrection, and just before he went up to heaven, he enlarged their
commission. His parting command to them then was--"_Go ye into all
the world, and preach the gospel to every creature_." St. Mark xvi:
15.
When Jesus, their Master, went to heaven they were to take up and
carry on the great work that he had begun. Those twelve men were to
begin the work of changing the religion of the world. They were to
overturn the idols that had been worshiped for ages. They were to
shut up the temples in which those idols had been worshiped. They
were to "turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan
unto God." Acts xxvi: 18. They were to go up and down the world,
everywhere, telling the wondrous story of Jesus and his love. And in
doing this work they were to be the means of saving the souls of all
who believed their message, and in the end of winning the world back
to Jesus, till, according to God's promise, he has "the heathen for
his inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for his
possession." Ps. ii: 8.
This was the grandest and most important work that men were ever
called upon to do. The apostles spent their lives in doing this work;
and then they left it for others to carry on. The work is not
finished yet. And, if we learn to love and serve Jesus, we may help
to carry it on. We may be apostles, too, though in a lower sense than
that in which the first twelve were apostles. An apostle means--one
_sent_. But Jesus _sends_ into the vineyard to work for him all who
become his loving children. And, in this sense it is true that all
who love and serve Jesus are his apostles. He says to each of
us--"Go, work to-day, in my vineyard." St. Matt, xxi: 28. And in
another place he says--"Let him that heareth, say, Come." Rev. xxii:
17.
And when we are trying to tell people of Jesus and his love, and to
bring them to him, then we are helping to carry on the same great
work that Jesus gave his apostles to do. Let us look at some examples
of persons who have been apostles for God and helped to do the work
of apostles.
"Aunt Lucy." I heard the other day of a good old woman in the State
of Michigan, known as Aunt Lucy. She is eighty-four years old, and
lives all alone, supporting herself principally by carpet-weaving.
All that she can save from her earnings, after paying for her
necessary expenses, she spends in buying Bibles, which she
distributes among the children and the poor of the neighborhood.
Thirteen large family Bibles, and fifty small ones, have thus been
given away--good, well-bound Bibles.
A neighbor, who has watched this good work very closely, says that
two-thirds of the persons to whom Aunt Lucy has given Bibles have
afterwards become Christians. In doing this work Aunt Lucy was an
apostle.
"The Charcoal Carrier." One Sunday afternoon, in summer, a little
girl named Mary, going home from a Sunday-school in the country, sat
down to rest under the shade of a tree by the roadside. While sitting
there she opened her Bible to read. As she sat reading, a man, well
known in that neighborhood as Jacob, the charcoal carrier, came by
with his donkey. Jacob used to work in the woods, making charcoal,
which he carried away in sacks on his donkey's back, and sold. He was
not a Christian man, and was accustomed to work with his donkey as
hard on Sunday as on week-days.
When he came by where Mary was sitting, he stopped a moment, and
said, in a good-natured way:
"What book is that you are reading, my little maid?"
"It is God's book--the Bible," said Mary.
"Let me hear you read a little in it, if you please," said he,
stopping his donkey.
Mary began at the place where the book was open, and read:--"Remember
the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do
all thy work."
"There, that's enough," said Jacob, "and now tell me what it means."
"It means," said Mary, "that you mustn't carry charcoal, on Sunday,
nor let your donkey carry it."
"Does it?" said Jacob, musing a little. "I tell you what then, I must
think over what you have said."
And he _did_ think over it. And the result of his thinking was, that
instead of going with his donkey to the woods on the next Sunday, he
went with his two little girls to the Sunday-school. And the end of
it all was that Jacob, the charcoal carrier, became a Christian, and
God's blessing rested on him and his family.
Little Mary was doing an apostle's work when she read and explained
the Bible to Jacob and was the means of bringing him to Jesus.
"The Use of Fragments." In the Cathedral at Lincoln, England, there
is a window of stained glass which was made by an apprentice out of
little pieces of glass that had been thrown aside by his master as
useless. It is said to be the most beautiful window in the Cathedral.
And if, like this apprentice, we carefully gather up, and improve the
little bits of time, of knowledge, and of opportunities that we have,
we may do work for God more beautiful than that Cathedral window. We
may do work like that which the apostles were sent to do. Here are
some sweet lines, written by I know not whom, about that beautiful
window, made out of the little pieces of glass:
"Great things are made of fragments small,
Small things are germs of great;
And, of earth's stately temples, all
To fragments owe their weight.
"This window, peer of all the rest,
Of fragments small is wrought;
Of fragments that the artist deemed
Unworthy of his thought.
"And thus may we, of little things,
Kind words and gentle deeds,
Add wealth or beauty to our lives,
Which greater acts exceeds.
"Each victory o'er a sinful thought,
Each action, true and pure,
Is, 'mid our life's engraving, wrought
In tints that shall endure."
