Now, the text teaches us at the outset, that the work to which our Lord
referred was an appointed work. “I must work the works of him that sent
me.” He was sent to carry out God’s purpose, and intrusted with an
apostleship from the Father, to which apostleship he here refers. In the
same sense, every individual has his apostleship or mission. The trust
may vary, and no two men have the same mission. One has money committed
to him, one time, one stores of knowledge; another family ties, and
another widely-extended influence; but all have their work from God. The
master, the servant, the rich, the poor, the preacher, the hearer, the
clergyman, the layman, the father, the child—all have their mission; and
it is the part of the wise Christian to endeavour to see clearly what
that mission is, and then to lay himself out for the work to which God
has called and fitted him.
Now, I think that all who knew our dear departed friend must acknowledge
that this was pre-eminently the case with her. She was one who had her
mission, and endeavoured most faithfully to fulfil it. She was intrusted
with property, and you all know what use she made of it. She did not
keep it as if it were her own, but employed it, as knowing that it was
her Lord’s.
She was intrusted with time and fine talents, and we all know how she
used them.
Remember her interest in foreign objects. How great was her zeal for
missionary work! Even in her dying hours, she left her charge that
50_l._ be given to the Mandingo Mission, a Mission scarcely known in the
Church, but which had been brought to her notice by a friend. How steady
and stimulating was her attachment to the Bible Society! and how did her
heart yearn to the very last over the wrongs and woes of Africa! Never
yet was there a more zealous and intelligent supporter of the great
foreign enterprises of the Church of Christ.
But some persons are disposed to say, Why always think of Africa, and
foreign lands? Why not turn your attention more to home? In answer to
which inquiry, I would simply say, that I believe it to be capable of the
most indisputable proof that, as a general rule, the best friends of
Africa are the best philanthropists at home. The fact is, that Christian
love is expansive in its character, and cannot be chained down to one
locality. And of this we have just parted with a noble proof. She was
zealous for Africa, but there was no neglect of her own neighbourhood.
Let the fishermen all along the coast bear their testimony, and it must
be to her zeal and energy for their good. Let the lads who used to meet
on Sunday afternoons for instruction bear their witness to the reality of
her Christian perseverance. Let the young women of the village, and the
school children that were privileged to meet for instruction every
morning at the cottage, let them give their evidence, and it must be to
the most steady and affectionate perseverance for their welfare. Oh!
that these lessons may be now remembered! Oh! that the voice may be
listened to from the grave, and that the seed so carefully sown may be
found to spring up to present holiness and future blessedness in Christ
Jesus! Nor was this limited to purely religious effort. Look back upon
her deep interest in all that befell the shipping. Remember her energy
with reference to her gun. Recall her energetic figure seated on the
cliff in the midst of the storm, to stimulate the efforts of those who
were endeavouring to save the shipwrecked sailors. Recall all this, and
remember that it was done in the midst of physical infirmity and pain,
that might well have justified an indulgent consideration of self. If
any one might have claimed exemption from active effort it was she. If
any one might have pleaded disability it was she; and her conduct is a
noble evidence of the power of the heart to overcome the body, and a
splendid proof that faith and zeal never recognize impediments, except as
fresh incentives to energetic activity for God.
And now, brethren, all this activity is over. She rests from her
labours, and her works do follow her. But there is a great void left in
this neighbourhood. A gap is made and the responsibility of filling it
is thrown on the survivors. It is well, therefore, for us all to
remember that our own night-time is rapidly advancing. On how many well
known to those here present has it already closed! How many workmen for
God are already in their rest! Let your mind look back to one of the
Meetings of the Bible or Church Missionary Society some fifteen or twenty
years ago. On how large a proportion of those who were then the active
labourers has the night already closed! There you might have heard that
manly and energetic labourer for God, Sir Fowell Buxton, in full vigour
pleading for God and men, but his night is come: and my own dear father
by his side, full of sterling, high principled, Christian zeal; but his
night too is come: and the faithful pastor of the little flock at
Gresham, always ready to take a part on such occasions, but his night is
come: and our zealous friend from Sherringham, who rejoiced to co-operate
in every such enterprise, but her night is come: and the two Cottage
Ladies united in the strong bond of sisterly affection, and acting
together with a sacred unanimity for God, but now their suns have both
set, they now rest as they once lived, together, and the night has closed
in on almost the whole of that noble company. But there were present
likewise young men, just rising into life, and just beginning to put
forth their powers; and time has now done its work with them. Some,
indeed, it has cut down, so that their sun has set even at noon; but for
the most part it has had the effect of placing them where their fathers
then stood. Their own brows are becoming furrowed, and their own hairs
grey. They have already reached the afternoon of life. The shades even
of evening are beginning to appear among those who were then lads and
listeners. And now that they have been this day called to follow to the
grave almost the last of a whole generation of faithful labourers passed
away, the lesson spoken to them from the tomb is surely that conveyed in
the text, “I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day:
the night cometh, when no man can work.”
But in speaking of this sacred work we must not lose sight of the
paramount importance of a personal work in our own soul. It would be,
indeed, an awful thing to be compelled to acknowledge, “They made me the
keeper of the vineyards, and mine own vineyard have I not kept;” to
preach to others, and yet oneself to be a cast away; to work as a
philanthropist, and perish as an unconverted man. We should take,
therefore, a most imperfect view of the subject, if we were to neglect
the consideration of the personal work within.
