Sermon: Seekers Directed and Encouraged
"And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13.
THIS was a part of the direction which God gave by His servant to the captives in Babylon. They were to remain quiet in Babylon until the set time came for their deliverance and then there would be granted to them a gracious visitation from God which would move them to repentance and incite them to prayer. Then might they be quite sure that the time had come for their deliverance, when they sought the Lord with their whole heart. It is a general principle that a blessing is about to come from the All-Merciful One when we are moved to pray for it with all our heart. The Lord of Grace may send us blessings before we search for them, for He is a Sovereign and often far outstrips what we might have expected, but His promise runs, "Seek and you shall find it," and it is with the promise that we have most to do. A cheering assurance is given to those who seek in hearty earnest and to this requirement of heartiness we must give earnest need.
At this time I shall not attempt instruction, but strive to drive home the Truth of God into the heart and conscience. I pray the Holy Spirit to help me and I ask the prayers of those who have power with God, that the Word may be as a goad to waken, bestir and urge onward those upon whom it is used. Our address will be, first, to the unconverted. Secondly, to backsliders. And thirdly, to this Church, or any other Christian people.
I. And first TO THE UNCONVERTED. Our text has a word for you. "You shall seek Me, and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart" You have lost your God—you are at a distance from Him. Your sins have separated you from your Maker and nothing will ever be right with you—really right—till you get back to your God. You are a sheep away from its shepherd; you are a prodigal son away from his father and you will never be right, I say, till, as a sheep, you get back to the fold, and as a son that has rebelled, you are reconciled to your Father.
You need your God and you will never be right till you find Him. You are therefore stirred up by the text to "search for" Him. You are not to sit still with folded arms and say, "He will come if He will." The prodigal said, "I will arise and go to my father," and some such spirit must be in you, or we cannot hope well of you. You must search for the Lord. In this search it will be of no use for you to look within your heart, for it is empty and void of anything godlike and altogether estranged from God. Expect not to find the remedy in the disease! No one turns to his empty purse in the hope that it will supply his necessities, for poverty is not the source of riches! It were vain to look for the living among the dead, therefore look not for Grace and salvation in yourself!
Neither will it be the path of wisdom to endeavor to perform good works of your own, hoping to set yourself right by your own exertions in gaining merit. Man, the whole mischief is that you are separated from God and you must get back to Him! The best works done while you are at enmity with your Lord and King are only part and parcel of the proud, presumptuous sin which rejects the Savior and sets up itself in His place. It would have been quite right for the prodigal to wash himself and cease from feeding the swine! It was most desirable that he should leave the harlots and the riotous living in which he had indulged, but if he had done all that and nothing more, the great mischief would not have been cured, for the radical evil lay in his being away from his father's house.
That is the essential wrong in your case, O unconverted man, unconverted woman! You will never be perfectly happy and right till you are reconciled to God! You are allowed to search for Him and what a privilege that is! When Adam sinned, he could not go back to Paradise, for with a flaming sword in his hand there stood the cherub to keep the way that he might not touch the Tree of Life. But God, as far as the garden of His mercy is concerned, has moved that fiery sentinel and Jesus Christ has set angels of love to welcome you at Mercy's gate! You may come to God, for God has come to you! He has taken upon Himself your nature and His name is Emmanuel, God With Us!
Yes, the Infinite became a man and He that built yonder arch of Heaven and hung it with those starry lamps, came down below to be subject to lowly parents, to work in a carpenter's shop and to die upon a felon's gallows, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." Search for Him and you must find Him, for so stands His own Word, "You shall seek Me and find Me." The text, however, demands that our searching after God should be done with all our heart. There are several ways of seeking God which must prove failures. One is to seek Him with no heart at all. This is done by those who take their book and read prayers, never thinking what they say, or who attend a dissenting place of worship and hear another person pray, but never join in it.
This is done by those who bend the knees at eventide and mutter pious words, but never think—who rise in the morning and repeat sacred sentences and never consider—who with regard to Divine things are as little thoughtful as if the Gospel were all a legend or an old wives' fable, not worth an hour's meditation. I have seen young women, sometimes, when I have been traveling, reading those trashy novels which they purchase at the railway stall. And I have seen them waste their tears on some imaginary heroine or hero and yet they and others hear about the majesty and the love of God without emotion and read of Heaven and Hell—and Christ and God—with scarcely a tear or a thought! Dear Friend, you will never find the Lord if you seek Him in a heartless, unthinking manner. God is not mocked! If any of you have fallen into a formal religion and seek the Lord without your heart, you are seeking in vain!
