_I must work the works of Him that sent me_, _while it is day_: _the
night cometh_, _when no man can work_.
I DWELL not on these words in their relation to the context. I pause not
to consider whether their utterance was a justification of the
Sabbath-day miracle that was presently to be performed—“no opportunity
must be lost, no delay allowed of working the works of GOD”—or whether
they were but the thinking and resolving aloud (so characteristic of our
LORD), by which He kept ever in mind His great mission, by which He
continually stimulated and pressed on that human nature of His; willing
indeed, but yet weak, though not sinful; and made it vigorously
industrious in the work of GOD; or whether, once more, CHRIST here but
personified Christians, and spoke not of Himself, not to keep Himself
mindful and intent upon His work, but as their example and
representative, as though He had said, “A work of GOD will now be
manifested in the restoration of this blind man. It will not be delayed
till the Sabbath is over. See me serving GOD and serving Him now, by
instant doing of all possible work. Consider me your example. Let this
be your resolution, ‘I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it
is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.’” It matters little to
us what feeling or motive immediately prompted our LORD to speak the
text. His words at once commend themselves to us as those which we may,
which we ought to adopt, even if they belong primarily to Him; which,
rather, since they were the ruling maxim of CHRIST, must be the ruling
maxim of Christians.
Well, then, these are our words (and CHRIST has shown us how to fulfil
them), “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day: the
night cometh, when no man can work.”
“Him that sent me.” Have we yet to learn, my brethren, that GOD sent us
into this world; that we came not here by chance, or on our own account;
that we are not independent beings, free to wander about or linger to do,
or forbear to do, as we please? By the will—for the accomplishment of
the purposes—of GOD, we are here on a mission, His messengers, His
agents, workers for Him. GOD has made all things for His own use and
glory. None of us liveth unto himself—He sent us forth. He gave us a
charge. He watches to see what we do with it. He waits for our return;
rather, He appoints, and, whensoever He will, enforces our return. And
what is the mission? What has He sent us to do? To work the works of
GOD, and make them manifest, to promote, to show forth His glory, to
become ourselves all that He would have us to be, and to light and guide
others to the same end. Work for GOD! How few ever think of such a
thing! Work for themselves (and for others like themselves) for food to
eat and raiment to put on, for money, for power, for fame, for pleasure;
men understand this; they acknowledge the necessity of it, or the
inviting, constraining desirableness of it, and they do it—do it
generally, do it well, and heartily. A really idle man, a man that works
not some works, is a rarity, an object of contempt when he is seen, a
despiser of himself. But, work for GOD! How many do that? Who does it
heartily, and does it well? Whose thoughts are full of it, whose deeds
accomplish it? What fruits come of it? There are some, not a few, thank
GOD! who can give a satisfactory answer to such questions; whose lives
continually give it, and whom GOD, for their works’ sake in CHRIST,
greatly approves. But I speak now to the many, yea, I speak to all; for
the work of GOD so generally neglected, is by none perfectly performed.
To all, then, I solemnly address the questions: “Do you work for GOD?”
and “What work do you work for Him?” You are tempted to justify
yourselves. You are not the unbelieving, and rebellious, and profane of
our race. You recognise a GOD of providence and grace, a moral ruler of
the world, a waiting Judge. To this GOD you say your prayers, His word
you read, and reverence, and receive. To Him you dedicate at least
several hours of each seventh day; by His commandments you order your
daily life. You do no wrong to your neighbour by word or deed; you
strive to purify and sanctify your very feelings and thoughts; you
believe in a Saviour; you accept His salvation; you try to love Him; you
partake of His means of grace; you rest in Him, and look to Him for final
redemption, and something you do occasionally by way of persuading
others; and something you give for the furtherance of religious works.
It is well, brethren, if you do this; if you go through the form, and do
not inwardly contradict what is outward, but rather incline to it.
It is well, I say, because it is hopeful, it will, by grace, lead you
farther; but if in your heart and soul you recognise GOD, and believe in
a Saviour, then I am sure that you will not adduce what I have mentioned
as specimens of the works of GOD. Acknowledgments that GOD ought to be
served, pledges of service, they may be, but works they are not. And yet
some, perhaps, would urge, “When the question was put, ‘What must we do
that we may work the works of GOD?’ did not CHRIST answer, ‘This is the
work of GOD, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent”? and, say they,
“Does not this show that literal working, as we work in and for the
world, is not what GOD demands; that it is rather a mental assent, an
entertaining and exercising of feelings, a believing, a thankful, a
sanctifying remembrance of CHRIST’S work; a trust in it, a carefulness to
do nothing that will render it ineffectual for our salvation, that is
required of us? Surely, CHRIST has done the work Himself; we have but to
accept it thankfully, and wait for it faithfully and holily.”