And this we ought to carry through all departments, for God has given to
each man certain powers, and these should be improved. We are not at
liberty to leave neglected the high gifts which God has given us. The
intellect which God has bestowed should not lie dormant. And I cannot
but think that we have parted with a noble example in this respect. How
vigorous was her spirit of self-improvement! How stimulating was her
influence on all who came within her reach! How urgent she was with
young men that they should aim high, and not sit at ease satisfied with
inferiority! and what a fine example did she herself set them! What a
contrast did she present to the listless, fanciful, and indolent novel
reader upon the sofa! How manfully did she grapple with one language one
after another! I cannot enumerate those that she had acquired, but this
we all know that she qualified herself to become the valued correspondent
of the first linguists of the day; and now, if, beside her grave, we
could have breathed a wish of such a kind, it would have been that she
could have left us, as a legacy, some small fraction of the rich stores
of her accumulated knowledge!
But it is not merely an intellectual work that has to be considered, for,
after all, what are all intellectual acquirements if we be not in Christ?
Nay! we may extend the question further and inquire, what would all our
labour in such a case avail us before God? And if we be not forgiven in
Christ Jesus how shall any one of us stand in his presence? Can
intellect justify? Can talent justify? Can self-improvement justify?
Nay, more, can philanthropic effort justify? Can benevolence justify?
Can religious activity justify? Can energetic labour for God justify?
Beautiful, indeed, are all such things when springing forth as the rich
fruits of heavenly grace in the soul of the justified believer; but
nothing better than filthy rags if employed as a covering for the dark
moral guilt in the soul of the sinner. No, brethren! If the inquiry is
made, how must the soul be saved? How can the sin be blotted out? How
can the sinner stand justified in the Lord’s presence? there is but one
answer, and that is, _it must be in Christ_. No intellect and no
activity will ever lift us above the old promise, “Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” All our hope is in the
substitution of the sinless Saviour for the sin-stricken sinner, in the
transfer of guilt from the guilty criminal to the guiltless substitute;
and if a man be a stranger to Christ, though he have all the philanthropy
of a Howard, or all the intellect of a Newton, he will be found condemned
before God for the inherent corruption of his heart and character. Well,
therefore, does the Apostle urge us to “Work out our own salvation with
fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in us to will and to do of
his good pleasure;” and most earnestly will every wise man pay good heed
to the inquiry, Am I in Christ Jesus? Am I born again of the Spirit? Is
my name written in the Lamb’s book of life? Am I now pardoned through
His blood? Am I justified through His righteousness? And am I prepared
to meet Him in His kingdom?
Now this hope was the turning point in the character of our departed
friend. After she had been informed that her end was close at hand, her
faithful attendants began to read to her some of the promises of the
Gospel, in the hope of assisting her faith through her last struggle.
But she preferred silence, and replied, “I have them.” Who can wish more
for his dying hour than to be able to say, “I have them”? For the words
imply not merely that she had them in her memory, but that she had them
to reveal Christ to her soul, and so to bear her up through her last
struggle. Happy that soul who is so possessed of the promises that he
has Christ as his glorious hope in his dying hour!
And now, dear brethren, to conclude. I am speaking to some of you at the
very outset of your career. Your sun is only now rising in the fulness
of its morning beauty. You have, possibly, the greater part of life
before you, some forty, fifty, sixty years to be spent either for the
world or for God. Oh! dear brethren, let the whole of that vigour be
consecrated to Him. Leave it not to old age, then to hand over the
refuse of your powers. But now, in your youth and in your vigour,
remember the call of Him that has redeemed you by His blood, and let the
prime of your life be a freewill offering to your Lord. Or possibly I am
speaking to some old men who have but a little time left; honoured
fathers in the family of God; men whose sun is sinking brightly, but
still rapidly, in the west. And what shall we say to such? Oh! dear
brethren, we would speak with the utmost respect and reverence, but, bear
with us while we remind you that it is but a little time that remains;
but a very few more winters and then the sense of loneliness will pass
away in the society of heaven, and the pang of the wounded heart will be
for ever healed by the leaves of the tree that we know are for the
healing of the nations. Hold on your way, then, for that little time
with a good courage. Let a bright hope sustain the failing eye, and the
Lord’s right hand give vigour to the faltering step. The rest is at
hand; the privilege of labour is nearly over; let no time, then, be lost
in the service of our God, but, if the power be less, let the zeal be
greater than ever in the holy efforts to be faithful servants to your
Lord.
But why do we speak of different ages as if they secure to us different
periods of labour, for who can say how short his time is? There may be
many here who may never hear another sermon, as I myself may never preach
one. You may single out the powerful young man with his broad chest, and
open forehead, and powerful arm, who may think himself safe for many
years to come, but who can say that ere a week closes, there shall not be
another funeral procession, and that young man, notwithstanding all his
strength, be borne by his sorrowing friends to an unlooked-for grave?
You may note some middle-aged man in the full vigour of midday life, who
now thinks only how he may maintain his wife and family; but let him
remember that ere another Sabbath dawns, that wife may be a widow and
those children fatherless. Oh, dear brethren, remember, I beseech you,
how short your time may be, and take heed that when the day closes, you
may be found in Christ! The door is open to you now. The invitation is
open to you now. The promises of the Spirit are presented to you now.
All the rich gifts of the kingdom are offered now without money and
without price. Nay, more than that, you are now invited, urged,
entreated to accept them. But the night may come and the door be shut
to-morrow. Hearken, then, I beseech you, ye that are still unconverted
sinners, ye that are still without Christ. Hearken, ye that are still
strangers to peace, and may God grant you such a sure salvation in Him
that you may be able to say, whenever the day closes, “To me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain!”
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Macintosh, Printer, Great New-street, London.