Everyday Religion
by C. H. Spurgeon
“The life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.”—
Galatians ii. 20.
I am not about to preach from this whole verse, for I have done that
before: this single sentence will suffice me. I shall not attempt to
enter into the fulness of the spiritual meaning of this very deep and
fruitful passage; I am merely going to bring out one thought from it,
and to try to work that out, I trust, to practical ends. It has
sometimes been objected to the preaching of the gospel, that we exhort
men to live for another sphere, and do not teach them to live well in
the present life. Nothing can be more untrue than this: I venture to
say that more practical moral teaching is given by ministers of the
gospel than by all the philosophers, lecturers, and moralists put
together. While we count ourselves to be ordained to speak of something
higher than mere morals, we nevertheless, nay, and for that very
reason, inculcate the purest code of duty, and lay down the soundest
rules of conduct. It would be a great pity, dear brethren, if in the
process of being qualified for the next life we became disqualified for
this; but it is not so. It would be a very strange thing if, in order
to be fit for the company of angels, we should grow unfit to associate
with men; but it is not so. It would be a singular circumstance if
those who speak of heaven had nothing to say concerning the way
thither; but it is not so. The calumny is almost too stale to need a
new denial. My brethren, true religion has as much to do with this
world as with the world to come; it is always urging us onward to the
higher and better life; but it does so by processes and precepts which
fit us worthily to spend our days while here below. Godliness prepares
us for the life which follows the laying down of this mortal flesh; but
as Paul tells us in the text, it moulds the life which we now live in
the flesh. Faith is a principle for present use; see how it has
triumphed in ordinary life according to the record of the eleventh
chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Godliness with contentment is
great gain: it hath the promise of the life that now is, as well as of
that which is to come. The sphere of faith is earth and heaven, time
and eternity; the sweep of its circle takes in the whole of our
being—spirit, soul, and body; it comprehends the past and the future,
and it certainly does not omit the present. With the things that now
are the faith of Christians has to do; and it is concerning the life
that we now live in the flesh that I shall now speak, trying, by the
help of God’s Spirit, to show the influence which faith has upon it.
There are seven points in which faith in him who loved us and gave
himself for us wild have a distinct influence upon the life which we
now live in the flesh.
I. To begin. FAITH INCLINES A MAN TO AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE. It suggests
activity. I will venture to say of any lazy man that he has little or
no faith in God for faith always— “worketh by love.” I lay it down as a
thesis which shall be proved by observation that a believing man
becomes an active man, or else it is because he cannot act, and,
therefore, what would have been activity runs into the channel of
patience, and he endures with resignation the will of the Most High. He
who does nothing believes nothing—that is to say, in reality and in
truth. Faith is but an empty show if it produces no result upon the
life. If a professor manifests no energy, no industry, no zeal, no
perseverance, no endeavour to serve God, there is cause gravely to
question whether he is a believer at all. It is a mark of faith that,
whenever it comes into the soul, even in its lowest degree, it suggests
activity. Look at the prodigal, and note his early desires. The life of
grace begins to gleam into his spirit, and its first effect is the
confession of sin. He cries, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and
before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.” But what is
the second effect? He desires to be doing something. “Make me as one of
thy hired servants.” Having nothing to do had helped to make him the
prodigal he was. He had wasted his substance in riotous idleness,
seeking enjoyment without employment. He had plunged into the foulest
vices because he was master of money but not master of himself. It was
not an ill thing for him when he was sent into the fields to feed
swine: the company which he met with at the swine trough was better
than that which he had kept at his banquets. One of the signs of the
return of his soul’s sanity was his willingness to work, although it
might be only as a menial servant in his father’s house. In actual
history observe how Saul of Tarsus, even before he had found peaceful
faith in Christ, cried, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Faith
arouses the soul to action. It is the first question of believing
anxiety, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Hence faith is such a
useful thing to men in the labour and travail of this mortal life,
because it puts them into motion and supplies them with a motive for
work. Faith does not permit men to lie upon the bed of the sluggard,
listless, frivolous, idle; but it makes life to appear real and
earnest, and so girds the loins for the race.
