Home Preacher or Church in the House,
c. 1870.
SERMON
by
W.F Taylor, L.L.D, M.A:
“THE LORD HATH NEED OF THEM.”
--Matt. xxi. 3.
*
HOME PREACHER OR CHURCH IN THE HOUSE.
TWENTY-SEVENTH
WEEK.
MORNING WORSHIP.
O GOD, the strength of all them that put their trust in Thee, mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without Thee, grant us the help of Thy grace, that we, steadfastly believing in Thy Son Jesus Christ, and loving one another as He hath given us commandment, may please Thee both in will and deed, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
HYMN, or Psalm cxxxix. 1-10.
LORD, thou hast search’d and seen me thro’;
Thine eye commands, with piercing view,
My rising and my resting hours,
My heart and flesh with all their powers!
My thoughts, before they are mine own,
Are to my God distinctly known
He knows the words I mean to speak,
Ere from mine opening lips they break!
Within thy circling power I stand:
On every side I find thy hand;
Awake, asleep, at home, and abroad,
I am surrounded still with God!
Amazing knowledge! -- O the height!
’Tis far above my highest flight;
My soul, with all the powers I boast,
Is in the boundless prospect lost!
O may these thoughts possess my breast,
Where’er I rove, where’er I rest!
Nor let my weaker passions dare
Consent to sin, for God is there!
JOB XXVIII.
SURELY there is a vein for the silver, and for gold where they fine it. 2. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone. 3. He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth out all perfection; the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death. 4. The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant; even the waters forgotten of the foot: they are dried up, they are gone away from men. 5. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; and under it is turned up as it were fire. 6. The stones of it are the place of sapphires; and it hath dust of gold. 7. There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen: 8. The lion’s whelps have not trodden it; nor the fierce lion passed by it. 9. He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he overturneth the mountains by the roots. 10. He cutteth out rivers among the rocks; and his eye seeth every precious thing. 11. He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light. 12. But where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of understanding? 13. Man knoweth not the price thereof; neither is it found in the land of the living 14. The depth saith, It is not in me; and the sea saith, It is not with me. 15. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. 17. The gold and crystal cannot equal it; and the exchange of it shall not be made for jewels of fine gold. 18. No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. 19. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold. 20. Whence then cometh wisdom ? and where is the place of understanding? 21. Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. 22. Destruction and death say, We have heard the fame thereof with our ears. 23. God understandeth the way thereof, and he knoweth the place thereof. 24. For he looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven; 25. To make the weight for the winds; and he weigheth the waters by measure. 26. When he made a decree for the rain, and a way for the lightening of the thunder; 27. Then did he see it, and declare it; he prepared it, yea, and searched it out. 28. And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.
PSALM LXXVII. 12-20.
I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings. 13. Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary; who is so great a God as our God? 14. Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast declared thy strength among the people. 15. Thou hast with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. 16. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were troubled. 17. The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad. 18. The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook. 19. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. 20. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.
----------------
Prayer.
LORD, teach us how to pray; and forasmuch as we know not what to pray for as we ought, pour down upon us, we beseech thee at this time, the spirit of grace and of supplication. Our voice shalt Thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning of this thine own day do we direct our prayer unto Thee, and look up.
We adore Thee, O Lord; for thine is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty. Thou deckest Thyself with the light as with a garment; and the hosts of heaven worship Thee. To Thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein. To Thee cherubim and seraphim continually cry, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of sabaoth. We too, O thou glorious Jehovah, would approach Thy throne of grace in the name of Jesus; and by Him would offer our sacrifice of praise, giving thanks to Thy name.