Now, my brethren, it may be easily shown that this is not believing in
Him whom GOD hath sent. To believe in Him is to embrace Him as the
Author, and Finisher, and Giver of Salvation; to be assured that
salvation can only be had from Him, in Him, and on His terms; to learn of
Him, therefore—and, of course, of His Apostles and Evangelists after Him,
for to them even clearer teaching was intrusted—what are the terms, and
then to fulfil them resolutely and precisely. Do you need that I should
quote the actual words, the chapter, and verse, in which CHRIST, through
the Spirit, tells us, that He has redeemed us to Himself; that He has
purchased us for a peculiar people zealous of good works; that He has
left us a definite work to do against His return; that on His return He
will judge and reward us by our works; that He will condemn as workers
against Him those who have not worked for Him; that it is vain to
acknowledge Him and not do the things that He bids; that He has left us
an example that we should follow His steps, in that He fulfilled all
righteousness, and went about doing good, and proposed to Himself, as
that which must be done, and done heartily and without delay, the works
and the manifesting of the works of GOD, and made it His meat and drink
to do the Father’s will; that He has said plainly, that whosoever would
not take up the cross and follow Him could not be His disciple. O wo to
those who dare to say this means: Sit still in worldliness, and look at
and admire Him doing the labour and pursuing the path of godliness—that
He has attached all His promises to certain deeds; that He is ever
represented as judging, not what men have thought and felt, but what they
have done and become by doing; that by the Spirit He has commanded “Work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling;” and “Whether ye eat or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of GOD;” and “He that
gathereth not, scattereth abroad”? Oh, my brethren, let us be honest; we
know, we dare not deny it, that a work, rather that many works are
imposed upon us by GOD, and that it will not do for us merely to think of
them, to sigh over them, to approach them carelessly, reluctantly, to
call preferred employments by their name; but that with clear
understanding with heart-devotion, with constant application and real
labour, we must do the works of Him that sent us.
And, now, what are the works?
The first, and most vitally important, is, to “work out our own
salvation;” not to attempt of ourselves to undo what Adam did; not by any
course of zealous doing to seek to recommend ourselves to GOD as
deserving a reward, to propose to purchase heaven, to go to GOD the
Father directly for it, and expect to get it from Him, either as a right
or as a gift of compassion: but, knowing that it is only to be had of
CHRIST, to seek it from CHRIST in appointed ways, in the measure, on the
conditions which He has prescribed for all, and to fulfil the conditions.
We are not naturally born in grace; we do not naturally inherit glory.
CHRIST, by right, the Saviour of all men, is, in fact, “specially” only
the Saviour of them that believe; of them who actually apply to Him and
depend on Him, and remain in communion with Him for grace; who serve Him
by fulfilling His commands and copying His example, who use His grace and
grow in it, and by its power transform themselves into the character
which alone can dwell in heaven. Now, all this is work—real, anxious,
laborious work; this obeying of CHRIST, this imitation of His example,
and following in His steps, this putting off of the old man and putting
on of the new man. Are you intent upon it? Do you perform it? Consider
the means of grace, prayer, praise, divine instruction, holy communion;
do you faithfully and diligently use them? Read the Decalogue with the
commentary of the Sermon on the Mount. Can you honestly say, All this I
keep and do? Study the life of CHRIST—is your life like it: like it in
humility, in self-denial, in labour, in fact, in hope, in aim? Examine
yourselves. Are you cleansed from evil propensities—are you adorned with
Christian graces—are you fit in person, in will, in desire, for a heaven
full of holiness, whose employment will be the doing of GOD’S work, as
angels do it, whose relaxation, if I may so speak, will be the
contemplation and the praise of GOD? What do you leave undone, what do
you transgress of GOD’S will? What covetousness do you root out, what
evil tempers do you subdue, what rash zeal do you curb, what indolence do
you overcome? Are you worldly, sensual, ill-natured, proud,
self-seeking? Have you any trace of these stains upon you? Are you
wanting in obedience, in patience, in holiness, in love of GOD? You
cannot enter heaven, it would close its gates against you, you would flee
from it as a place of torment, while you are in such a state. Now, what
are you doing, or attempting to appropriate CHRIST’S salvation, to secure
GOD’S approbation, to qualify yourselves in character, in taste and
desire for a purely spiritual, a gloriously holy heaven? You know what
concentrated thought, what single aim, what diligent, anxious,
persevering labour are necessary to make you good scholars, able
statesmen, accomplished members of society, successful tradesmen, apt
mechanics; or, to descend lower, ordinary earners of daily bread. You
may guess, then, what measure of these things is needed to perfect you in
saintliness, and therefore you are able to answer the question—oh, how
must you answer it?—whether you fulfil the acknowledged requirement of
the text, “I must work the works of Him that sent me.”