Some seek God with a false heart. They flame with zeal and would have their friends know it, for they say as Jehu did to Jehonadab, "Come with me and see my zeal for the Lord!" But their heart is not true towards God. Their piety is an affectation offeeling and not deep soul-work. It is sentimentality and not the engraving of God's Spirit upon the heart. Beware of a false religious excitement—of being borne up with religious gas as some are, inflated like balloons by a revival, only to burst, by-and-by, when they need something to support them. God grant us to be saved from a lie in the heart, for it is a deadly canker, fatal to all hope of finding the Lord.
Some seek Him, too, with a double heart—a heart and a heart, as the Hebrew puts it. They have a heart towards God and they have a heart towards sin—they have a heart towards the pardon, but they have, also, a heart towards the transgression. They would gladly serve God and Mammon. They would build an altar for Jehovah and still keep Dagon in his place. If your heart is divided, you will be found lacking. Those prayers will never get to Heaven which only fly upward with one wing. If one oar pulls towards earth and the other towards Heaven, the boat of the soul will revolve in a circle of folly and never reach the happy shore. Beware of a double heart! And some seek God with half a heart. They have a little concern and are not altogether indifferent. They think when they pray, or read, or sing, but the thought is not very intense. Superficial in all things, the Seed is sown in stony ground and soon it is withered away, because there is no depth of earth. The Lord save us from this!
Now, you that are seeking Christ, remember that if you would find Him you must neither seek Him without heart, nor with a false heart, nor with a double heart, nor with a half heart, but "You shall find Me," says the Lord, "when you shall search for Me with all your heart." Nobody gets on in the world who is half-hearted. If a man needs money, he must hunt for it morning, noon and night. If a man longs for knowledge, he cannot take a book and ladle it into his brain with a spoon—he must read and study if he is to be a scholar. If a man desires to rise in such an age as this, he cannot do it without stern labor. Great discoverers, eminent artists and powerful orators have all been men of hard work. Handel, who composed such majestic music, practiced so often on his harpsichord that he hollowed out the keys like spoons through his constant use of them!
Nothing is to be done without earnestness and you may not expect that God is to be found, pardon is to be received and Grace to be had while you have only one eye open and are not half awakened out of sleep. What did Jesus say?— "The kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force." Heaven's celestial bastions must be stormed by downright importunity! You must take the knocker of Heaven's gate and not drop it from your fingers with a dainty tap, but hammer at Mercy's door again and again till you make the infernal deeps of despair resound with your desperate knocks and cause Heaven, itself, to echo with your hopeful determination that you will enter in, or know the reason why! Oh, knock and knock and knock and knock again, for the door shall be opened when you knock with all your hearts!
Surely, dear Friends, if any men have reasons to bring their whole hearts into action, you unconverted people are the people! I am sure that if I were to intimate to you that a hundred pounds of gunpowder were stowed away in yonder center seat and the probability was that it would soon explode, you would not remain very long in this Tabernacle, but would hurry out with all your heart! But any destruction that could be caused by gunpowder, as far as its effects on earth are concerned, could be nothing at all as compared with the overwhelming destruction which will come upon body and soul to men who are under the wrath of God! That wrath of God abides on every one of you who are not converted!
God is angry with the sinner every day and if it is so, your position is the most perilous one conceivable! You will soon die! Do not be vexed with my reminding you of it. We are compelled to see it, some of us, who watch large congregations. Never does the same assembly meet in this place twice and I suppose between Sabbath and Sabbath it happens almost invariably that some hearer goes to his account. Certainly in this Church we lose all the year round more than one per week of our friends. It is true, then, that you will soon have to die—how will you bear to close your eyes on all mortal things without a hope of immortal joy?
To go before the dread tribunal of your Maker and your Redeemer unwashed in the precious blood—with all your sins from the first day of your life till now about your neck like millstones—to sink forever—how can you bear it? Think of this and if you do, you will have good reason for seeking your God with all your heart! Remember, also, that after death comes judgment. We must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ! And after the Judgment comes the final award, which to those who have rejected Christ will be eternal destruction from the Presence of the Lord and the Glory of His power. Do not, I pray you, defy the wrath of God or dare His infinite displeasure! He, Himself, has said it, "Beware you that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver."