We praise and bless Thee, O Father, for thy preserving care over us during the past night. We laid us down and slept, and have risen again, for Thou, Lord, hast made us to dwell in safety. We bless Thee for the renewal of all our faculties of body and mind; our sight and hearing; our speech and reason. We thank Thee for the peace and quietness of the sabbath day--blessed emblem and foretaste of that eternal rest which remaineth for the people of God. And O, above all, we adore and magnify Thee for the blessings of redeeming grace, and for the gift of Christ, the Son of Thy love, to take on Him our nature, to bear our sins in His own body on the tree, to die the just for the unjust, to make reconciliation for iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness, that we might be accepted in Him. O Lord, make us exceedingly thankful; and give us, we beseech Thee, that due sense of all Thy mercies that we may show forth our heartfelt gratitude, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to Thy service, and by walking before Thee in holiness and righteousness all our days.
But we confess, O heavenly Father, that we have not rendered to Thee according as Thou hast dealt with us. We are poor and miserable sinners, both by nature and practice. We have done what we ought not have done, and we have left undone what we ought to have done. By thought, word, and deed have we sinned against Thee, O Lord. Every day we add to the number of our transgressions; they have mounted up to heaven, and, as a heavy burden, they have gone over our heads. If thou wert extreme to mark what is done amiss, O Lord, who could abide it? Enter not into judgment with Thy servants, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. We plead the promises of Thy word. We rely on the infinite merits of Christ. In Him hast Thou provided a way of escape. He is the ever-open door, the ever-living way; and Him hast Thou set forth a propitiation, through faith in His blood, and hast declared Thyself ready and willing to receive all who come to Thee in His name. We lay our hands, by faith, on His sacred head; we ring the burden of our guilt to the foot of His cross; we lay our sins on Jesus. Wash us, we pray Thee, in the blood of that immaculate Lamb, which was slain to take away the sins of the world. Grant us joy and peace in believing; sprinkle our hearts and consciences afresh with the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. Clothe us with the spotless robe of His perfect righteousness, and accept us in the Beloved.
We need also, O Lord, the renewing and sanctifying influence of Thy Spirit. Quicken us, we beseech Thee, in Thy way. Grant us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. Open the eyes of our understanding, and fill us with the knowledge of Thy will. May Christ dwell in our hearts by faith; and may we be filled with all the fulness of God. Bless us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places; increase our faith, enliven our hope, and pour into our hearts more of that love which passeth knowledge. Thus may we go from strength to strength in our heavenly course, ever looking unto Jesus, and out of His fulness receiving grace for grace.
We ask Thy blessing also, gracious God, on all Thy people in every place. Wherever two or three are gathered together in Thy name this day, on mountain side or lowly plain, in crowded town or lonely cot, in distant isles or on the broad sea, be Thou in the midst of them, to hear and bless. Regard with Thy favour all the members of this family, and may they belong to the household of God. Command Thy special blessings upon all Thy ministering servants at home or abroad, and crown their labours with abundant success. Gather, out of all lands, a people to praise Thee; yea, hasten the time when all the kingdoms of the world shall become Thine by willing consecration, and all nations shall come and worship before Thee. Take to Thee Thy power and reign, O blessed Jesus; pour out Thy Spirit upon all flesh, and let living waters go forth from Jerusalem. O let the wilderness and the solitary place be glad for them; let the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose.
And now, we commend ourselves to Thy care and blessing this day. May we feel Thy presence near us. Anoint us with fresh oil from the upper sanctuary; and in Thy good time receive us into those mansions of eternal bliss which Thou hast prepared for all who love Thee; through the merits of Jesus Christ, our only Lord and Saviour. Amen.
----------------
THE CHURCH IN THE HOUSE.
O God, whose infinite mercies in our blessed Saviour encourage us to call upon Thee, we beseech Thee graciously to hear us, and grant that we may both perceive and know what is Thy good, and acceptable, and perfect will revealed to us, and also have grace and power so faithfully to fulfil the same, that we may present ourselves a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Thee, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
HYMN, or Psalm l. 9-15.
LORD, I confess thy rightful claim,
And yield to thy command;
To own thy dear, thy powerful name,
I here rejoicing stand.
