"We are labourers together with God; ye are God's husbandry; ye are
God's building."--1 COR. iii. 9.
In this passage St. Paul is rebuking the Corinthians for that spirit of
party which was dividing them into followers of this or that teacher and
so destroying their unity in Christ. You do not belong, he says, to Paul
or to Apollos; _we_ have no claim upon you; ye are not to be called by
_our_ name: you are _God's_ husbandry, and _God's_ building, not ours; we
are but labourers in His service and ministers for your good. Therefore,
see to it that you live as one society in Christ Jesus, discarding all
divisions, factions, and party passions and watchwords, imbued with one
spirit. It is a noble exhortation to unity of life and purpose; but we
may notice in it more than this.
As Paul himself disclaims all personal merit--as he presses it on their
attention that neither is he that planteth anything nor he that watereth,
but God that giveth the increase, he is unconsciously exhibiting to us an
example of that rare humility which is characteristic of all the greatest
and most effective workers; whilst in the vivid and expressive metaphors
of my text--ye are God's husbandry, God's building--he makes us to feel
the value and the dignity of each human soul.
It would be interesting to dwell on these calls to unity of life in
Christ, and the close connection between such unity and the spirit of
humility; in fact, we might say, the absolute necessity of the spirit of
humility and self-forgetfulness in individuals if there is to be unity in
the society. And we might apply the thoughts with much profit to our own
social relations, for they are never out of date; but I desire to turn to-
day to that which is suggested by these descriptive metaphors, the value
and dignity of each human life.
St. Paul pressed it on these Corinthians that their souls were nothing
less than the seed-field of which God Himself was the Husbandman, or the
temple built by His hand; and they could hardly have listened to such
language without being stirred to take care how they sowed in that field,
or without feeling the consequent value of their life in the sight of
God.
If they were thus the objects of the Divine care they could not be
thought of as insignificant units in a crowded city; or as living an
obscure life which was of no particular importance, as they might
otherwise have been tempted to fancy, as we are still sometimes tempted
to think about an individual life. This picture of each life amongst us
in its relation to God, as His seed-field or His temple, is a continual
reminder that where a human soul is concerned there is no such thing as
insignificance or obscurity.
As St. Paul thought of that little company--a company small and obscure
to the outward eye--what he saw in them was the temple of the Holy Ghost,
and the spiritual life that was breathing there was a Divine life; and
this intense conviction of the value of each soul and each society and
its consequent sanctity was a never-failing inspiration to him.
Through it he saw in every one who listened to his words, as he went from
city to city, a man created and endowed with a Divine mission and Divine
capacity, if they could only be roused.
It transformed every soul that crossed his path, so that he looked on
life with new eyes. The common crowd had a new interest for him, the
suffering poor, the downtrodden slave, the heathen in his blindness, the
degraded sinner.
And it has been so with all the great servants of God; out of this
feeling the love of souls has grown in men.
But this feeling of the value of each individual life, because of the
Divine element and presence in it, is a peculiar gift of the Christian
revelation.
In the ancient pagan world a man's life was of little account; it is out
of the Bible that this new thought has come that every soul has in it an
indefinite element of Divine possibilities, and is therefore of value in
the sight of God. It is by virtue of this contribution to our thought
that the Bible is truly described as the Great Charter of human rights,
and as the source of the great stream of charity and self-sacrifice, of
that enthusiasm of humanity which more than all else separates and
distinguishes our life from that of heathen antiquity.
It would indeed be difficult to point to any one single thing which makes
so great a difference between the quality of one man's life and another's
as the presence or absence of this feeling about the value, the
possibilities, the sanctity of each individual soul.
"Let man estimate himself," said Pascal, "let him estimate himself at his
true value, honour himself in his capacities, and despise himself in his
neglect of those capacities." Yes, if a man is once brought to this
condition that he feels the greatness of the ends for which God has made
him, and that he estimates his life by the possibilities of growth that
are in it, and by the thought of the Divine influences that work in it;
and if he despises himself for neglect of these capacities or
possibilities and of these influences, he has awoke to a sense of the
first word of Christ and His Apostles.
Your soul is God's seed-field, God's building; we are labourers together
with God. Such a description of each individual life is very significant
everywhere, and not least in such a society as ours.