Surely every man in his senses who knows that he is exposed to such an imminent risk as this will, with his whole heart, seek the Lord! But why is it that when men search with all their heart they find God? I will tell you. The only way in which we can find God is in Jesus Christ. There He meets with men, but nowhere else, and to get to Jesus Christ there is nothing on earth to be done but simply to believe in Him. It is a matter which does not take a moment. Believe God's testimony about Jesus Christ—trust yourself with Jesus Christ and salvation is yours! The saving Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, and that is why when men seek the Lord with their whole hearts they find Him, for before they called, the Lord was ready to answer!
Jesus was always ready, but other wishes and other thoughts made the seeker unready. Sins were there and lusts of the flesh and all manner of obstacles to hinder the man. When a man comes to seek God with all his heart, he lets those things go and soon sees Jesus. Then, too, a man becomes teachable, for when a man is in earnest to escape from danger he is glad enough to be told by anybody. If I had lost my way and feared I might fall over a precipice, I should be glad for the tiniest child to tell me the right road and a man is likely to learn who is willing to be taught! This seeking God with all his heart makes a man quick in understanding. Before, he was a dolt, because his heart was not in it, like a boy at school who does not want to learn.
When a man seeks God with all his heart, you do not need to preach fine sermons to him—he does not crave elegance or eloquence—no, tell Him Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners and that "there is life for a look at the Crucified One," and he jumps at it! "That is what I want," he says. The Spirit of God has made him eager to learn and so he catches, at once, at the blessed message and believes in Jesus. Half a heart, or no heart, or a double heart will not see what is as plain as a pikestaff and will not accept a Gospel which is as glorious to God as it is simple to man! I charge you, then, you that seek the Lord, to be whole-hearted in it, for you cannot expect peace and joy in the Holy Spirit till all those straggling affections and wandering desires are tied up into one bundle and your entire being is eager in the search for God in Christ Jesus.
II. I cannot spare the seeker any more time, for I need to have five minutes with THE BACKSLIDER. Backsliders, you have left your Lord. Perhaps you have left the Church, or the Church has left you by putting you outside its pale and deservedly so, because you were a dishonor to it. I am glad you come among us to worship. You have had to be cut off from our fellowship because of your sad conduct, but you still stick to us and I am glad to see you. I always feel hope for you as long as you love the old house. I am glad that though you are not recognized as a child in it, and do not feel that you ought to be, yet you still wait under the window to hear the family sing.
When the children of God are feasting together at the Table I have marked you looking on and wishing you were again in the happy household. I do not know whether you are God's children or not. I cannot judge your hearts. I call you backsliders, not because I am sure you are really so, for it is very possible that you made a false profession and you afterwards did what was natural you should do—you broke down in trying to carry out a practical lie. I will not try to judge that, but I will say this to you—surely, if there are any people in the world who ought to be whole-hearted in seeking after God, you are the people!
If I am to be lost, I pray God I may not perish as an apostate or a backslider! O you who once made a profession of religion, I cannot understand how you can dare to think of the Judgment Day, for you will not be able to plead ignorance, for you knew the Truth of God and professed to believe it! You will not be able to say, "I never heard of these things." No, but you came to the Communion Table and you joined the Church! You even preached to others, or you taught in the Sunday school! You ran over at the mouth about Divine things though you were empty at the heart. How speechless you will stand at the last dreadful day with your old regimentals hanging about you to prove that you were deserters! You will not be able to lift a finger or utter a word in defense of yourself!
And what will you do when you go down to Hell? The Prophet represents the king of Babylon as going there and as he descended the little petty princes whom he put to death, who were lying there in their dungeons in the prison of Hell, rose and, leaning on their elbows, looked at him and said," Have you become like one of us?" I think I hear the drunk rising up and saying to you, "What? And are you here after all? You used to preach sobriety to me and warn me of the drunk's doom." Ah, my Hearers, hypocrites are damned as well as drunks! Then will speak the woman whom you talked about reclaiming and what a sneer she will meet you with and say, "You needed a refuge yourself, you hypocrite!" Then, too, will speak your neighbors who never went to a place of worship, whom you thought were so very bad because you went there and forgot what you heard.