Everyone should follow an honourable vocation. It was a rule of the old
church, and it ought to be one of the present— “If any man will not
work neither let him eat.” It is good for us all to have something to
do, and plenty of it. When man was perfect God placed him in a
paradise, but not in a dormitory. He set him in the garden to “dress it
and to keep it.” It would not have been a happy place for Adam if he
had had nothing to do but to smell the roses and gaze at the flowers:
work was as essential to the perfect man as it is to us, though it was
not of the kind which brings sweat to the face or weariness to the
limbs. In the garden of grace faith is set to a happy service, and
never wishes to be otherwise than occupied for her Lord.
The text says, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God.” Does faith in the Son of God, who loved him
and gave himself for him, suggest to the redeemed man that he should be
industrious and active? Assuredly it does; for it sets the divine
Saviour before him as an example, and where was there ever one who
worked as Jesus did? In his early youth he said, “Wist ye not that I
must be about my Father’s business?” He was no loitering heir of a
gentleman, but the toiling son of a carpenter. In after life it was his
meat and his drink to do the will of him that sent him. He says, “My
Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” His was stern labour and sore
travail: the zeal of God’s house did eat him up, and the intensity of
love consumed him. He worked on until he could say, “I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do.” Now, it is no small thing for a
man to be roused by such an example, and to be made a partaker of such
a spirit.
True faith in him who loved us, and gave himself for us, also seeks
direction of the Lord as to the sphere of its action, and waits upon
him to be guided by him in the choice of a calling This part of our
discourse may be useful to young persons who have not settled upon what
they are to do in life. Faith is a great service to us here. Much
depends upon the choice of our pursuits. Very grievous mistakes have
been made here—as grievous mistakes as if a bird in the air should have
undertaken the pursuits of a fish, or a labouring ox should have
entered into competition with a race-horse. Some people are trying to
do what they were never made for, ambitious beyond their line. This is
a grievous evil. There should, therefore, be a seeking unto God for
guidance and direction; and faith leads us to such seeking. This prayer
may be used in many senses: “Show me what thou wouldest have me to do.”
In the choice of a calling faith helps a Christian to refuse that which
is the most lucrative if it be attended with a questionable morality.
If the Christian could have huge purses of that gold which is coined
out of the drunkenness, the lust, or the ungodliness of men, he would
scorn to put them among his stores. Trades which are injurious to men’s
minds and hearts are not lawful callings before God. Dishonest gain is
awful loss. Gold gained by deceit or oppression shall burn into the
soul of its owner as the fire of hell. “Make money,” said the worldling
to his son; “make it honestly if you can, but, anyhow, make money.”
Faith abhors this precept of Mammon, and having God’s providence for
its inheritance, it scorns the devil’s bribe. Choose no calling over
which you cannot ask God’s blessing, or you will be acting contrary to
the law of faith. If you cannot conceive of the Lord Jesus wishing you
success in a certain line of trade, do not touch it. If it is not
possible to think of your Lord as smiling upon you in your daily
calling, then your calling is not fit for a Christian to follow.
Callings should be deliberately chosen with a view to our own
suitableness for them. Faith watches the design of God, and desires to
act according to his intent. It had been ill for David to have lived in
retirement, or for the prophet Nathan to have aspired to the throne.
The law of the kingdom is—“Every man in his own order”; or in other
words, “Every man according to his several ability.” If the Lord has
given us one talent let us use it in its own market; or if two, or
five, let us trade with them where they can be most profitably
employed, so that we may be found faithful servants in the day of the
Master’s coming.