The second thing about the apostles is, _the work_--they did.
_The third thing, for us to notice about the apostles, is_--THE
HELP--_they received_.
In one place, we are told that Jesus "gave them power against unclean
spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness, and
all manner of disease." St. Matt. x: 1. In another place we are told,
that for their comfort and encouragement in the great work they had
to do, Jesus said to them, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the
end of the world." St. Matt. xxviii: 20. And if they only had Jesus
with them, no matter what the work was they had to do, they would be
sure of having all the help they might need. The apostle Paul
understood this very well, for he said, "I can do all things through
Christ, which strengtheneth me." Phil. iv: 13.
And then, as if his own presence with them were not enough, Jesus
promised that his apostles should have the help of the Holy Spirit in
carrying on their work. Just before leaving them to go to heaven, he
said to the disciples--"Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy
Ghost is come upon you." Acts i: 8. And what this power was we see in
the case of the apostle Peter; for the first sermon he preached
after the Holy Ghost came upon him, on the day of Pentecost, was the
means of converting three thousand souls. Acts ii: 41.
And the same God who gave the apostles all the help they needed, has
promised to do the same for you, and me, and for all who try to work
for him. There are many promises of this kind in the Bible to which I
might refer. But I will only mention one. This is so sweet and
precious that it deserves to be written in letters of gold. There is
no passage in the Bible that has given me so much comfort and
encouragement in trying to work for God as this I refer here to Is.
xli: 10. "Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed; for I
am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea--I WILL HELP THEE." This
promise was not given for prophets and apostles only, but for all
God's people to the end of time. You and I, if we are trying to serve
God, may take it as ours. God meant it for us. And when we get this
promised help from God, we can do any work he has for us to do, and
be happy in doing it.
"For Thine is the Power." "I can't do it--it's quite impossible. I've
tried five times, and can't get it right"--and Ben Hartley pushed his
book and slate away in despair. Ben was a good scholar. He was at
the head of his class, and was very anxious to stay there. But the
sums he had now to do were very hard. He could not do them, and was
afraid of losing his place in the class. Most of the boys had some
one at home to help them; but Ben had no one. His father was dead,
and his mother, though a good Christian woman, had not been to school
much when a girl, and she could not help Ben.
Mrs. Hartley felt sorry for her son's perplexity, and quietly said,
"Then, Ben, you don't believe in the Lord's prayer?"
"The Lord's prayer, mother! Why, there's nothing there to help a
fellow do his sums."
"O, yes; there is. There is help for every trouble in life in the
Lord's prayer, if we only know how to use it. I was trying a long
time before I found out what the last part of this prayer really
means. I'm no minister, or scholar, Ben, but I'll try and show you.
You know that in this prayer we ask God for our daily bread; we ask
him to keep us from evil; and to forgive us our sins; and then we
say: 'for _thine_ is the _kingdom_, and _the power_, and the glory.'
It's God's power that we rely on--not our own; and it often helps
me, Ben, when I have something hard to do. I say, 'For _thine_ is the
power--this is my duty, heavenly Father; but I can't do it myself;
give me thy power to help me,' and he does it, Ben, he does it."
Ben sat silent. It seemed almost too familiar a prayer. And yet he
remembered when he had to stay home from school because he had no
clothes fit to go in, how he prayed to God about it, and the
minister's wife brought him a suit the very next day. "But a boy's
sums, mother! it seems like such a little thing to ask God about."
"Those sums are not a little thing to you, Ben. Your success at
school depends on your knowing how to do them. _That_, is as much to
you, as many a greater thing to some one else. Now I care a great
deal about that, because I love you. And I know your Father in heaven
loves you more than I do. I would gladly help you, if I could; but he
_can_ help you. His 'is the power;' ask him to help you."
After doing an errand for his mother, Ben picked up his book and
slate and went up to his little room. Kneeling down by the bed he
repeated the Lord's prayer. When he came to--"thine is the kingdom,"
he stopped a moment, and then said, with all his heart--"'And thine
is the power,' heavenly Father. I want power to know how to do these
sums. There's no one else to help me. Lord, please give me power, for
Jesus' sake, Amen."
Ben waited a moment, and then, still on his knees, he took his slate
and tried again. Do you ask me if he succeeded? Remember what Saint
James says, "If any man lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth to
all men liberally, and upbraideth not: _and it shall be given him_."
Jas. i: 5. That is God's promise, and heaven and earth must pass away
before one of his promises shall fail. Ben had prayed to God to help
him, and God answered his prayer. He tried once more to work out
those sums. After thinking over them a little while, he saw the
mistake he had made in neglecting one of the rules for working the
sums. He corrected this mistake, and then he found they all worked
out beautifully. The next day he was head of the class; for he was
the only boy who could say that he had done the sum himself, without
getting any one at home to help him.
