(For Young Believers.)
SOME years since, a vessel was ready to be launched in Philadelphia; all the arrangements were completed; the last stay and prop had been knocked away, and yet she moved not. The workmen Nv ere then summoned to try their strength in pushing her off, but still she remained stationary. A little boy, who was standing by, said he could not push much more than a pound, but he was willing to do what he could. He joined his strength with others, and off went the ship majestically into the river.
In “this present evil world,” which, till the Lord comes, “lieth in wickedness,” God is making “known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he hath afore prepared unto glory;” and you, dear readers, can render some help towards the accomplishment of his gracious purpose. Doubtless there are those who, in an especial manner, are raised up by God to be “workers together with him;” but you, however young in the divine life, have been saved that you may be useful, and blessed that you may “be a blessing.” You need not ask, Who are we, or what can we do? since “it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” “Say not, I am a child,” was the word of the Lord to Jeremiah when he feared to speak in his name; and though you are not called to be prophets, yet if you shrink from helping on the work of God because you have but “a little strength,” the words which rebuked him may rebuke you also. Neither “the child Samuel,” nor the stripling David, was too young for the Lord to use in his service; and “in the days of his flesh,” the blessed Saviour not only took little children “up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them,” but “out of the mouth of babes and suckling’s” ordained strength to still the enemy and to perfect praise. And since then, who knows, save the Lord himself, the various ways in which young Christians have labored to promote the cause of Christ, and to what extent their labors have been blessed? Some, after much trial of faith and, patience, have been the means of bringing their parents and grandparents, their brothers and sisters, to know the Lord; and others, outside their own immediate circle, have pleaded so earnestly for the Saviour that those who had long rejected him have owned and felt his power to save.
Then, besides those by whom you are immediately surrounded, there are others in this and distant lands who “sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,” and if you feel for them as the “little maid” who “waited on Naaman’s wife” felt for her master, you will long for their conversion, and do what you can to help them to the gospel. If you have believing parents, you may have heard them speak of some who, from love to Christ, and in simple dependence upon the Lord for what they need, have left all that was naturally agreeable to them, and have gone about this and other countries to win precious souls for the Saviour. Perhaps when, “for his name’s sake, they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles,” your parents helped them “on their journey after a godly sort,” and it may be, have helped them since they reached the scene of their labors, in the same way as the Philippian saints sent into Thessalonica once and again unto Paul’s necessity.
Now, if such should be the case, could you not treasure up your spare money, and send some of it either to minister to their personal or domestic wants, or to enable them to visit “the regions beyond” them? In this way you would encourage them in the work, and “be fellow-helpers to the truth.”
And should any be so poor that they have nothing to give, let them help by prayer. Any, too, who are laid aside by sickness can help in the same way. There are, however, but few who could not give something, even if it were no more than the widow’s mites; and if all who are but able to do that only did it regularly, numbers of Bibles, Testaments, etc., might be forwarded to those who would thankfully receive them and gladly distribute them. Like the little boy who said he “could not push much more than a pound,” it may be but very little that you can do; but if the love of Christ constrain you to go and read the Bible to his unlettered or afflicted ones, or to care for and comfort those who are in solitude and trial, or to distribute, in any little measure, “to the necessity of saints,” “your work of faith and labor of love” shall not be “in vain in the Lord.”
O young believers, what say you to these things? Are you doing what you can to spread the glad tidings of salvation, to further “the gospel of Christ,” and to help those who have believed through grace? Are you, “as much as lieth in you,” presenting “your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service”? Belong not to that fearfully large and increasing class of believers who think that to be saved is everything — be neither drones in the Church, nor idlers in the Lord’s harvest; but as those who are set apart for God, be devoted, thorough, downright Christians. Your talents may be small, and your spheres of action limited, but remember, God often uses the feeblest instruments to accomplish his will. Be assured, where there is a will there is a way to glorify the Lord and serve him acceptably. Wait therefore on him, put yourselves into his hands, and beseech him to use you for his glory. And do not forget that it is only as you abide in Christ, and have his words abide in you, that you will be “meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” God grant that you may be “steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,” so that when your earthly course is finished, it may be said of you, They have done what they could.
N.