We should also by faith desire such a calling as Providence evidently
has arranged and intended for us. Some persons have never had a free
choice of what vocation they would follow; for from their birth,
position, surroundings, and connections they are set in a certain line
of things, like carriages on the tram lines, and they must follow on
the appointed track, or stand still. Faith expects to hear the voice
behind it saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Trusting to our own
judgment often means following our own whims; but faith seeks direction
from infallible wisdom, and so it is loaf in a right way. God knows
your capacity better than you do; entreat him to choose your
inheritance for you. If the flowers were to revolt against the
gardener, and each one should select its own soil, most of them would
pine and die through their unsuitable position; but he who has studied
their nature knows that this dower needs shade and damp; and another
needs sunlight and a light soil; and so he puts his plants where they
are most likely to flourish. God doeth the same with us. He hath made
some to be kings, though few of those plants flourish much. He has made
many to be poor, and the soil of poverty, though damp and cold, has
produced many a glorious harvest for the great Reaper. The Lord has set
some in places of peril, places from which they would gladly escape,
but they are there preserved by his hand; he has planted many others in
the quiet shade of obscurity, and they blossom to the praise of the
great Husbandman.
So, then, you see, faith has much to do with the force and direction of
our life in the flesh. It provides impetus by giving a man something to
live for; it shows him the far-reaching influences of the thoughts and
deeds of to-day, and how they issue in eternal results; and faith also
takes the helm and steers the vessel along a safe channel towards the
haven of holy rest. Happy are they who in the early days of their youth
believe in him who loved them and gave himself for them, and so begin
their life-walk with Jesus. Blessed be God for converting some of us
while we were yet boys and girls. O happy young people, who begin life
with the early dew of grace upon them! No prince of eastern empires was
ever so richly bejewelled! You will not in after-days have to lament a
score years spent in error, or half a life wasted in sin, or a whole
seventy years frittered away in idleness. O that you, who are yet
young, who have the world before you, may now be led by the Spirit to
follow Christ, who pleased not himself but did the will of his Father,
so shall the life that you live in the flesh be lived by the faith of
the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.
II. Secondly, FAITH LEADS A MAN TO LOOK TO GOD FOR HELP IN HIS ORDINARY
AVOCATION. Here, again, it has a great influence over him. A believer
may seek of God the qualifications for his particular calling. “What,”
say you, “may we pray about such things?” Yes. The labourer may appeal
to God for strength; the artisan may ask God for skill; the student may
seek God for help to quicken his intelligence.
David was a great warrior, and he attributed his valour to God who
taught his hands to war and his fingers to fight. We read of Bezaleel,
and of the women that were wise-hearted, that God had taught them, so
that they made all manner of embroidery and metal work for the house of
the Lord. In those days they used to reckon skill and invention to be
the gifts of God; this wretched century has grown too wise to honour
any God but its own idolized self. If you pray over your work I am
persuaded you will be helped in it. If for your calling you are as yet
but slenderly qualified, you may every morning pray God to help you
that you may be careful and observant as an apprentice or a beginner;
for has he not promised that as your day your strength shall be? A mind
which is trusting in the Lord is in the best condition for acquiring
knowledge, and getting understanding.
As to your behaviour also in your work, there is room for faith and
prayer. For, O brethren, whether qualified or not for any particular
offices of this life, our conduct is the most important matter. It is
well to be clever, but it is essential to be pure. I would have you
masters of your trades, but I am even more earnest that you should be
honest, truthful, and holy. About this we may confidently go to God and
ask him to lead us in a plain path, and to hold up our goings that we
slip not, He can and will help us to behave ourselves wisely. “Lead us
not into temptation” is one sentence of our daily prayer, and we may
further ask that when we are in the temptation we may be delivered from
the evil. We need prudence, and faith remembers that if any lack wisdom
he may ask of God. Godliness teaches the young men prudence, the babes
knowledge and discretion. See how Joseph prospered in Egypt because the
Lord was with him. He was placed in very difficult positions, on one
occasion in a position of the most terrible danger, but he escaped by
saying, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” A
sense of God’s presence preserved him then and at all other times. He
was set over all the house of Potiphar because God was with him. And
so, dear friends, engaged in service or in business, you may go to your
heavenly Father and ask him to guide you with his counsel, and you may
rest assured that he will order all your way, so that your daily
calling shall not hinder your heavenly calling, nor your conduct belie
your profession.
