'As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good
unto all. . . .'--GAL. vi. 10.
'As we have therefore'--that points a finger backwards to what has gone
before. The Apostle has been exhorting to unwearied well-doing, on the
ground of the certain coming of the harvest season. Now, there is a
double link of connection between the preceding words and our text; for
'do good' looks back to 'well-doing,' and the word rendered
'opportunity' is the same as that rendered 'season.' So, then, two
thoughts arise--'well-doing' includes doing good to others, and is not
complete unless it does. The future, on the whole, is the season of
reaping; the present life on the whole is the season of sowing; and
while life as a whole is the seed-time, in detail it is full of
opportunities, openings which make certain good deeds possible, and
which therefore impose upon us the obligation to do them. If we were in
the habit of looking on life mainly as a series of opportunities for
well-doing, how different it would be; and how different we should be!
Now, this injunction is seen to be reasonable by every man, whether he
obeys it or not. It is a commonplace of morality, which finds assent in
all consciences, however little it may mould lives. But I wish to give
it a particular application, and to try to enforce its bearing upon
Christian missionary work. And the thought that I would suggest is just
this, that no Christian man discharges that elementary obligation of
plain morality, if he is indifferent to this great enterprise. 'As we
have an opportunity, let us do good to all.' That is the broad
principle, and one application is the duty of Christian men to diffuse
the Gospel throughout the world.