But, besides this, so to speak, selfish work, you have a work to do for
and upon others. GOD Who wills to inform, and persuade, and save the
world, appoints men, appoints you to accomplish His will. Like as
CHRIST, besides qualifying Himself to be the Saviour, had also to
proclaim, and recommend, and bestow salvation, so have you, while putting
yourselves in the way of salvation, and diligently pursuing it, to be
lights, and voices, and helping hands to others. You are lights of the
world; you are ambassadors for CHRIST; you are your brothers’ keepers;
you are teachers of GOD’S Word, and advocates of His cause, and
treasurers of His gifts; you are under shepherds of CHRIST; you are
fellow workers with Him, and dispensers of His manifold grace. GOD has
given you these offices, and He has placed you where you may exercise
them. He has given you authority over your children, and servants, and
dependents. He has lent you influence over friends and associates. He
has planted you in the midst of crowds of ignorant, indifferent, ungodly,
that you may work for Him, in guiding, and persuading, and leading to
salvation, in making manifest His glory. He has put into your power to
contribute something—into the power of some to contribute much—to the
various associations (which are, in fact, your agents), for doing the
work of GOD in building and endowing additional churches, in providing
more clergymen at home, in sending missionaries to the colonist and the
heathen. You think, perhaps, that in the chief part of what I have said,
I have been describing the clergy, and not the laity. But, brethren, the
clergy are nothing but representatives, representatives, on the one hand,
of GOD, teaching, exhorting, ministering grace in His name, by and from
Him; representatives, on the other hand, of your prayers, and praises,
and your works. You know whose would be the blame, and how great the
blame, and how terrible the consequences, if the minister only confessed
to GOD and praised Him, and partook of His sacraments. It is just the
same, if he only teaches, and exhorts, and visits, and tends, and
relieves; an empty sign, a mockery, a provocation of wrath, which will
surely descend on those who cause it to be unreal, on those who do not
make it real. Ministers we are, coming from GOD to you, going to GOD
from you. Oh, you cannot suppose that if you leave two or three
clergymen to deal with thousands of people, to inform them, to persuade
them, to become acquainted with their wants, to relieve them out of their
own poor means, you cannot suppose I say that in so doing, you are
working the works of GOD, that when you have said your prayers, and
listened to the sermon, and paid your pew rents, and dropped a
superfluous coin into the plate of an occasional collection, you have
obeyed and imitated CHRIST. No, brethren, you are under no such delusion
of Satan. An awful responsibility is indeed upon the clergy. We have
sworn to give ourselves wholly to a work in which your part is to
support, and succour, and enable us. We are pledged to forego
opportunities of acquiring fame, and gaining wealth and power, and taking
pleasure. Wo to us, if we disregard the oath, if we cling to the things
which we profess to have renounced! But if we fail, that will not excuse
you; and if we are faithful without your adherence, the reward will be
ours, the blood guiltily shed, or guiltily unstaunched, will be upon your
heads. It is a solemn theme which I am discussing this morning, and I
dare not but speak plainly upon it. Our fidelity will not profit you if
you are not helpers of us. Our unfaithfulness, though we perish in it,
will be visited on you, if you do not enable us, if you do not constrain
us, by the power with which you should endow us, by the jealous concern
which you should have for our work, by the diligent co-operation which
you should exercise with us. It is easy to say, that you are not
qualified for this, that your time is all engaged in your worldly
calling, that you cannot spare from the means of your support, from the
capital of your business, the money which the Church calls for. But,
brethren, consider, that though GOD requires you to maintain yourselves
and your families, though your worldly callings are appointed for you by
GOD, though He allows you to give much time to them, to advance and
enrich yourselves by them, yet all this is on the condition that you do
not withhold from Him the direct service and offerings which constitute
the one thing needful, the reward of which is all that shall survive this
life, and this world! It was the fashion once among religionists to
despise, to pronounce unclean (unfitting for the Christian), the use of
the world, its callings, its profits, its pleasures. There is much
danger of an opposite fashion prevailing in our days. The confining of
religious service and worship to the honest, respectable, intellectual,
liberal pursuit of some worldly vocation, “the religion of common life”
as it is called, being regarded, not as the companion,—rather the
handmaid—but the substitute (and a very good one, too) for pure spiritual
religion. Both are wrong. The Christian may use the world, and in the
right use of it he may be serving GOD. But he must not abuse it; and he
does abuse it, if he allows himself to be engrossed by it; if he brings
himself to a state, if he continues willingly in a state, where he is
obliged to say, “I cannot spare any time or any money, my first thought,
and concern, and provision must be for this life.”