Faith bids you seek help from God as to the success of your daily
calling. Know ye not what David says, “Except the Lord build the house,
they labour in vain that build it. It is vain for you to rise up early,
to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his
beloved sleep.” It is a most pleasant thing to be able by faith to
consult the holy oracle about everything, whether it arises in trade,
or in the family, or in the church. We may say with Abraham’s servant,
“O Lord, I pray thee send me good speed this day.” You may expect
success if you thus seek it: and peradventure some of you would have
prospered more if you had more believingly sought the Lord. I say
“peradventure,” because God does not always prosper even his own people
in outward things, since it is sometimes better for their souls that
they should be in adversity, and then the highest prosperity is a want
of prosperity. Faith quiets the heart in this matter by enabling us to
leave results in the hand of God.
Faith acts also in reference to our surroundings. We are all very much
influenced by those about us. God can raise us up friends who will be
eminently helpful to us, and we may pray him to do so: he can put us
into a circle of society in which we shall find much assistance in this
life’s affairs, and also in our progress towards heaven; and concerning
this we know that “The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord.”
Faith will keep you clear of evil company, and constrain you to seek
the society of the excellent of this earth, and thus it will colour
your whole life. If there be no friends to help him, the believer’s
dependence is so fixed upon God, that ho goes forward in cheerful
confidence knowing that the Lord alone is sufficient for him; yet, if
he be encouraged and assisted by friends, he looks upon it as God’s
doing, as much as when David was strengthened by those who came to him
in the cave.
Do you say, We see the connection of this with faith, but how with
faith upon the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us? I
answer,—Our Saviour as the object of our faith is also the object of
our imitation, and you know, brethren, how in all things he rested upon
God. Whenever he undertook a great enterprise you find him spending a
night in prayer. If anybody could have dispensed with prayer it was our
Lord Jesus; if any man that ever lived could have found his own way
without heavenly guidance it was Christ the Son of God. If then he was
as much in prayer and exercised faith in the great Father, much more
should you and I bring everything before God. We should live in the
flesh expecting that the Lord Jesus will be with us even to the end,
and that we shall be upheld and comforted by his sympathetic love and
tenderness. Faith enables us to follow Jesus as the great Shepherd of
the sheep, and to expect to be led in a right way, and daily upheld and
sustained until the Redeemer shall come to receive us unto himself.
III. Thirdly, faith exercises a power over a man’s life of a remarkable
kind because IT LEADS HIM TO SERVE GOD IN HIS DAILY CALLING. Never is
life more ennobled than when we do all things as unto God. This makes
drudgery sublime, and links the poorest menial with the brightest
angel. Seraphs serve God in heaven, and you and I may serve him in the
pulpit or in the kitchen, and be as accepted as they are. Brethren,
Christian men are helped by faith to serve God in their calling by
obedience to God’s commands, by endeavouring to order everything
according to the rules of love to God and love to men. In such a case
integrity and uprightness preserve the man, and his business becomes
true worship. Though there be no straining after eccentric
unworldliness and superstitious singularity, yet in doing that which is
right and just, the common tradesman is separated unto the service of
the Lord. Jesus says, “If any man serve me let him follow me,” as much
as to say that obedience to the divine command is the true mode of
showing love to Jesus. If thou wishest to do something great for God,
be greatly careful to obey his commands: for “to obey is better than
sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
Godly men exercise faith in God in their callings by trying to manifest
a Christian spirit in all that they do. The spirit which actuates us
may seem to be a small matter so long as we are outwardly right; but it
is in reality the essence of the whole thing. Take away the flavour
from the fruit, or the fragrance from the flower, and what is left?
Such is correct living without the savour of grace. The same thing can
be done in several ways: you can do a right thing in so wrong a way as
to make it wrong. Even in giving to the poor, a churl will trample upon
their feelings in the very act of his charity; while I have known
others who have been unable to give who, nevertheless, have expressed
their inability in so kindly a form that they have comforted the
disappointed applicant. Oh, to act in your trade and your calling as
Christ would have acted had he been in your place. Hang that question
up in your houses, “What would Jesus do?” and then think of another,
“How would Jesus do it?” for what he would do, and how he would do it,
may always stand as the best guide to us. Thus faith puts a man upon
serving God by leading him to exhibit the spirit of Christ in what he
ordinarily does, showing all courtesy, gentleness, forbearance,
charity, and grace.