They will say, "This is what came of your going to the Tabernacle and hearing Spurgeon! Is this the result of your joining the Church and going to the Communion Table?" What answer can you give when those eyes shall leer on you and those lips shall hiss in derision at you? Others shall say, "I never had the opportunities you had. I was never warned as you were. I never rejected Christ as you have done—I never stained the robes of His Church and wounded Him anew in the house of His friends as you have done." Then they will insult and triumph over you! If a prince of the blood were sent to a common jail, what a misery it would be to him.
I pity every man who has to work upon the treadmill, so far as he can deserve pity, but most of all the man who has been delicately brought up and scarcely knows what labor means, for it must be hard, indeed, for him. Ah, you delicate sons and daughters of Zion—you whose mouths were never stained with a curse and whose hands have never been defiled with outward sin—if your hearts are not right with God, you must take your place with the profane and share with them. What do you say to all this? Do you say, "I would gladly return and find acceptance in Christ"? To you the text expressly speaks! Then shall you "find Me when you shall search for Me with all your heart."
III. My last word is to you, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and especially to you, the members of this Church. Thus says the Lord, "You shall seek Me and find Me, when you shall search for Me with all your heart." Brethren, we need the Lord to be always among us. We have had His Presence very graciously, but I am always troubled lest any sin of ours should cause Him to depart. I dread anything like a decline in zeal and ardor, generosity, prayerfulness and holy living among any of us, lest the Glory should depart and Ichabod be written on our walls. We hunger for our God, for I trust we can say we love Him.
Can you say that? I heard this last week a story about that mighty preacher, Robert Hall, which touched me as I heard it. A friend related that Robert Hall was riding, one day, through a little hamlet on his way to preach at a country town. It snowed very heavily and Mr. Hall was passing through the village, unaware of the state of the road beyond. A Christian man who knew him well, cried out, "Mr. Hall, you must not go farther! The snow is very deep! You cannot get through it, you must come in." Mr. Hall stopped at the house and rested awhile. He looked out of the window and saw that it kept on snowing. He looked out again and it snowed more heavily than before and his friend said to him, "You cannot go, Mr. Hall, you cannot get there."
"But," he said, "Sir, I must go." "Sir," said the good man, "you cannot. It is impossible. You cannot get to the place; the roads are blocked up." So the great preacher agreed to remain if he could deliver his sermon. "I must preach, Sir; I must preach, Sir. I cannot remain unless I preach." His host went round the hamlet, knocked at the doors of the cottages and got a few people together into his home. Mr. Hall preached a wonderful sermon. The good man seemed to mount to Heaven in preaching from the words, "I saw no temple therein." When the people had gone home he said to his friend, "My dear Sir, I am afraid I am not a child of God." "Why, Mr. Hall, how can you say such a thing as that?" "But I am afraid I am a hypocrite, Sir."
"Well, nobody else is afraid of that about you, Mr. Hall. And I cannot think how you can give way to such a notion." "Ah, but I want to ask you a question, Sir. What do you think is a sure sign that a man is a child of God?" "Mr. Hall," said the good man, "you ought to know better than I do. I cannot undertake to instruct you." "I need to know, Sir, and shall be obliged by your judgment," said Mr. Hall. "Well," said the man, "this is what I think is a sure sign—if a man really loves God, he must be a child of God and there must have been a change in Him." "Thank you, Sir. Thank you, Sir, for that word," said Mr. Hall, "that is just what I needed. Love God, Sir? I love Him with my whole soul."
"And," said the good host, in talking to my friend, "you should have heard how Mr. Hall went on about God! It was wonderful to hear him, Sir. He praised Him above all things. He said all that was good about Him and he kept saying, 'I cannot help loving such a Being as God is, and if that proves that I am saved, then I am sure of it, for I must love Him.'"
Now, my Brothers and Sisters, we love God with all our hearts and, therefore, we desire to have Him glorified in our midst. Do you not, my Brethren, vehemently desire this? I know you do! How, then, shall the Lord be honored? He may be glorified by holier living. How is that to be done? The text says we shall find Him if we seek Him with all our hearts and in finding Him we shall find holiness. I have given up the idea that I shall ever get a Church in which all hearts will seek God earnestly. I know you will not all be alive and full of fervor, for some of you are a dishonor to the Church! You will never help us, but you will remain among us as dead weights. How I wish I could hope otherwise, but I dare not deceive myself or you.
