liii^fcRjLH-ilori'-'IOD 
 
 
 BV 
 4811 
 .M82 
 1901 
 
 (i^l DREW MURRAY 
 
 U' O 
 
?^. 
 
 
 u* 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 5i 
 
 
 
 
 s 
 
 
 4> 
 
 fH 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 (^ 
 W 
 
 O 
 
 Hj 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
 55 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 • 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 t> 
 
 H 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 p 
 
 
 o 
 
 1— I 
 
 ?K. 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 %* 
 
 
 p^ 
 
 
 Q CO 
 
 W 
 
 H • 
 
 m ^ 
 
 CO * 
 
 Ah rQ 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 
 I^ 
 
 
 
 tH 
 
 
 
 CTk 
 
 
 
 rH 
 
 
 
 1 
 00 
 
 
 
 CM 
 
 
 
 00 
 
 
 tH 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 — 
 
 O^ 
 
 V 
 
 TJ 
 
 r-\ 
 
 ^ 
 
 o 
 
 
 o 
 
 CN 
 
 5-1 
 
 
 C» TJ 
 
 }-l 
 
 2 
 
 C 
 
 o 
 
 
 < 
 
 m 
 
 tH 
 
 V 
 
 D^ 
 
 tH 
 
 >^ a 
 
 00 
 
 (C 
 
 ■H 
 
 ^ 
 
 u ^ 
 
 
 }^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 > 
 
 :3 
 
 O 
 
 m s ^ 
 
WORKING 
 
 FOR ^^rtcTcF ?:n!!c^ 
 
 m 
 
 'yy 
 
 G O ID ! : ;, 10 1961 
 
 J SEQUEL TO fr J I TING 07r-&934 -^^ 
 
 BY 
 
 Rev. ANDREW MURRAY 
 
 AUTHOR OF "THE MINISTRY OF INTERCESSION," 
 "ABIDE IN CHRIST," ETC., ETC. 
 
 New York Chicago Toronto 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company^ 
 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature / 
 1 90 1 / 
 
Copyright igoi 
 
 BY 
 
 FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 
 
 (August) 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE object of this little book is first of 
 all to remind all Christian workers of 
 the greatness and the glory of the work 
 in which God gives a share. It is nothing 
 less than that work of bringing men back 
 to their God, at which God finds His high- 
 est glory and blessedness. As we see that 
 it is God's own work we have to work out, 
 that He works it through us, that in our 
 doing it His glory rests on us and we glorify 
 Him, we shall count it our joy to give our- 
 selves to live only and wholly for it. 
 
 The aim of the book at the same time is 
 to help those who complain, and perhaps 
 do not even know to complain, that they 
 are apparently labouring in vain, to find 
 out what may be the cause of so much 
 failure. God's work must be done in God's 
 way, and in God's power. It is spiritual 
 work, to be done by spiritual men, in the 
 power of the Spirit. The clearer our in- 
 sight into, and the more complete our sub- 
 mission to, God's laws of work, the surer 
 and the richer will be our joy and our 
 reward in it. . 
 
 Along with this I have had in view the 
 
6 Introduction 
 
 great number of Christians who practically 
 take no real part in the service of their 
 Lord. They have never understood that the 
 chief characteristic of the Divine life in 
 God and Christ is love and its work of 
 blessing men. The Divine life in us can show 
 itself in no other way. I have tried to show 
 that it is God's will that every believer with- 
 out exception, whatever be his position in 
 Hfe, gives himself wholly to live and work 
 for God. 
 
 I have also written in the hope that some, 
 who have the training of others in Christ- 
 ian life and work, may find thoughts that 
 will be of use to them in teaching the im- 
 perative duty, the urgent need, the Divine 
 blessedness of a life given to God's service, 
 and to waken within the consciousness of 
 the power that works in them, even the 
 Spirit and power of Christ Himself. 
 