Furthermore, in all that we do, we should be aiming at God’s glory. We
should do everything as unto God, and not unto men. There would be no
eye-service if we left off being men-pleasers and began to please God.
Neither would there be impatience under injustice; for if men do not
accept our service when we have done it with all our hearts, we shall
comfort ourselves with the reflection that our Master in heaven knows
how little we deserve the unrighteous censure. To live as kings and
priests unto God is the cream of living. Then will you be the Lord’s
free men. Serve God in serving men, and serve men by serving God: there
is a way of working out those two sentences even to the full, and thus
rendering life sublime. May God the Holy Spirit teach us to do this. If
we really live to serve God we shall live intensely day by day,
allowing no time to waste. Sophie Cook sought Mr. Wesley’s counsel as
to what she should do in life, and he answered, “Live to-day”: a very
short direction, but one that is full of wisdom. “Live to-day,” and
tomorrow you may do the same. Plans for the whole term of life many of
you may not be able to construct, but mind that you work while it is
called to-day. “Son, go work to-day in my vineyard” is the great
Father’s word. How would a man live if he felt that he was specially to
live for God this day? Suppose that to-day there was a vow upon you, or
some other bond, by which you felt that this whole day was solemnly
consecrated to the Lord; how would you behave yourself? So ought you to
behave this day, and every day; for you belong wholly to him who loved
you, and gave himself for you. Let the love of Christ constrain us in
this matter: let us put on the yoke of Christ, and feel at once that we
are his blood-bought possession, and his servants for ever, because by
faith he has become ours and we are his. We ought to live as Christ’s
men in every little as well as in every great matter; whether we eat or
drink, or whatsoever we do, we should do all to the glory of God,
giving thanks unto God and the Father by Christ Jesus. Thus, you see,
faith in him who gave himself for us leads us to spend our energies in
his service, and to do our ordinary work with an eye to his glory, and
so our life is coloured and savoured by our faith in the Son of God.
IV. Fourthly, faith has a very beneficial influence upon the life that
we live in the flesh, for IT RECONCILES A MAN TO THE DISCOMFORTS OF HIS
CALLING. It is not every calling that is easy or lucrative, or honoured
among men. It is a happy circumstance when a man has espoused a
business which is so congenial with his taste that he would not change
it for another if he could: but some find their trades irksome to them.
This is an evil under the sun. Some employments are despised by the
thoughtless, and involve much self-denial, and hence those who follow
them need much faith to enable them to live above the trials of their
position. Faith teaches the humble worker to see Jesus in all his
lowliness, condescending to take upon himself the form of a servant for
our sakes. Faith reads, “Jesus, knowing that he came forth from God and
went to God, took a towel, and girded himself, and washed his
disciples’ feet.” That was one of the most menial of employments, and
if our Lord and Master did not disdain it why should we be ashamed of
the humblest form of service? From henceforth let no man trouble you,
but rejoice because the poor man’s Saviour was a servant even as you
are, and he too was “despised and rejected of men.”
Your faith ought to help you by arousing your gratitude for deliverance
from a far worse drudgery. You did for Satan things of which you are
now ashamed. Any work for the devil, and for his black cause, would be
dishonourable: to rule an empire for Satan would disgrace us; to wear
the crown put on our heads by sinning would be a horrible curse, but to
wash feet for Christ is glorious service. There is no degradation in
anything that is done for God. Faith in God sanctifies the man, and his
calling, too, and makes it pleasant to him to carry the cross of Christ
in his daily labour. There are some who hold their heads high, who,
nevertheless, do things that are disgraceful to humanity, but surely
you and I ought never to think anything a hardship which falls to our
lot by the appointment of divine providence.