To thee, my Saviour and my Lord,
I my whole self resign;
By thee to life and hope restored,
I will be ever thine.
Thy merit shall my refuge be
From God’s avenging hand;
Thy Spirit shall my spirit free
From sin’s impure command.
Here to his influence and sway
I offer up my mind;
Thence let him cleanse the filth away,
Nor leave a spot behind!
Let him each dull affection move,
And melt my frozen heart,
Through all my soul diffuse thy love,
And life divine impart!
Then with unwearied zeal shall I
The best design pursue,
Shall stand resolved for heaven and thee,
And every foe subdue.
DEUTERONOMY XXVI.
12-19.
WHEN thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled; 13. Then thou shalt say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of mine house, and also have given them unto the Levite, and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them. 14. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead: but I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. 15. Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 16. This day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. 17. Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statues, and his commandments, and his judgements, and to hearken unto his voice: 18. And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; 19. And to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he hath spoken.
MALACHI III. 1-11.
BEHOLD, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold he shall come, saith the Lord hosts. 2. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap; 3. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord, an offering in righteousness. 4. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5. And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hirelings in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. 6. For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. 7. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? 8. Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9. Ye are cursed with curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 10. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before her time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts.
ROMANS XII.
1, 2, 9-12.
I BESEECH you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 9. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. 10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 11. Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; 12. Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer.
----------------
SERMON XXVII.
“THE LORD HATH NEED OF THEM.” --Matt. xxi. 3.
WE have here one of those pregnant sentences of Christ, so full and suggestive in their varied application, which are so richly scattered through the Gospels. Called forth by some trivial circumstance, and apparently intended only with special reference to the time and occasion, they are not sooner uttered than they appear to have been intended for all time. The more they are studied and pondered over, the more profound and weighty they are seen to be. We can turn them on all sides, and view them in varied lights; and as we gaze, their relations widen out until at length they seem to comprehend almost everything in their vast embrace; like some of nature’s laws, so simple as it were in their first elements, but on investigation found to pervade all the phenomena with which we are conversant, until at length the most widely differing results are all found to be but different manifestations of the one grand principle. These words form, as we know part of the directions given by Christ to his two disciples, when he sent them for the ass and the colt on which he was about to enter Jerusalem in triumph. Anticipating, however, an objection on the part of the owner, he said, “If any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, the Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them.”
Without dwelling on the striking proofs which this passage incidentally affords of the essential Deity of Christ, in thus not only manifesting the prescience which is God’s alone, and the magic power over human hearts which the Creator only can exercise, we pass on to the words themselves -- “the Lord hath need of them.”
There is no waste in the economy of nature. We may not always be able to trace out the uses of this or that particular object; but we are confident of the truth of the principle. There withered branch, the shrivelled leaf, the broken shell on the pebbly beach, the ashes of the embers that have been burnt, the smoke of the living coal, are not going to waste. They are entering into the new combinations, going to form new products for the welfare and beauty of the whole, of which they form but a part.