 To the great host of workers in Church 
 and Chapel, in Mission-Hall and Open-Air, 
 in Day and Sunday Schools, in Endeavour 
 Societies, in Y. M. and Y. W. and Students' 
 Associations, and all the various forms of 
 the ministry of love throughout the world, 
 I lovingly offer these meditations, with the 
 fervent prayer that God, the Great Worker, 
 may make us true Fellow- Workers with 
 Himself. * ANDREW MURRAY. 
 
 Wellington, February, 1901. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Waiting and Working. — Isa. xl. 31, 
 
 Ixiv, 4 . . . . . . .11 
 
 II. Good Works the Light of the World.— 
 
 Matt. V. 14, 16 16 
 
 III. Son, go Work. — Matt. xxi. 28 . .21 
 
 IV. To Each one his Work. — i\Iark xiii. 34 26 
 V. To Each one according to his Ability. 
 
 — Matt. XXV. 14 31 
 
 VI. Life and Work. — John v. 34. ix. 4, 
 
 xvii. 4 36 
 
 VII. The Father abiding in Me doeth the 
 
 Work. — John v. 17-20, xiv. 10 . .41 
 VIII. Greater Works. — John xiv. 12-14 . . 46 
 IX. Created in Christ Jesus for Good 
 
 Works. — Eph. ii. 10 . . . .51 
 X, Work, for it is God which worketh in 
 
 you. — Phil. ii. 12, 13 . . . . 56 
 XL Faith working by Love. — Gal. v. 6, 13 61 
 XII. Bearing Fruit in every Good Work. 
 
 —Col. i. 10 66 
 
 7 
 
8 Contents 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XIII. Always abounding in the Work of 
 
 the Lord.— I Cor. xv. 58 . .71 
 
 XIV. Abounding Grace for abounding 
 
 Work. — 2 Cor. ix. 8 . . .76 
 XV. The Work of Ministering. — Eph. iv. 
 
 II, 12 81 
 
 XVI. According to the Working of each 
 
 several Part. — Eph. iv. 15, 16 . 86 
 XVII. Women adorned with Good Works. 
 
 — I Tim. ii. 10, v. 9, 10 . . . 90 
 XVIII. Rich in Good Works.— i Tim. vi. 18 95 
 XIX. Prepared unto every Good Work. — 2 
 
 Tim. ii. 21 lOO 
 
 XX. Furnished completely unto every 
 Good Work. — 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, 
 
 ii. 15 104 
 
 XXI. Zealous of Good Works.— Tit. ii. 14 109 
 XXII. Readv to every Good Work. — Tit. 
 
 iii. I 113 
 
 XXIII. Careful to maintain Good Works. — 
 
 Tit. iii. 14 118 
 
 XIV. As His Fellow-Workers. — i Cor. iii, 
 
 9; 2 Cor. vi. I . . . . 123 
 XXV. According to the Working of His 
 
 Power. — Col. i. 29; Eph. iii. 7 . 128 
 XXVI. Labouring more abundantly. — i Cor. 
 
 XV. 10; 2 Cor. xii. 9, 11 . . 133 
 
Contents 9 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 XXVII. A Doer that worketh shall be 
 
 blessed in Doing. — Jas. i. 22, 25 138 
 XXVIII. The Work of Soul-Saving.— Jas. v. 
 
 19 142 
 
 XXIX. Praying and Working. — i John v. 
 
 16 147 
 
 XXX. I know thy Works. — Rev. ii., iii . 152 
 XXXI. That God may be Glorified.— i Pet. 
 
 iv. II 157 
 
WORKING FOR GOD 
 
 I 
 
 XDClaitinG an^ IClorl^ing 
 
 * They that wait upon the Lord shall renezv 
 their strength. Neither hath the eye seen, O 
 God, beside Thee, which worketh for him that 
 Zi'aiteth for Him.' — Isa. xl. 31, Ixiv. 4. 
 