Faith is a great teacher of humility; for it bids us think little of
ourselves, and rest alone in God; and because it fosters humility it
renders a man’s task pleasant when else it would be irksome. Pride
makes a man stiff in the back: there are some works which he cannot do
though he would be happy enough in doing them if he had not such
foolish ideas of his own importance. Hard work is no disgrace to any
man; it is far more degrading to be leading the life of a fashionable
do-nothing. When the Lord makes us feel that we are poor, undeserving
creatures, we do not mind taking the lowest room, or doing the meanest
work, for we feel that as long as we are out of hell and have a hope of
heaven, the meanest service is an honour to us. We are glad enough to
be where God would have us be, seeing Christ has loved us and given
himself for us.
Faith also removes discomforts by reminding us that they will not last
long. Faith says of trial, “Bear it! The time is short. Soon the
Saviour cometh, and the poorest of his followers shall then reign with
him.” Toil on, O weary one, for the morning light will put an end to
thy labour, which lasts only through the hours of darkness. The glory
breaks; the night is wearing away, and the dawn appeareth. Therefore
patiently wait and quietly hope, for thou shalt see the salvation of
God. Thus faith takes the thorns from our pillow, and makes us learn in
whatsoever state we are therewith to be content. Call you this nothing?
Has not Jesus done much for us when by faith in him we have learned to
endure the ills of life with sweet content?
V. Fifthly, faith has this further influence upon ordinary life-THAT IT
CASTS ALL THE BURDEN OF IT UPON THE LORD. Faith is the great remover of
yokes, and it does this in part by making us submissive to God’s will.
When we have learned to submit we cease to repine. Faith teaches us so
to believe in God, infallible wisdom and perfect love, that we consent
unto the Lord’s will and rejoice in it. Faith teaches us to look to the
end of every present trial, and to know that it works together for
good; thus again reconciling us to the passing grief which it causes.
Faith teaches us to depend upon the power of God to help us in the
trial, and through the trial, and in this way we are no longer stumbled
by afflictions, but rise above them as on eagles’ wings. Brethren, if
any of you are anxious, careworn and worried, stop not in such a state
of mind; it cannot do you any good; and it reflects no honour upon your
great Father. Pray for more faith, that you may have no back-breaking
load to carry, but may transfer it to the great Burden-bearer. Pray to
your great Lord so to strengthen and ease your heart that your only
care may be to please him, and that you may be released from all other
care. By this means will you be greatly helped, for if the burden be
lightened, it comes to much the same thing as if the strength were
multiplied. Content with the divine will is better than increase of
riches, or removal of affliction, for with wealth no peace may come;
and out of prosperity no joy in the Lord may arise, but contentment is
peace itself.
Whatever burden faith finds in her daily avocation she casts it upon
God by prayer. We begin with God in the morning, seeking help to do our
work, and to do it well. At his hands we seek guidance and prosperity
from hour to hour. We pray him to prevent our doing any wrong to
others, or suffering any wrong from them; and we ask him to keep our
temper and to preserve our spirit while we are with worldly men. We beg
that we may not be infected by the evil example of others, and that our
example may be such as may be safely followed. These are our great
concerns in business; we tremble lest in anything we should dishonour
God, and we trust in him to keep us. A believer goes to God with the
matters of each day, and looks for the morning dew to fall upon him; he
looks up through the day expecting the Lord to be his constant shield,
and at night ere he goes to rest he empties out the gathered troubles
of the day, and so falls to a happy sleep. Then doth a man live sweetly
when he lives by the day, trusting his Lord with everything, and
finding God to be ever near.
To all this the example of the Saviour leads us, and his love within
our hearts draws us. “He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver
him,” and “was heard in that he feared.”