You have heard, or read, perhaps, that a contented, conscientious, and
cheerful abiding in and following of our worldly occupations, that even
the housemaid’s sweeping and cleaning may be religious worship; and there
is truth in the statement, otherwise the Apostle could not have exhorted
“Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of
GOD;” but, the Scriptural injunction means, “Prolong the remembrance of
your spiritual worship: testify your yearning to get back to it: keep the
face shining, when you come down from the glorious mount, so that while
the world demands your bodies, your souls, your hearts and spirits may
still be given to GOD, and even the bodily acts spiritualised by doing
them in submission, in holy observance of the will of GOD, in thankful
use of the means of support and helps to usefulness, which He thus
affords you.” Worldly occupations and worldly goods are to the Christian
what meals, and recreations, and sleep are to men generally: necessaries,
supports of the lower life, refreshments, and invigorators for something
better. Give yourselves wholly to these and you become sensualists,
idlers, sluggards; and give yourselves wholly to the world and you are
followers of Mammon and forsakers of GOD! You see the right use of the
world, as far as this life is concerned, when the son toils to support an
aged parent, when the young man struggles to get on, that he may
establish a home, when the father seeks through his profession to provide
for his family, when the lover of literature diligently tries to make his
calling afford him money for books and time to read them. This is
employing the world as a necessary means to a desired end. And so you
see the right use of the world, in regard to a better life, in him who
labours and perseveres, and advances in it with the view of getting as
much out of it as he can for GOD.
Be sure that there are none so busy but, in the midst of their business,
they can think of what they like better; none so pressed for time, but
they can spare some of it, if they have a mind to; none so poor as to
have nothing to spend on what they covet. So use the world, and, in
using it, you will work the works of GOD, because you will often take
from it, and often come out from it, for the direct and more purely
spiritual works of GOD.
But CHRIST, our pattern, said not merely “I must work the works of GOD,”
but I must do them “while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can
work.” We know what that meant in His case. He had taken human nature
in its weakness, and He had to bring it to its full strength, to fit it
for glory and exaltation to the throne of GOD. He had in His life to
speak the word of GOD to many people, and in many places, and each
opportunity must be seized, or others would be forfeited. He had to
relieve present sufferings, and to supply present wants; to meet
necessities while they were pressing. Soon the time would come for Him
to go to the Father: then He must be perfect; then He would have no more
opportunity in the flesh for benefitting man and glorifying GOD; then He
could make no more preparation for the setting up of His Church.
The words have a similar meaning with regard to us; but in our cases the
necessity is more urgent, the delay more awful, because we have no fixed
time allotted us—“to-day, and to-morrow, and the third day I must be
perfected.” Our life is to be taken from us without our consent, and may
be taken at any moment; we have not power to lay it down when we will,
and power to keep it as long as we will. And, besides, we have not been
using each year, each day, each hour, to the best advantage. We have
left undone much which we ought to have done, we have done much which we
ought not to have done. We have all this to correct, and yet to give
full attention to the works yet remaining.
Look we in at ourselves, brethren, and see what requires to be done in us
before we are fit for heaven. Listen to the cries of spiritual distress,
and consider what has to be supplied. Think of the souls that are dying,
and will soon be dead, if we do not revive them. Remember we what frail,
short-continuing, dying creatures we are; how soon at the latest, how
suddenly, it may be abruptly, without a moment’s warning, we may be
called to present ourselves, to be dealt with according to our fitness,
to give account of our works for GOD.
Let the arrival of a new year set us reviewing the past year, with its
catalogue of offences, of neglects, of things to be wiped out, debts to
be paid, progress to be quickened. Let us heed well its injunction and
its warning, “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might,
for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave
whither thou goest.” Let us look up for the opening clouds and listen
for the Advent voice, “Behold, I come quickly, and My reward is with Me
to give to every man according as his works shall be;” and let us
instantly resolve and instantly begin to perform our resolution and
persevere in it, nor dare to forget it: “I must work the works of Him
that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.”
SERMON IX.
CHRIST’S TRUEST MANIFESTATION.