 HERE we have two texts in which the 
 connection between waiting and 
 working is made clear. In the first we see 
 that waiting brings the needed strength for 
 working — that it fits for joyful and un- 
 wearied work. * They that wait on the 
 Lord shall renew their strength; they shall 
 mount up on eagles' wings ; they shall run. 
 and not be wear\- ; they shall walk, and not 
 faint.' Waiting on God has its value in 
 this : it makes us strong in work for God. 
 The second reveals the secret of this 
 strength. ' God worketh for Him that wait- 
 eth for Him.' The waiting on God secures 
 the working of God for us and in us, out of 
 which our work must spring. The two 
 
 II 
 
12 Working for God 
 
 passages teach the great lesson, that as 
 waiting on God hes at the root of all true 
 working for God, so working for God must 
 be the fruit of all true waiting on Him. 
 Our great need is to hold the two sides of 
 the truth in perfect conjunction and har- 
 mony. 
 
 There are some who say they wait upon 
 God, but who do not work for Him. For 
 this there may be various reasons. Here 
 is one who confounds true waiting on God 
 (in living direct intercourse with Him as 
 the Living One), and the devotion to Him 
 of the energy of the whole being, with the 
 slothful, helpless waiting that excuses itself 
 from all work until God, by some special 
 impulse, has made work easy. Here is 
 another who waits on God more truly, re- 
 garding it as one of the highest exercises 
 of the Christian life, and yet has never un- 
 derstood that at the root of all true waiting 
 there must lie the surrender and the readi- 
 ness to be wholly fitted for God's use in the 
 service of men. And here is still another 
 who is ready to work as well as wait, but 
 is looking for some great inflow of the 
 Spirit's power to enable him to do mighty 
 works, while he forgets that as a believer 
 he already has the Spirit of Christ dwelling 
 in Him; that more grace is only given to 
 those who are faithful in the little ; and that 
 
Working for God 13 
 
 it is only in working that we can be taught 
 by the Spirit how to do the greater works. 
 All such, and all Christians, need to learn 
 that waiting has working for its object, that 
 it is only in working that waiting can attain 
 its full perfection and blessedness. It is as 
 we elevate working for God to its true 
 place, as the highest exercise of spiritual 
 privilege and power, that the absolute need 
 and the divine blessing of waiting on God 
 can be fully known. 
 
 On the other hand, there are some, there 
 are many, who work for God, but know 
 little of what it is to wait on Him. They 
 have been led to take up Christian work, 
 under the impulse of natural or religious 
 feeling, at the bidding of a pastor or a 
 society, with but very little sense of what a 
 holy thing it is to work for God. They do 
 not know that God's zvork can only be done 
 in God's strength, by God Himself working 
 in us. They have never learnt that, just as 
 the Son of God could do nothing of Him- 
 self, but that the Father in Him did the 
 work, as He lived in continual dependence 
 before Him, so, and much more, the be- 
 liever can do nothing but as God works in 
 him. They do not understand that it is 
 only as in utter weakness we depend upon 
 Him, His power can rest on us. And so 
 they have no conception of a continual 
 
14 Working for God 
 
 waiting on God as being one of the first and 
 essential conditions of successful work. 
 And Christ's Church and the world are 
 sufferers to-day, oh, so terribly ! not only 
 because so many of its members are not 
 working for God, but because so much 
 working for God is done without waiting 
 on God. 
 
 Among the members of the body of Christ 
 there is a great diversity of gifts and opera- 
 tions. Some, who are confined to their 
 homes by reason of sickness or other duties, 
 may have more time for waiting on God 
 than opportunity of direct working for 
 Him. Others, who are overpressed by 
 work, find it very difficult to find time and 
 quiet for waiting on Him. These may mu- 
 tually supply each other's lack. Let those 
 who have time for waiting on God defi- 
 nitely link themselves to some who are 
 working. Let those who are working as 
 definitely claim the aid of those to whom 
 the special ministry of waiting on God has 
 been entrusted. So will the unity and the 
 health of the body be maintained. So will 
 those who wait know that the outcome will 
 be power for work, and those who work, 
 that their only strength is the grace ob- 
 tained by waiting. So will God work for 
 His Church that waits on Him. 
 