VI. Sixthly, faith hath a happy influence upon the present life, for IT
MODERATES A MAN’S FEELINGS AS TO THE RESULT OF HIS WORK. Sometimes the
result of our work is prosperity, and here the grace of God prevents a
surfeit of worldly things. There is a keen test of character in
prosperity. Everybody longs for it, but it is not every man that can
bear it when it comes. True faith forbids our setting great store by
worldly goods and pleasures and enjoyments, for it teaches us that our
treasure is in heaven. If we begin to idolize the things that are seen,
we shall soon degenerate and turn aside from God. How easily we may
spoil a blessing! Two friends gathered each a rose: the one was
continually smelling at it, touching its leaves and handling it as if
he could not hold it too fast. you do not wonder that it was soon
withered. The other took his rose, enjoyed its perfume moderately,
carried it in his hand for a while, and then placed it on the table in
water, and hours after it was almost as fresh as when it was plucked
from the bough. We may dote on our worldly gear until God becomes
jealous of it, and sends a blight upon it; and, on the other hand, we
may with holy moderateness use these things as not abusing them, and
get from them the utmost good which they are capable of conveying to
us. Many pursue wealth or fame as some eager boy hunts the painted
butterfly: at last, after a long and weary run, he dashes it down with
his cap, and with the stroke he spoils its beauty. Many a man hath
reached the summit of a life-long ambition and found it to be mere
vanity. In gaining all he has lost all; wealth has come, but the power
to enjoy it has gone; life has been worn out in the pursuit, and no
strength is left with which to enjoy the gain. It shall not be so with
the man who lives by faith, for his chief joys are above, and his
comfort lies within. To him God is joy so rich that other joy is
comparatively flavourless.
But perchance the result of all our work may be adversity. Some men row
very hard, and yet their boat makes no headway. When an opportunity
presents itself the tide of trade suddenly turns against them. When
they have corn in the mill the wind does not blow. Perhaps they lose
all but their character, and then it is that faith comes in to cheer
them under the disaster. I am deeply grieved when I hear of persons
committing suicide because they were in difficulties: it is a dreadful
thing thus to rush before one’s Creator unbidden. Faith sustains the
heart and puts aside all thought of such desperate attempts to fly from
present griefs by plunging into far more awful woes. We shall bear up
and come through our trials triumphantly if we have faith in God. If
our heavenly Father has appointed a bitter cup for us shall we not
drink it? If the fields which we have tilled yield no harvests, and the
beasts that we have foddered die in the stall, shall we not bow the
head and say, “The Lord hath done it”? Must it not be right if the Lord
ordains it? It us bless him still. If not, it will be our unbelief
which hinders. How many have been happy in poverty, happier than they
were in wealth! How often have the saints rejoiced more during sickness
than in their health. Payson declared that during illness he felt
happier than he had ever been, far happier than he had ever expected to
be. Though bereavement has come into the family, and sickness unto the
household, yet faith has learned to sing in all weathers because her
God is still the same.
O brothers and sisters, faith is a precious preparative for anything
and everything that comes; mind that you have it always ready for
action. Do not leave it at home in time of storm as the foolish seaman
left his anchor. It is not a grace to be shut up in a closet, or
fastened to a communion table, or boxed up in a pew, but it is an
everyday grace which is to be our companion in the shop and in the
market, in the parlor and in the kitchen, in the workroom and in the
field; ay, it may go into the workhouse with the poor, as well as into
the mansion with the rich; it may either cheer the dreary hours of the
infirmary, or sanctify the sunny weeks of holiday. Faith is for every
place in which a good man may lawfully be found. “Should fate command
you to the utmost verge of the green earth, to rivers unknown to song,”
yet shall a childlike faith in God find you a home in every clime,
under every sky. Oh, to feel the power of it, as to all that comes of
our labour, that the life which we live in the flesh may be lived by
faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.
