WORKING FOR CHRIST.
THERE is WORK READY FOR YOU.
The variety of work is endless, and may range from pastoral care over hundreds of God’s people, to giving a cup of cold water in Christ’s name. There is work suited to each, and there is work suited to you. Take the most difficult possible position for active service—that of a young girl brought up in the seclusion of the family circle, which she has not yet left; it may be with no opportunities of visiting the poor and afflicted (though this is very rare), What can she do? What can she not do? If she has a heart, is rather the question. Has she unconverted relatives and friends, any for whose souls she particularly cares? Can she not do a real work for Christ by sending them regularly—it may be unknown to them—gospel books and papers, accompanying each with earnest prayers? And when that relative or friend is saved, none may know save the Master and the workman, to whose instrumentality it is due. Prayer, definitely continued for others, is a very real work for the Lord. But all work involves some amount of self-denial, and above all, steady perseverance. How many lives of service have been given up, through want of this one necessary quality!
Idleness Injures Everybody
The Lord’s work must be done, and if we do not do it, He often has to set others to do our work; but, of course, if the hand is paralyzed, and the foot has to act in its stead, it cannot do the work as well; especially as it has its own besides. Idleness, therefore, is a great evil, causing not only some to suffer from neglect, but others who are willing, to be overworked, and, after all, the work is not so well done. Consider, then, if ever you are tempted to criticize the work of another, whether that servant may not be doing double duty for some lazy Christian who will do nothing, and it may be that “thou art the man.”
Let us, then, encourage one another in the work of the Lord, and see that none of us are mere lookers-on, for a looker-on is generally a fault finder. Let us remember, too, that our labor is not in vain in the Lord, but that our loving Master is only too glad to give each one His full reward of praise for every bit of work done in His name, and that will therefore stand the fire.
The time is short, and much has been wasted by all of us; before the Lord’s return, then, let each of us be found steadily at our posts, working for Christ.
“With the first faint blush of morning
Hasting from thy still retreat,
Labor on until the evening,
Heedless of the noontide heat.
Labor till the far horizon
Paleth with the setting sun:
Then the Master’s voice shall greet thee.
With the welcome words, ‘Well done!’”