 Let us pray that as we proceed in these 
 
Working for God 15 
 
 meditations on working for God, the Holy 
 Spirit may show us how sacred and how 
 urgent our calUng is to work, how absolute 
 our dependence is upon God's strength to 
 work in us, how sure it is that those who 
 wait on Him shall renew their strength, 
 and how we shall find waiting on God and 
 working for God to be indeed inseparably 
 one. 
 
 1. It is only as God works for me, and in me, 
 that I can work for Him. 
 
 2. All His work for me is through His life in 
 me. 
 
 3. He will most surely work, if I wait on Him. 
 
 4. All His working for me, and my waiting on 
 Him, has but one aim, to fit me for His work of 
 saving men. 
 
II 
 (Boob Wiovlis tbe Xigbt ot tbe Kllorib 
 
 * Ye are the light of the world. Let your light 
 shine before men, that they may see your good 
 works, and glorify your Father which is in 
 heaven.' — Matt. v. 14, 16. 
 
 ALIGHT is always meant for the use of 
 those who are in darkness, that by it 
 they may see. The sun lights up the dark- 
 ness of this world. A lamp is hung in a 
 room to give it light. The Church of Christ 
 is the light of men. The God of this world 
 hath blinded their eyes; Christ's disciples 
 are to shine into their darkness and give 
 them light. As the rays of light stream 
 forth from the sun and scatter that light all 
 about, so the good works of believers are 
 the light that streams out from them to 
 conquer the surrounding darkness, with its 
 ignorance of God and estrangement from 
 Him. 
 
 What a high and holy place is thus given 
 to our good works. What power is attrib- 
 uted to them. How much depends upon 
 them. They are not only the light and 
 16 
 
Working for God 17 
 
 health and joy of our own Ufe, but in every 
 deed the means of bringing lost souls out of 
 darkness into God's marvellous light. They 
 are even more. They not only bless men, 
 but they glorify God, in leading men to 
 know Him as the Author of the grace seen 
 in His children. We propose studying the 
 teaching of Scripture in regard to good 
 works, and specially all work done directly 
 for God and His kingdom. Let us listen to 
 what these words of the Master have to 
 teach us. 
 
 The aim of good works. — It is, that God 
 may be glorified. You remember how our 
 Lord said to the Father : ' I have glorified 
 Thee on the earth, I have finished the work 
 which Thou gavest Me to do.' We read 
 more than once of His miracles, that the 
 people glorified God. It was because what 
 He had wrought was manifestly by a Di- 
 vine power. It is when our good works 
 thus too are something more than the ordi- 
 nary virtues of refined men, and bear the 
 impress of God upon them, that men will 
 glorify God. They must be the good works 
 of which the Sermon on the Mount is the 
 embodiment — a life of God's children, doing 
 more than others, seeking to be perfect as 
 their Father in heaven is perfect. This 
 glorifying of God by men may not mean 
 conversion, but it is a preparation for it 
 
1 8 Working for God 
 
 when an impression favourable to God has 
 been made. The works prepare the way 
 for the words, and are an evidence to the 
 reality of the Divine truth that is taught, 
 while without them the world is power- 
 less. 
 
 The whole world was made for the glory 
 of God. Christ came to redeem us from sin 
 and bring us back to serve and glorify Him. 
 Believers are placed in the world with this 
 one object, that they may let their light 
 shine in good works, so as to win men to 
 God. As truly as the light of the sun is 
 meant to lighten the world, the good works 
 of God's children are meant to be the light 
 of those who know and love not God. What 
 need that we form a right conception of 
 what good works are, as bearing the mark 
 of something heavenly and divine, and 
 having a power to compel the admission 
 that God is in them. 
 
 The power of good works. — Of Christ it 
 is written : * In Him was life, and the life 
 was the light of men.' The Divine life gave 
 out a Divine light. Of His disciples Christ 
 said : ' If any man follow Me, he shall not 
 walk in darkness, but have the light of life.' 
 Christ is our hfe and light. When it is said 
 to us, Let your light shine, the deepest 
 meaning is, let Christ, who dwells in you, 
 shine. As in the power of His life you do 
 
Working for God 19 
 
 your good works, your light shines out to all 
 who see you. And because Christ in you is 
 your light, your works, however humble 
 and feeble they be, can carry with them a 
 power of Divine conviction. The measure 
 of the Divine power which works them in 
 you will be the measure of the power work- 
 ing in those who see them. Give way, O 
 child of God, to the Life and Light of 
 Christ dwelling in you, and men will see 
 in your good works that for which they will 
 glorify your Father which is in heaven. 
 
 The urgent need of good works in be- 
 lievers. — As needful as that the sun shines 
 every day, yea, more so, is it that every 
 believer lets his light shine before men. For 
 this we have been created anew in Christ, to 
 hold forth the Word of Life, as lights in the 
 world. Christ needs you urgently, my 
 brother, to let His light shine through you. 
 Perishing men around you need your light, 
 if they are to find their way to God. God 
 needs you, to let His glory be seen through 
 you. As wholly as a lamp is given up to 
 lighting a room, every believer ought to 
 give himself up to be the light of a dark 
 world. 
 
 Let u-s undertake the study of what work- 
 ing for God is, and what good works are as 
 part of this, with the desire to follow Christ 
 fully, and so to have the light of life 
 
no Working for God 
 
 shining into our hearts and Hves, and from 
 us on all around. 
 
 1. ' Ye are the light of the world!' The words 
 express the calling of the Church as a whole. 
 The fulfilment of her duty will depend upon the 
 faithfulness with which each individual member 
 loves and lives for those around him. 
 
 2. In all our efforts to waken the Church to 
 evangelise the world, our first aim must be to 
 raise the standard of life for the individual be- 
 liever of the teaching : As truly as a candle only 
 exists with the object of giving light in the dark- 
 ness, the one object of your existence is to be a 
 light to men. 
 
 3. Pray God by His Holy Spirit to reveal it to 
 you that you have nothing to live for but to let 
 the light and love of the life of God shine upon 
 souls. 
 
Ill 
 Son, GO XKaorft 
 
 * Son, go work to-day in my vineyard.' — Matt. 
 xxi. 28. 
 
 THE father had two sons. To each he 
 gave the command to go and work in 
 his vineyard. The one went, the other went 
 not. God has given the command and the 
 power to every child of His to work in His 
 vineyard, with the world as the field. The 
 majority of God's children are not working 
 for Him, and the world is perishing. 
 
 Of all the mysteries that surround us in 
 the world, is not one of the strangest and 
 most incomprehensible this — that after 1800 
 years the very name of the Son of God 
 should be unknown to the larger half of the 
 human race. 
 
 Just consider what this means. To re- 
 store the ruin sin had wrought, God, the 
 Almighty Creator, actually sent His own 
 Son to the world to tell men of His love, 
 and to bring them His life and salvation. 
 When Christ made His disciples partakers 
 21 
 
22 » Working for God 
 
 of that salvation, and the unspeakable joy it 
 brings, it was with the express understand- 
 ing that they should make it known to 
 others, and so be the lights of the world. 
 He spoke of all who through them should 
 believe, having the same calling. He left the 
 world with the distinct instruction to carry 
 the Gospel to every creature, and teach all 
 nations to observe all that He had com- 
 manded. He at the same time gave the defi- 
 nite assurance that all power for this work 
 was in Him, that He v/ould always be with 
 His people, and that by the power of His 
 Holy Spirit they would be able to witness to 
 Him to the ends of the earth. And what do 
 we see now? After 1800 years two-thirds 
 of the human race have scarce heard the 
 name of Jesus. And of the other third, the 
 larger half is still as ignorant as if they had 
 never heard. 
 
 Consider again what this means. All 
 these dying millions, whether in Christen- 
 dom or heathendom, have an interest in 
 Christ and His salvation. They have a right 
 to Him. Their salvation depends on their 
 knowing Him. He could change their lives 
 from sin and wretchedness to holy obedi- 
 ence and heavenly joy. Christ has a right 
 to them. It would make His heart glad to 
 have them come and be blessed in Him. 
 But they and He are dependent on the serv- 
 
Working for God 23 
 
 ice of His people to be the connecting link 
 to bring them and Him together. And yet 
 what His people do is as nothing to what 
 needs to be done, to what could be done, to 
 what ought to be done. 
 
 Just consider yet once again Vv^hat this 
 means. What a revelation of the state of 
 the Church. The great majority of those 
 who are counted believers are doing nothing 
 towards making Christ known to their fel- 
 low-men. Of the remainder, the majority 
 are doing so little, and that little so ineffec- 
 tually, by reason of the lack of whole- 
 hearted devotion, that they can hardly be 
 said to be giving themselves to their Lord's 
 service. And of the remaining portion, 
 who have given themselves and all they 
 have to Christ's service, so many are occu- 
 pied with the hospital work of teaching the 
 sick and the weakly in the Church, that the 
 strength left free for aggressive work, and 
 going forth to conquer the world, is terribly 
 reduced. And so, with a finished salvation, 
 and a loving Redeem.er, and a Church set 
 apart to carry life and blessing to men, the 
 millions are still perishing. 
 
 There can be no question to the Church 
 of more intense and pressing importance 
 than this : What can be done to waken be- 
 lievers to a sense of their holy calling, and 
 to make them see that to zvork for God, that 
 
24 Working for God 
 
 to offer themselves as instruments through 
 whom God can do His work, ought to be 
 the one aim of their life? The vain com- 
 plaints that are continually heard of a lack 
 of enthusiasm for God's kingdom on the 
 part of the great majority of Christians, the 
 vain attempts to waken anything like an 
 interest in missions proportionate to their 
 claim, or Christ's claim, make us feel that 
 nothing less is needed than a revival that 
 shall be a revolution, and shall raise even 
 the average Christian to an entirely new 
 type of devotion. No true change can come 
 until the truth is preached and accepted, 
 that the law of the kingdom is : Every be- 
 liever to live only and zvholly for God's 
 service and zvork. 
 
 The father who called his sons to go and 
 work in his vineyard did not leave it to their 
 choice to do as much or as little as they 
 chose. They lived in his home, they were 
 his children, he counted on what they would 
 give him, their time and strength. This 
 God expects of His children. Until it is 
 understood that each child of God is to give 
 His whole heart to his Father's interest and 
 work, until it is understood that every child 
 of God is to be a worker for God, the evan- 
 gelisation of the world cannot be accom- 
 plished. Let every reader listen, and the 
 
Working for God 25 
 
 Father will say to him personally : * Son, go 
 work in My vineyard.' 
 
 1. Why is it that stirring appeals on behalf of 
 missions often have so little permanent result? 
 Because the command with its motives is brought 
 to men who have not learned that absolute devo- 
 tion and immediate obedience to their Lord is of 
 the essence of true salvation. 
 
 2. If it is once seen, and confessed, that the 
 lack of interest in missions is the token of a low 
 and sickly Christian life, all who plead for mis- 
 sions will make it their first aim to proclaim the 
 calling of every believer to live wholly for God. 
 Every missionary meeting will be a consecration 
 meeting to seek and surrender to the Holy 
 Spirit's power. 
 
 ^ 3. The average standard of holiness and devo- 
 tion cannot be higher abroad than at home, or in 
 the Church at large than in individual believers. 
 4. Every one cannot go abroad, or give his 
 whole time to direct work; but everyone, what- 
 ever his calling or circumstances, can give his 
 whole heart to live for souls and the spread of the 
 kingdom. 
 
IV 
 TLo }£acb one bis Mori? 
 
 ' As a man sojourning in another country, 
 having given authority to his servants, to each one 
 his work,^ commanded the porter also to watch.' — 
 Mark xiii. 34. 
 
 WHAT I have said in a previous chap- 
 ter of the failure of the Church to 
 do her Master's work, or even clearly to in- 
 sist upon the duty of its being done by every 
 member has often led me to ask the ques- 
 tion, What must be done to arouse the 
 Church to a right sense of her calling ? This 
 little book is an attempt to give the answer. 
 Working for God must take a very different 
 and much more definite place in our teach- 
 ing and training of Christ's disciples than 
 it has done. 
 