VII. Seventhly, faith has this sweet influence upon our present life,
that IT ENABLES A MAN CHEERFULLY TO LEAVE HIS OCCUPATION WHEN THE TIME
COMES. A Christian may have to quit a favourite vocation on account of
circumstances over which he has no control; he may have to emigrate to
a distant land, or altogether to change his mode of living, and this
may involve many a wrench to his feelings. It is not always easy to
leave the old house, and all its surroundings, and to take a long
journey; nor is it pleasant to change one’s settled habits and begin
life anew; yet true faith sets loose by worldly things, and is ready to
haul up the anchor and make sail at the divine bidding. The believer
says, “Command my journey, and I go.” I am but a tent dweller, and must
expect to be on the move. Like Israel in the desert, we must follow the
cloud, and journey or rest as the cloud ordains, for here we have no
continuing city, but we seek one to come. Faith has the same gracious
influence upon those who enjoy unbroken prosperity; it keeps them from
taking root in the soil of earth, and this is a miracle of grace.
Sometimes our vocations have to be given up through weakness or old
age. It is a hard pinch to many a busy man when he feels that he has no
more strength for business, when he perceives that other and more
vigorous minds must be allowed to step into the long occupied position.
The workman cannot bear to feel that his hand has lost its cunning: it
is a sharp experience. Faith is of essential service here. It helps a
man to say, “My Master, I am one of the vessels of thy house; if thou
wilt use me I will be glad; but if thou wilt put me on the shelf, I
will be glad too. It must be best for me to be as thou wouldst have
me.” If faith resigns herself to the supreme wisdom and love and
goodness of Christ, and says, “Do with me even as thou wilt: use me, or
set me aside,” then retirement will be a release from care and no
source of distress. The evening of advanced age may be spent as
joyfully as the noontide of manhood if the mind be stayed on God. “They
shall bring forth fruit in old age” is a promise full often realized by
believers, for all around me are venerable brethren who are more useful
and more happy than ever, though the infirmities of years are growing
upon them.
And then comes at last the leaving of your vocation by death, which
will arrive in due time to us all. Then faith displays its utmost
energy of blessing. Brethren, may we meet death as Moses did, who when
God bade him climb the mountain, for there he must die, uttered no word
of sorrow, but like a child obeyed his father, went upstairs to bed,
looked wistfully out at the window upon the promised land, and then
fell asleep. How sweet to look upon the goodly land and Lebanon, and
then to be kissed to sleep by his Father’s own mouth, and to be buried
man knoweth not where. His work was done, and his rest was come.
Beautiful are the departing words of Samuel when, laying down his
office, he can challenge all men to bear witness to his character.
Happy man, to depart amid universal blessing. O that each one of us may
be ready to render in his account before the judgement-seat of
Christ—let the last day come when it may.
Our Master, by whose dove we have been endowed with faith, has taught
us how to die as well as how to live. He could say, “I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do,” and he would have us say it.
Thrice happy man who, in laying down the shepherd’s crook or the
carpenter’s plane, in putting aside the ledger or the class-book, never
to open them again, can exclaim, “I have fought a good fight; I have
kept the faith. henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of life
which fadeth not away.” Good old Mede the Puritan, when he was very
old, and leaning on his staff, was asked how was was, and he answered,
“Why, going home as fast as I can; as every honest man ought to do when
his day’s work is done: and I bless God I have a good home to go to.”
Dear aged saints, so near home, does not faith transform death from an
enemy into a friend, as it brings the glory so near to you? You will
soon be in the Father’s house and leave me behind and yet I cannot
tell: I remember that the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came
first to the sepulchre, and so, perhaps, may I. You have the start of
us in years, but we may be called home before you, for there are last
that shall be first. Let death come when it may we shall not be afraid,
for Jesus, who has loved us and given himself for us, is the
resurrection and the life. Living this life in the flesh by faith upon
the Son of God, we are waiting for the usher of the black rod to bring
a message from the King to summon us to meet him in the upper house.
Why should we be loth to go? What is there here that we should wait?
What is there on this poor earth to detain a heaven-born and
heaven-bound spirit? Nay, let us go, for he is gone in whom our
treasure is, whose beauties have engrossed our love. He is not here,
why should we desire to linger? He has risen, let us rise.
Thus, from the beginning to the end of the life that we live in the
flesh, faith upon the Son of God answereth all things, and all its
paths drop fatness.
Sermon no.1,599
in the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit series
Delivered on the Lord’s-Day Morning, May 22nd. 1881, at the
Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington