Three times in the New Testament is the Christian exhorted not to be weary in well doing. Doubtless all Christians need such an exhortation, but it is especially suitable and necessary for the Sunday-school worker. In some respects he is in a more trying position than the evangelist. For the most part the evangelist is listened to with at least a measure of attention and consideration; but the Sunday-school worker is often treated far otherwise. He is not only listened to, but he is in no way considered by his scholars; indeed some, after their conversion, have confessed that they rather studied to annoy their teacher, and make him a subject of their sport. How needed then the exhortation, “Be not weary in well doing.”
But perhaps the most trying position of a Sunday-school worker is when he sees outward decorum and attention, but attended with that cold indifference that seems to chill one to the very core. An assent is given to all we say, and many a correct answer we get from such a one; but he can tell you the doom of the unbeliever is the bottomless pit, without the least sign of fear lest it may be his portion. Well, even here we must not be weary in well doing. We are to sow the seed, and withhold not our hand; for we know not which shall prosper. We must not forget that God has described the unconverted as dead in trespasses and sins; and we must not be surprised if we find it exemplified in our scholars. Grieved at heart we should be, and astonished at their unbelief, even as our Lord Himself marveled at the unbelief of the people. Can we expect to find the scholars, any different now from what the people were then? No, they are the very same. Let us not then be weary in well doing.
But it would be endless to detail the various trying things that lie across the path of the Sunday-school worker. They are very varied, and each worker has his own peculiar trials and his own share of them. We were rather occupied with a cordial for them—we had almost said a “remedy” for them, but they will doubtless go on to the end—but we have a sweet and blessed cordial to soothe and comfort: it is, to Consider Him.
Here is God’s cordial for a weary and fainthearted worker: consider Him. He came to do the will of His Father, and He went perseveringly on to the end. Every step of the way He was met with scorn, opposition, and malice; but He despised the shame and went on to, and endured the cross. How different with us! we too have work to do for God, but at the end of our course here, instead of a cross, there is rest and glory, and it may be a crown.
How blessed such an example! Let us consider Him, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit, we shall start afresh in our work with fresh courage and zeal—keeping our eye fixed upon that blessed One who was down here, as we now are, and who persevered to the end, amidst every discouragement, as we also are exhorted to do. Let us then consider Him, “Lest we be wearied and faint in our minds.”