"And yet I was helped, mother," said Ben, "for I am sure my Father in
heaven helped me." But that was not what the teacher meant. After
this, Ben never forgot the last part of the Lord's prayer. When he
needed help he knew where the power was that could help him.
Here was where the apostles got the help they needed in doing the
hard work they had to do. And how much help we might get in doing our
work if we only make a right use of this "power which belongeth unto
God;" and which he is always ready to use in helping us.
The help they received, is the third thing to remember when we think
about the apostles and their work.
_The last thing to bear in mind when we think of Jesus choosing his
twelve apostles, is_--THE LESSON--_it teaches us_.
There are many lessons we might learn from this subject; but there is
one so much more important than all the rest that we may very well
let them go, and think only of this one. When St. Luke tells us about
Jesus choosing the twelve apostles, he mentions one very important
thing, of which St. Matthew, in his account of it says nothing at
all. And it is this thing from which we draw our lesson. In the
twelfth verse of the sixth chapter of his gospel, St. Luke
says--"And it came to pass in those days, that he (Jesus) went out
into a mountain to pray, and _continued all night in prayer to God_."
And after this, the first thing he did, in the morning, was to call
his disciples to him, and out of them to choose the twelve, who were
to be his apostles. And the lesson we learn from this part of the
subject is:
"The Lesson of Prayer." Jesus spent the whole night in prayer to God,
before he chose his apostles. How strange this seems to us! And yet
it is easy enough to see at least two reasons why he did this. One
was because _he loved to pray_. We know how pleasant it is for us to
meet, and talk with a person whom we love very much. But prayer
is--talking with God--telling him what we want, and asking his help.
But Jesus loved his Father in heaven, with a love deeper and stronger
than we can understand. This must have made it the most delightful of
all things for him to be engaged in prayer, or in talking with his
Father in heaven. And, if we really love Jesus, prayer will not be a
hard duty to us, but a sweet privilege. We shall love to pray,
because, in prayer we are talking to that blessed Saviour, "whom,
not having seen, we love." And this was one reason why Jesus spent
the whole night in prayer, before choosing his twelve apostles.
But there was another reason why Jesus spent so much time in prayer
before performing this important work, and that was to _set us an
example_. It was to teach us the very lesson of which we are now
speaking--the lesson of prayer. Remember how much power and wisdom
Jesus had in himself; and what mighty things he was able to do. And
yet, if _He_ felt that it was right to pray before engaging in any
important work, how much more necessary it is for us to do so!
Let us learn this lesson well. Let it be the rule and habit of our
lives to connect prayer with everything we do. This will make us
happy in our own souls, and useful to those about us.
How full the Bible is of the wonders that have been wrought by
prayer! Just think for a moment of some of them.
Abraham prays, and Lot is delivered from the fiery flood that
overwhelmed Sodom and Gomorrah. Gen. xix: 29. Jacob prays, and he
wrestles with the angel, and obtains the blessing; his brother
Esau's mind is wonderfully turned away from the wrath he had
cherished for twenty years. Moses prays and Amalek is discomfited.
Joshua prays and Achan is discovered. Hannah prays and Samuel is
born. David prays and Ahithophel hangs himself. Elijah prays and a
famine of three years comes upon Israel. He prays again, and the rain
descends, and the famine ends. Elisha prays, and Jordan is divided.
He prays again, and the dead child's soul is brought back from the
invisible world. Isaiah and Hezekiah pray, and a hundred and
eighty-five thousand Assyrian soldiers are slain in one night by the
unseen sword of the angel. These are Bible illustrations of the help
God gives to his people in answer to prayer. And the Bible rule for
prayer, as given by our Saviour, is, "that men ought _always_ to
pray," Luke xviii: 1. St. Paul's way of stating it is--"Praying
always, with all prayer," Ephes. vi: 18. In another place he
says--"Pray without ceasing," I. Thess. v: 17. And even the heathen
teach the same rule about prayer. Among the rules of Nineveh, an
inscription on a tablet has been found, which, on being translated,
proved to contain directions about prayer. It may be entitled:
"An Assyrian Call to Prayer." These are the words of the call:
"Pray thou! pray thou!
Before the couch, pray!
Before the throne, pray!
Before the canopy, pray!
Before the building of the lofty head, pray!
Before the rising of the dawn, pray!
Before the fire, pray!
By the tablets and papyri, pray!
By the side of the river, pray!
By the side of a ship, or riding in a ship, or leaving the ship, pray!
At the rising of the sun, or the setting of the sun, pray!
On coming out of the city, on entering the city, pray!
On coming out of the great gate, on entering the great gate, pray!
On coming out of the house, pray! on entering the house, pray!
In the place of judgment, pray!
In the temple, pray!"