I do expect, however, that all who have the life of God really in their souls will give their whole hearts to the Glory of God and will do it intensely. I look to them to seek the Lord by prayer, praying much for God to be glorified and to back up their prayer by effort, cheerfully seeking to take their full share in the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom. Brethren, did Christ die for you? Yes or no? If He did, then, in the name of common honesty, live unto Him, for you cannot be your own—He has bought you with a price! When you were baptized in the name of The Sacred Three, did you mean it? If you did, in the name of the Truth of God, live unto God, for you confessed that you were dead to the world and buried with Christ and that you should always live unto Him!
When the last time you came to the Communion Table, did you really believe that Jesus gave Himself for you and did you know that you feasted upon His flesh and drank His blood by faith? Then, I say, in the name of both honesty and the Truth of God, live as souls should live who have eaten better than angels' meat and have Christ within them! I try to speak as earnestly as I can, but usually when I reach my home I say to myself, "What are you doing? You did not awaken those people, or yourself either! You are getting dull and old—you are not half so zealous as you used to be in your younger days."
I try to stick big pins into myself in a spiritual fashion, to wake myself up, again, for fear I should fall into the same drowsy state as some I know of, whose preaching is little better than articulate snoring. They are sound asleep and as a natural consequence their people are asleep, too. If this Book is true, the most of us are not living as we ought to live! If there is a Heaven, we are not living in the joy which the hope of it ought to inspire! If there is a Hell and some of our own children are going down to it, we do not act towards them as if we believed in their danger! We are acting like monsters and not like men if we suffer our fellow creatures to be lost without lifting a finger for their salvation! Awake! Arise, my Brothers and Sisters!
Oh, Church of God in this place and Church of God everywhere, shake yourself from the bonds of your neck! Arise and sit down on your throne of power, O daughter of Zion! Put on your strength as in the ancient days, for strength shall be yours if you search after the Lord with all your heart! God grant that as a Church we may be thoroughly earnest in seeking for a display of His saving power and He shall have the glory! Amen.
DEAR FRIENDS—I am hoping and praying that the special services at the Tabernacle may excel all that have gone before. To urge you to the utmost earnestness about them, I have written the short sermon of this week. It would give me great joy to hear, as I feel sure I shall, that in this as in all the other works of the Church, you are abundantly filled with zeal and constancy.
My one concern is lest the Lord's work should suffer by my absence. I entreat you, do not permit it to be so in any point or degree. The damp and dull weather, which has reached us even here, has somewhat retarded my progress to health and strength, so that I remain a very feeble traveler, but yet I am greatly improved and feel that my mind and spirits are the better for the rest.
To all of you, from the bottom of my heart, I send my sincere love in Christ Jesus. Yours to serve while there remains any life in me,
Mentone, February 6, 1879.
(No. 1457B)
"According to the commandment of the Lord they were numbered by the hand of Moses, everyone according to his service and according to his burden: thus were they numbered by him, as the Lord commanded Moses." Numbers 4:49.
ISRAEL in the wilderness is admitted, in some respects, to have been a type of the Church in its present condition. The tribe of Levi was, in a peculiar and inner sense, the type of that peculiar people who under the great High Priest are set apart for the service of the Lord and His Church. To them the transport of the holy vessels from place to place was committed, each family of the tribe being made responsible for the safe and reverent transport of a certain part of the sacred furniture. Since nothing in the service of the God of order may be left to hazard, but everything is in order, those persons who in hackneyed phrase cry out against, "system," ought to be told that the Lord has always had a system, not only in Nature and Providence, but also in His own courts.
There is an admirable "economy" in the palace of the great King—whatever of disorder, waste and riot there may be surrounding other monarchs—nothing of the kind will be found beneath the shadow of the Divine Throne. He who counts the stars and calls them all by their names, leaves nothing unarranged in His own service. His Church, therefore, should exhibit the discipline of an army and all His warriors should know how to keep rank. Though we are not under the Law, we are not without Law to Christ, nor do we wish to be, for His commandments are not grievous. At this season, when our Church is making a most earnest effort to glorify the Lord by seeking conversions, we would muster all the servants of our Master and summon each one to take his appointed place and service.