“Gather up the fragments which remain, that nothing be lost, “were the words of Him who had just exhibited his power to multiply the five loaves into a sufficiency to satisfy the cravings of five thousand men, besides women and children. We are too apt to think but lightly of the value of what we call trifles; the odd seconds of time, remnants of opportunities, parings and savings, how recklessly are they thrown away or neglected! And yet we know that the coral reef is built up by the tiny labours of microscopic creatures, in a manner almost imperceptible, until at length, emerging from the bosom of the deep, it forms a beauteous island for the habitation of man, and to be adorned with a luxuriant vegetation. The heaviest snow storm that ever buried the cottage of the peasant beneath it, came down in single flakes, each one so softly that it could scarcely be felt. The mightiest avalanche, which ever carried death and destruction in its wake, was composed of single particles separately harmless; the colossal pyramids of Egypt, the palaces and temples of Rome, were built up stone by stone; and the longest life of man, even that of Methuselah, was made up of seconds of time. Oh how little do we realize the value of the littles! how seldom do we remember, as we let days and opportunities and precious talents pass by without improvement, that “God requireth that which is past.” It may be thousands of years after, but it is required sooner or later. We ourselves often require to-day what has been laid aside in some forgotten drawer for years; but it comes forth again to the light, and is applied to its use. The same analogy pervades all nature. A seed, a stone, a stick, may lie for many years apparently useless; but the appointed time comes on when it is required, and some apparently accidental circumstance calls it into notice, and it is at once applied to the end for which it was all along designed. What an importance, yea, almost a sacredness, is thus impressed on all and everything we see. No one thing stands absolutely alone. Things the most insignificant imaginable are every day found to be necessary conditions to something else of the very utmost importance; and we cannot divest ourselves of our personal and individual responsibility in reference to them, whether we would or not. They are around and about us, and we are in the midst of them. They touch us on every side. It is in our power by an act, a word, or a look, to set in operation a train of circumstances which may have eternal consequences; or we may neglect to stretch forth our hand at the proper time, and then the opportunity is lost beyond recall for ever.
But let us look a little more closely into the pregnant principle which the text contains -- “The Lord hath need of them.”
The principle embodied in these words is this -- That the Lord is pleased to require the services of his creatures, even the very meanest.
In one sense indeed he needs nothing. He has made of one blood all the children of men. Neither is he worshipped with men’s hands as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all, life and breath, and all things. All the beasts of the forest are his, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. The silver and the gold are God’s for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the heavens above, the earth beneath, and the waters under the earth, all are his, for he made them. Cherubim and seraphim, angels and archangels, depend on him for creation and preservation: his smile is their joy, their happiness. How then can it be said with truth that the infinitely blessed God needs the services of his creatures? Before the worlds were made, he dwelt alone in the fulness of beatific bliss; Father, Son, and Spirit rejoicing as triune Jehovah in their own self-sufficiency. “Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth; while as yet he had not made the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the world. Then I was by him, as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.” “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” These are the words of the eternal Son, proving that the Fountain of being stood in no need of created existence to minister to his happiness.
But, on the other hand, there is still a sense in which the words of the text have a blessed reality. God was pleased to call creation into being. That creation is one harmonious whole, consisting of an infinite variety of individual existences, animate and inanimate, organized and unorganized, intelligent and non-intelligent; rocks, seas, mountains, and rivers; animals, plants, and insects; man, angels, and celestial hosts. All this wonderful variety and countess diversity God has impressed with a no less wonderful unity, wherein part answers to part; and each individual, no matter how small or insignificant, fulfils and important function with respect to some other and the whole. According to the constitution and course of nature, therefore, which God has been pleased to set up -- according to the actual economy of his providential kingdom -- God is pleased to require the services of all his creatures for the purposes for which he has created them.
In this point of view, there is a use for every star in the blue sky, every shell in the depths of ocean, every grain of sand on the the sea-shore. Not a leaf in the forest, nor a blade of grass in the meadow, but God requires them all. All are to set forth his glory, all bear the impress of his infinite wisdom, power and beauty. The heavens declare his glory, the firmament showeth his handiwork. If this be so of the inanimate world, how much more so of man and all the intelligent creation? The Lord has need of them, we may say, not indeed to minister to him, but to minister to each other, and glorify their Creator by the prompt and willing discharge of the special function and office for which he created them.
To apply this principle more immediately to man, having made us, the Lord has need of us; that is, requires us to live to his glory. “This people have I formed for myself, they shall show forth my praise.” These words were spoken of Israel after the flesh; they are still more applicable to the Israel of God, and not untruly set forth the original design of man’s creation. When God formed man out of the dust of the earth, he created him in his own image, after his own likeness. He impressed on him the stamp of his divine original, and set him over the inferior creatures, to be lord and ruler of this lower world -- God’s vice-regent, for their good and the Creator’s glory. The fall has not impaired the original rights of Jehovah. Yea, now more especially, regard being had to the actual state of the moral world, we may say, the Lord has need of our services.