To us who are here in this society as masters they are just a parable of
our own life; setting forth to each of us what should be his estimate of
his own work and aim and purpose, exhibiting to him his field of work
with the Divine light on it, and interpreting to him his own endeavours
as a fellow-labourer with God, hoping to contribute in some degree
towards the filling in and completing that Divine plan, that ideal
picture of the life of every one of you which is in the heavens, and
which in imagination he sees as a thing some day to be realised, and the
realisation of which, or its failure, may largely depend on his own share
in our life and work. It is this feeling that every heart contains the
germ of some perfection that makes our life so profoundly interesting,
and, it may be added, our responsibilities for the cultivation or neglect
of any such germ or capacity so serious and engrossing.
But to you, too, these apostolic suggestions about the Divine influences
at work in each heart, and the value of each life in God's sight, and the
Divine voices claiming to be heard in it, should be quite as stimulative
as they are to us.
They have in them the germ of all striving after purity and goodness, and
of all hatred of sin, and enthusiasm for the uplifting of social life.
The words of Paul to his Corinthian converts may furnish you with new
interpretations of your own daily life and duty.
If they were God's husbandry, or God's building, are not you? If the
Spirit of God dwelt in them, how does He not dwell likewise in you?
striving for your growth in holiness and good purpose, and for your
salvation from sin and its defilements, as he strove for theirs?
And if it was good for every man in that Corinthian community to be
warned how he built upon the foundation of life that had been laid in
Christ; if it was good for them to be reminded that every man's work
would be made manifest, and that the fire would try it, of what sort it
was; it is good also for us, masters and boys alike, to remember that we
are living under the same law, and that we should take care lest haply we
be found to be working against God.
That Epistle of St. Paul's was written in pain and anguish of heart. The
seeds of Christian life which he had sown among them, the purifying
influences of the Holy Spirit which were working among them through him
and his fellow-labourers, all these ought to have produced fruits easily
described, such as peace and love, and purity, and good works; but
instead of these, and threatening their destruction, there had sprung up
dissension and strife, party spirit, self-conceit, and gross sins which I
need not name.
In all this there was grief, disappointment, bitterness; for did they not
prove that his work was threatened with failure?
Yet in all that storm of feeling his chief exhortation is this reminder
of the dignity of their calling. In the midst of all their sin and
failure, though he does not spare rebuke and warning, he always aims at
inspiring them by uplifting. And we know that this is the true method,
because there is nothing which exercises an influence so strong to uplift
and purify as the feeling of our kinship with the life above us, and that
we are degrading our life when we forget this or ignore it. And herein
is the value of this word of his that God is dwelling and working in us.
"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, that the Holy Ghost dwelleth
in you, and that God's temple is holy? and if any man destroy the temple
of God, him shall God destroy."
Let us then begin again our common life with a determination to bear in
mind the possibilities and the sanctity of each separate soul that comes
amongst us.
Living in crowds, we are apt to forget this; and, forgetting it, some
treat their own souls as if they were of no value, and some the souls of
others, and so the work of sin and waste goes on from generation to
generation.
But in our best moments, in our times of serious thought, if we have been
once enlightened, we can never again cease to feel the dignity and the
value of each human life.
When we think of God's care for us we feel it; when we think of the
possibilities He has ordained for us we feel it; when we think of the
endless life that lies before us we feel it; above all, we never fail to
feel it when our thoughts revert to any life that has been snatched away
from us. Some of you are thinking to-day of the master whose home is
darkened by the presence of the angel of death. You think of her whom
God has taken, who was moving among you not so long ago, as your tender,
considerate, and helpful friend. It may be that you were not
uninfluenced by her self-devotion and holiness.
When you think of such an one you feel no doubt about the value and the
sanctity of each human life.
Well, then, transfer this feeling to your own life, or to the life of the
boy who sits beside you, or who lives as your companion. In the purpose
of our common Father, your lives also are destined for holy uses.
To remember this may be a safeguard against temptation or sinful habit;
it may inspire you with a new feeling of the value of _all_ the lives
around you, and a new sense of the duty you owe to the good life of this
society in which God has placed you, that you may prove a vessel of
honour sanctified for His service.