The work of the Lord is to be done, done well and done by us all most cheerfully and heartily. Gather, therefore, together and let each redeemed one take up his burden and bear it before the Lord in due order! To this end, like Moses, we would call you out, one by one, and give you a charge as from the Lord. Our text contains authority for the muster roll, appointment for the individuals and account of the actual execution of the command. Upon each of these, an absent officer of your company will try to say a little as the Holy Spirit may enable him.
I. Here is, first, AUTHORITY FOR THE MUSTER ROLL. "According to the commandment of the Lord they were numbered." It was not left to Moses to number the people without Divine sanction, else the deed might have been as evil in the sight of the Lord as that of David when he made a census of the nation. Neither may any man at this day number the saints of the Lord, at his own discretion, to enterprises for which they were never set apart. The armies of Israel are none of ours to lead where we will, nor even to reckon up that the number may be told to our own honor. The counting of Apostles and disciples is lawful enough, for it was frequently done in the best days of the Church, but statistics may be taken in such a spirit as to be the occasion of sin.
In no such manner would we now number the host unto the battle, but would summon the chosen of the Lord to the Lord's work and in the Lord's name. Believers in Christ Jesus, you are now called forth to do suit and service, because, like the tribe of Levi, you are the Lord's. He views you as the Church of the firstborn, as the redeemed from among men and as His peculiar portion and inheritance and, therefore above all other men you are under His special rule and governance. The Lord said unto Moses, "The Levites shall be Mine: I am the Lord," and He has made the same declaration concerning all those that fear the Lord and that think upon His name—"They shall be Mine, says the Lord, in the day when I make up My jewels."
Upon whom shall we call to perform the work of the Lord but upon those who are His own? To these belong a devout care for the interest of true religion and an earnest zeal for the Glory of God. Obligations as powerful as they are, are honorable upon them. "You are not your own, you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." Do you feel a shrinking from being numbered and called out for active service? Is not this an evil and unworthy sensation? Should you not far rather account it your glory to be called out with the dedicated ones?
Brothers and Sisters, you are further called because this is a charge laid upon you of the Lord, to whom you specially belong. The Levites (Num. 4:3) were ordained "to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation." They were not numbered with the rest of the nation, for their vocation was altogether different and their whole business was "about holy things." You see in this, your calling, Brethren, for you are also ordained that you may live unto the Lord alone. To whom does the work of God belong but to His children? Who should serve the Lord Christ and gather in His wanderers but those whom He has called to that office? If you refuse the honorable yoke, how will the work of mercy be done? Can it be left to hirelings, or will the spiritually dead perform the service of the living God? No, it is your charge and you must do it.
Again, Brethren, the Lord may well call you to this service, seeing He has given you to His Son, even as He gave the Levites to Aaron, as it is written (Num. 3:9), "They are wholly given unto him out of the children of Israel." The Lord had also said, "Bring the tribe of Levi near and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him." They were happy, thus, to serve the head of their own tribe and more happy, still, are we to serve the Lord Christ who is the Firstborn among many Brethren. Because you belong to Christ, therefore, hide not yourselves from His service, but come forward with joy!
Once more, the Lord has constituted you the servants of all His people, even as He said of the Levites that they were to "do the service of the children of Israel in the tabernacle of the congregation." We are debtors to all our Brethren and we are their servants to the full extent of our power. The greater we are in the Church, the more are we the servants of all! It is ours to fulfill this service, or else we are untrue to the position of Christians who are all called in love to serve one another. Here are a few of the claims which the Lord has upon you—will you not acknowledge the supreme authority which calls you to active service?
II. Under our second head we shall notice the APPOINTMENT OF THE INDIVIDUALS—"Everyone according to his service and according to his burden." By our varied gifts, positions, offices and opportunities, we are as much set apart to special services as were the sons of Kohath, Gershon and Merari. One family bore the ark and the other the holy vessels; another had charge of the sacred hangings and a third carried the boards and the pillars and framework of the tabernacle. But supreme authority had set each family its own special service and burden. Even thus is it among ourselves and so let us see to it that we observe the Divine appointment.