I. He requires our hearts.
The Lord has need of them, to love him and serve him with all the power and affection of which they are capable. “My son, give me thine heart.” God will not have less. Vain is mere lip-service and the homage of the outer man. We indeed judge after the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. The state of the heart is everything. There may be the most elaborate ceremonial and the most gorgeous ritual in public worship: there may be the most scrupulous attention to countless minute particulars in private devotion -- the closed eye, the subdued voice, the accurately repeated form of words; but all will not make up for the absence of the heart. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature. Unless a man be converted and born again he cannot even see, much less enter, the kingdom of God. This then is the first grand need, without which all other things are valueless -- the homage and surrender of the heart. This is more valuable than offerings of gold and silver; more fragrant than the odour of flowers and the perfume of incense. Have we given our hearts to God? Have we given our affections to him? Do we love him? Alas! how many are there who bear the Christian name, and yet who love him not. And yet St. Paul said, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha.” Why was this dreadful sentence pronounced? Because if we love not Christ, we love not God; and if we love not God, where God is we cannot come. We would not be happy there if we could. Love to God and Christ, then, are an infallible mark of the children of God. Constrained by a sense of his love, they adore his grace and mercy. They were lost by nature, without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world; but God so loved us as to send his Son to bleed and die in our stead. By his glorious sacrifice on the cross of Calvary he has made a perfect propitiation, oblation, and satisfaction for our sins; he made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in an everlasting righteousness. He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And now the believer in Christ feels that he is not his own; he is bought with a price, redeemed not with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. He no longer lives to himself, but to him who loved him and gave himself for him. He seeks to glorify God in his body and in his spirit, which are God’s.
Such is the wondrous and sublime, yet simple process, by which man is now led to love God and render to him the homage of the heart. He needs not to pretend to repeat or continue that one sacrifice once offered, once for all, finished for all time on the cross, by the one only priest; he needs not bring to that cross any fancied merits of his own, as a make weight either to the merits of Christ or the sufficiency of faith. He has but to hold out the hand of his thankful acceptance of the unspeakable gift, and receive of Christ’s fulness grace for grace. “Faith,” saith Hooker, “is the only hand which putteth on Christ to justification, and Christ is the only garment which, being so put on, covereth the shame of our defiled nature and maketh us acceptable to God.”
In Christ, then, God descends to man, and in Christ man ascends to God. The Son is the expression, exhibition, and manifestation of his Father’s love; the Son is the object of the believer’s regard. “Whom having not seen,” saith Peter, “ye love.” For he is chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely. Touched then by the mighty magic of his love, let us yield ourselves to God. For we love him because he first loved us.
II. The Lord hath need of our intellects, our reasoning powers.
The service of the gospel is a reasonable service. We are ready always to give an answer to every one that asked us a reason of the hope that is in us. At the present time the truth of the gospel is fiercely assailed in the name of a science falsely so-called, and by a superficial philosophy. Now God approves not of a blind, superstitious devotion, but rather calls for the exercise of all our intellectual faculties. The works of the Lord are great, sought out; that is, inquired into, investigated by, all them that have pleasure therein. How constantly and how beautifully did David, the inspired psalmist, call on all his members to praise God. What intense delight did he take in contemplating the wondrous works of God. How does he invite all inanimate nature even to bow down before the majesty of Jehovah: woods, hills, and vales; dragons and all deeps; wind and storm, snow and hail, sun and stars--all are called on to join in one universal anthem of praise.
The intelligent study of the works of God and the word of God should be the constant employment of the redeemed soul. We need not seek to be wise above what is written, and we may not be content to fall short. The books of creation and revelation are given us by our Father to study, that therein we may trace his footsteps and the imprint of his love. Now more than ever, when ungodly men are calling into question the truth of revelation, the Lord has need of able defenders of his cause. We have to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints, and by sound doctrine we must be able both to exhort and convince the gainsayers. St. Paul was set for the defence and confirmation of the gospel. In our respective spheres we must do the same in this ungodly age, when the enemy is coming in like a flood. Let us then consecrate our intellects to God -- our memories to be stored up with his precious truths; our reason to understand, contemplate, and defend his cause; our imagination fondly to dwell upon the bright prospects of the better land, and the many mansions in our Father’s house.
III. The Lord has need of our bodies in his service.
Fearfully and wonderfully are we made, curiously wrought, as it were, in the lower parts of the earth. True religion is not merely spiritual, nor only intellectual. It is not a series of mere spiritual intuitions, nor a chain of intellectual demonstration. It is an active service. There is work for all the powers of the body, as well as all the faculties of the soul and all the affections and emotions of the spirit. The Lord has need of them all for his service. “I beseech you therefore,” says St. Paul, “that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice to God, which is your reasonable service.” It is but reasonable that the wondrous organism of the human frame should be dedicated to God. It is his temple. The ivory palace of the brain; the bright glance of the eye, reaching to the remotest bounds of space; the curious convolutions of the ear quick to catch the faintest sound of melody; the tongue of eloquence to speak for God; the hand of skill to work for him; the foot of speed to run willingly in the race set before us -- the Lord has need of them all. See how all were employed by Paul in his Master’s cause. His was the foot which never wearied; his the hand which never slacked: the tongue of eloquence, the pen of power, the eye of intelligence, the ear and heart of Christian sympathy -- all were his, and in constant play for the glory of his Saviour and the welfare of his fellow-creatures.
Ever let us remember that the body is redeemed, as well as the soul. It is the member of Christ, and must therefore be kept pure. It is to share in the future glory, for we wait for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body; this corruptible must put on incorruptibility, this mortal must put on immortality. We look for the Saviour from heaven, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. The whole man then is redeemed, the whole man in his wondrous complexity, body, soul, and spirit; and the Lord is pleased, in the gospel of his grace, to have need of them all.
IV. He needs our gold and silver.
Under the Old Testament the Lord directed a tabernacle, and afterwards a temple, to be made. The workmanship of both was of costly materials, gold and silver, and purple and scarlet, and precious stones, onyx stones and glistering stones of various colours, and marble stones in abundance. Under the new dispensation he requires our means, though not exactly for the same purposes. Souls are to be converted and brought to Christ. The millions of the heathen are perishing for lack of knowledge; thousands of street Arabs are growing up without education, no one to care for their souls; the streets and alleys, the cellars and garrets of our town populations stand in need of the utmost efforts of Christian philanthropy, to bind up the broken heart, smooth the sick pillow, cool the fevered brain, pour light into the hearts and homes of the destitute, and to bring the weary, world-despised wanderer into the blessed precincts of the fold of Christ. For all this we need the silver and the gold of Christian men and Christian women. The heralds of the cross are ready to go forth; the ministering angels of charity and peace are on their blessed mission. We want but means to be multiplied a thousand fold in order, under the blessing of God, to turn the wilderness into a paradise, the desert into the garden of the Lord, to plant the myrtle, the oil tree, and the box tree together, yea, to open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys. The silver and the gold are mine, saith God. Let us prove him now herewith, and see if the Lord will not open the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing which there shall not be room to receive. Alas! Christian people have yet to learn that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
V. The Lord has need of our influence.
Oh, influence is a wonderful thing. We cannot see it, nor feel it with hands, nor hear it; yet it is in constant operation all over the world. It is like the attraction of gravitation, or some of the imponderable fluids or mysterious agents of nature. It is always at work -- silently, insensibly, but so powerfully! There are none so poor, or so feeble, who are not the source of this secret power to a greater or lesser degree. The unconscious babe, the outcast pauper, the invalid, the dumb, the blind, all exert influence. From them emanate streams of mysterious agency, the nature and operation of which surpass our powers fully to understand. We can but recognize the fact. All the world over, in every rank of society, hearts, and wills, and characters are being moulded and framed and fashioned by the influence which unconsciously flows forth from every living creature. Like the circumambient atmosphere by which we are surrounded, or the light of heaven with which we are bathed, and which pervades and acts upon all within the sphere of its operation, so the wondrous play of influence acts and reacts on all the individuals of society.
The Lord has need of it for His service. Let none underrate the transcendent importance of this talent. We each influence a sphere, of which we are the respective centre. The higher our station the greater our influence, and consequently our responsibility. Even when we are absent it is in operation. Many a man has had an influence, by way of example or warning, on hundreds whom he has never seen in the flesh, nor ever will until he meets them at the bar of God. In this way we are directly responsible for the formation of character in respect to thousands of whom we have never heard; for influence is transmitted through the medium of others. All the gifts and talents we possess are the source of influence, the full value of which in results we can but faintly estimate. For good or for evil these influences are in ceaseless operation, whether we like it or not. We cannot arrest for one single moment the wondrous current. It is for us to determine, by God’s help, in what way it shall be best directed; but, Oh, let us never forget the Lord has need of it. It may be employed for his glory and the good of others, or it may be the cause of untold misery. Which shall it be?
Let us then seriously examine ourselves in the light of the great and all-important principle which these words of Christ contain.
The Lord has need of us. Have we acknowledged this claim? We are his by creation; we are his by daily preservation; by we are his by redemption. Have we acted on this truth? His service is perfect freedom. Do we believe this? No man liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself; we are the Lord’s by right of purchase. Has this truth been matter of personal conviction to each?
Selfishness is the law of the natural heart. Our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? We will not have this man to reign over us. These expressions but too plainly set forth the proud, defiant, attitude of the human heart. The gospel of Christ lays the axe at the root of this tree. Like Dagon, it falls before the ark of God.
Three reflections may suitably close these remarks: --
1. Let us pray earnestly to God for his Holy Spirit to produce in us the deep, heartfelt, conviction of this all-comprehensive truth -- the Lord has need of us for his service; he is pleased to be willing to employ us in his work. Man is slow to recognize this truth. Nothing but divine teaching can enable him to embrace it; we need the regenerating and converting influence of God’s Spirit. By nature dead in trespasses and sins, we require the quickening grace of God to awaken us to a sense of a higher world and the realities of eternity. Hence all through the scripture we are everywhere taught, that a real supernatural influence from on high is needed. “They shall be all taught of God,” saith the prophet. “Every man that hath learned and heard of the Father,” saith Christ, “cometh unto me.” Let us then be very earnest in prayer for the unction from the Holy One, which teacheth and which abideth. We have the precious encouragement of the Redeemer: “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
2. Let us, under the influence of that Spirit, betake ourselves to the cross of Christ, there in humble faith, to wash our sins away in all-cleansing blood. Faith in that blood is the divinely appointed means for obtaining pardon and peace. The blood of Christ purges our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. The doctrine of justification by faith only must ever be held fast with holy tenacity. We have nothing to pay, but merely to trust in, depend upon, God’s freely offered mercy through Christ. This is the work of God, the one great work--itself inclusive also as the seminal principle of all works -- to believe on him whom he hath sent. It is an affair of the heart as well as, yea perhaps more than, of the head; it is the affectionate, cordial, thankful, acceptance of salvation as a free gift from God, coming to us through the atoning sacrifice of his dear Son.
3. Let us daily surrender ourselves to God’s service. When we rise in the morning, let us feel that the Lord still spares us because he has work for us in his vineyard. There will be need of all our fidelity and temper, our industry and patience, our Christian graces and natural powers, to glorify God, and to go about, like Jesus, doing good amongst our fellow-creatures; and whatsoever our hand findeth to do let us do it with all our might, working while it is called to-day, for the night cometh when no man can work.
And lastly, let us learn to feel the ennobling character of true Christian work. It is the Lord’s work. We must be about our Father’s business. The work which he hath given us to do, let us do it. And ere long we shall be summoned up higher to wear the victor’s crown, and wave the triumphant palm, and join the hosannas of the redeemed in the heavenly Jerusalem, whilst to golden harps we sing the endless song of salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen.
-- W. F. Taylor, LL.D., M.A.
----------------
THE CHILDREN’S SERVICE.
HOW A GREAT KING CAME WITH THOUSANDS, AND WENT BACK ALONE.
IN the later days of the kingdom of Judah there was a good king of the name of Hezekiah, to whom some strange things happened. I will now tell you of them: one was a very wonderful deliverance that God wrought for him, when he and his people were in great danger; another was a very singular deliverance from death. Before Hezekiah’s day the kingdom of Judah had fallen very low. His father Ahaz was a very bad man. He did a great many wicked things in the service of idols; he made images of Baal; he offered sacrifices on the hills and in the groves, as if there were no temple in Jerusalem and no living God there; he burnt his children in the fire to the grim god Moloch in the valley of Tophet. When God punished him for his sins, by letting the Syrians and Edomites beat him in war, he only grew worse. The Philistines invaded Judah, and took a number of towns, and Ahaz in his straits sent to the king of Assyria to come and help him; but though he came he gave him no help, but added to his misery. Then he grew worse than ever. He said he would now serve the gods of Syria; he got a great altar made, like one he had seen in Damascus; he shut up the doors of the house of the Lord, and became quite mad in idolatry and sin. So, at the time of his death, Judah was very low, and the people were oppressed by the Assyrians very heavily. They were reaping the bitter fruits of forsaking God.
When Hezekiah came to the throne, he soon showed that he was going to be a very different king from his father. His first care was to throw open the doors of that had been taken away, bring back the priests, and the passover with great care, and a wonderful throng of people came from all the land to observe it. After that he made a great many wise arrangements for continuing the service of God; and the people did as he bade them, with much zeal. The whole land became quite different from what it had been, and everything the king took in hand prospered.
When he had done these things, he thought himself strong enough to break with the king of Assyria, and not to bear his yoke any more. This made the great king, as he was fond of calling himself, very angry, and he sent an army into Judah, and threatened to lay the country waste, and carry the people away into the east. He had a captain called Rab-shakeh, and him he sent forward to Jerusalem with a proud insulting message, speaking bold and blasphemous things against the God of Israel. Hezekiah had been very much troubled at first, and had tried to make peace by acknowledging a fault, and saying that he would pay as much money as might be asked of him; but that did not in the end satisfy the Assyrian king. So he sent, as I have said, to Jerusalem, and said he wanted to take the people captive. It was a great thing for Hezekiah, that at this time there was a holy prophet in Jerusalem. His name was Isaiah, and he was one by whom God sent a great many messages to the people. So Hezekiah sent to him, to tell him what bold, bad, words Rab-shekeh had spoken, and to ask him to pray to God to help the people. Isaiah sent back cheering words, and assured the king that God would deliver him. Rab-shakeh then went back to his master, and he, hearing that another great king was coming to fight him, had to pause for a little; but he sent a letter which was even bolder and more blasphemous than the former message. It said to Hezekiah, You are trusting, I suppose, in your God; but the gods of other nations could not save them from my power, and who is Jehovah that he should be able to deliver you? Hezekiah was shocked when he got this letter, and he went in with it to the house of the Lord, and spread it out before God, and prayed to him to save his people out of the hand of this fierce and proud man, who made no difference between dead stocks and the living God. He then received another cheering message by the hand of the prophet Isaiah, and was able ...