"Having, then, gifts differing according to the Grace that is given to us, whether ministry let us wait on our ministry, or he that teaches, on teaching; or he that exhorts, on exhortation: he that gives, let him do it with simplicity. He that rules, with diligence; he that shows mercy, with cheerfulness." Great evils arise out of persons mistaking their calling and undertaking things of which they are not capable. And, on the other hand, the success of Christian work, in a large measure, arises out of places of usefulness being filled by the right men. In the march through the wilderness the sons of Merari never interfered with the burdens of the sons of Kohath, or the arrangements would have been sadly disturbed—each one took up his allotted load and went on his way rejoicing, no one jostling his fellow.
If we could bring all our workers into the same order, how like an army with banners would the Church become and how beautiful would be her battle array! "A place for everyone and every one in his place" should be the practical slogan of our congregations and the people should be numbered, not according to worldly rank or self-estimate, but, "everyone according to his service." It is to be noticed, here, that the Levites only rendered this service, "from thirty years old and upward, even unto fifty years old."
We rejoice that it is not so among us under the Gospel, for there is work for the young people and also for the aged! Little children and young men and maidens may take their places among the servitors of the Prince of Peace! And he who leans upon his staff for very age shall not find himself dismissed from his Master's beloved service. No women are mentioned as bearers of the tabernacle and its holy furniture. It was a work for which they were scarcely fitted and an economy under which they were seldom employed. Here, too, we have a great change, for there is neither male nor female in Christ Jesus—and in their own way, the Sisters are our fellow servants, even as they are our fellow heirs. Never can women be forgotten in any enumeration of the forces of the Church! What could we do without them?
Let it not be forgotten, then, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the great Head of the Church, calls out all His redeemed to His service and that He lays upon each one a burden which no one else can carry. It should be the joy of each Believer to know what it is that his shoulders are permitted to bear and then he or she should gladly take up the ennobling load. There can be no exemption unless a man will dare to claim that he is his own and was never bought with a price. Each one throughout life must be "steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord."
III. Thirdly, our text is the summary of the chapter in which we have an ACCOUNT OF THE ACTUAL FULFILLMENT OF THE LORD'S COMMAND BY MOSES. He numbered each family and cast up the total of the tribe, at the same time mentioning in detail the peculiar service of each. We would imitate him at this important moment and take the census of those who are consecrated to the Lord's own service. Where are you, then, who can bear the heavier service of the sanctuary, carrying its pillars and the boards and the sockets? You are now needed to speak in the meetings, to lead the people in prayer, to order the assemblies and to take the heavier work of this holy business!
The Lord Jesus should have able men to speak for Him—He deserves the best of the best. Now is the hour, where is the man? Let no diffidence or love of ease keep one back who might make known the Gospel and win a soul for Jesus! By the curse of Meroz when they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty, we would charge all Christians of influence and ability to hasten to the field! But where are you who can only carry the pins and the cords? Your burden is lighter, but probably your strength is also less—and lighter though your load may be, the matters which you carry are quite as essential as the pillars and the boards! Where are you?
You who can say a few words to lonely enquiring ones; you who can do no more than pray, where are you? At your posts, or idling? Answer and answer quickly, for time and need are pressing! If the load which you can carry is so very small, be all the more ready to bear it. Are you a lover of the Lord Jesus and do you wish to be omitted from the roll call? If so, let it be known to yourself and stated plainly to your conscience—do not pretend to be a laborer and remain a loiterer—but openly avow to your soul that you stand all the day idle and feel fully justified in so doing! Deny your Lord His due, but do it to His face! Tell Him openly that you do not mean to spend your days in glorifying His name!
Do you shrink from this honest refusal of service? You need not do so because it is at all unusual, for as Nabal said, "there are many servants, nowadays, that break away, every man from his master." It is plain, however, that you have no stomach for so clear a rejection of your Lord. Come, then, and take your place among those who are striving together to honor their Lord! At this time your help will be precious. Seek a new anointing and then hasten to the work. Is not the Holy Spirit in you? Does He not prompt you to seek the salvation of others? Is not the Lord Jesus the Model to which Grace conforms you? How can this be if you have little or no love for the souls of your neighbors?
Your pastor calls you, though far away! By all our mutual love he beseeches you to fulfill your ministry, every one according to his service and according to his burden. But, far above this, your God, your Savior, your Comforter call you with one voice! Can you refuse the heavenly vocation?