 In studying the question I have been very 
 much helped by the life and writings of a 
 great educationist. The opening sentence of 
 the preface to his biography tells us : ' Ed- 
 ward Thring was unquestionably the most 
 original and striking figure in the school- 
 master world of his time in England/ He 
 26 
 
Working for God 27 
 
 himself attributes his own power and suc- 
 cess to the prominence he gave to a few 
 simple principles, and the faithfulness with 
 v/hich he carried them out at any sacrifice. 
 I have found them as suggestive in regard 
 to the work of preaching as of teaching, and 
 to state them will help to make plain some 
 of the chief lessons this book is meant to 
 teach. 
 
 The root-principle that distinguished his 
 teaching from what was current at the time 
 was this : Every boy in school, the dullest, 
 must have the same attention as the clev- 
 erest. At Eton, where he had been edu- 
 cated, and had come out First, he had seen 
 the evil of the opposite system. The school 
 kept up its name by training a number of 
 men for the highest prizes, while the major- 
 ity were neglected. He maintained that this 
 was dishonest : there could be no truth in a 
 school which did not care for all alike. 
 Every boy had some gift ; every boy needed 
 special attention ; every boy could, with care 
 and patience, be fitted to know and fulfil his 
 mission in life. 
 
 Apply this to the Church. Every be- 
 liever, the feeblest as much as the strongest, 
 has the calling to live and work for the 
 kingdom of his Lord. Every believer has 
 equally a claim on the grace and power of 
 the Holy Spirit, according to his gifts, to 
 
28 Working for God 
 
 fit him for his work. And every believer 
 has a right to be taught and helped by the 
 Church for the service our Lord expects 
 of him. It is when this truth, every be- 
 liever, the feeblest, to be trained as a worker 
 for God, gets its true place, that there can 
 be any thought of the Church fulfilling its 
 mission. Not one can be missed, because 
 the Master gave to every one his work. 
 
 Another of Thring's principles was this : 
 It is a law of nature that work is pleasure. 
 See to make it voluntary and not compul- 
 sory. Do not lead the boys blindfold. Show 
 them why they have to work, what its value 
 will be, what interest can be awakened in it, 
 what pleasure may be found in it. A little 
 time stolen, as he says, for that purpose, 
 from the ordinary teaching, will be more 
 than compensated for by the spirit which 
 will be thrown into the work. 
 
 What a field is opened out here for the 
 preacher of the gospel in the charge he has 
 of Christ's disciples. To unfold before 
 them the greatness, the glory, the Divine 
 blessedness of the work to be done. To 
 show its value in the carrying out of God's 
 will, and gaining His approval; in our be- 
 coming the benefactors and saviours of the 
 perishing; in developing that spiritual vig- 
 our, that nobility of character, that spirit of 
 
Working for God 29 
 
 self-sacrifice which leads to the true bear- 
 ing of Christ's image. 
 
 A third truth Thring insisted on specially 
 was the need of inspiring the belief in the 
 possibility, yea, the assurance of success in 
 gaining the object of pursuit. That object 
 is not much knowledge; not every boy can 
 attain to this. The drawing out and culti- 
 vation of the power there is in himself — this 
 is for every boy — and this alone is true edu- 
 cation. As a learner's powers of observa- 
 tion grow under true guidance and teach- 
 ing, and he finds within himself a source of 
 power and pleasure he never knew before, 
 he feels a new self beginning to live, and 
 the world around him gets a new meaning. 
 * He becomes conscious of an infinity of 
 unsuspected glory in the midst of which 
 we go about our daily tasks, becomes lord 
 of an endless kingdom full of light and 
 pleasure and power.' 
 
 If this be the law and blessing of a true 
 education, what Hght is shed on the calling 
 of all teachers and leaders in Christ's 
 Church ! The know ye nots of Scripture — 
 that ye are the temple of God — that Christ is 
 in you — that the Holy Spirit dwelleth in you 
 — acquire a new meaning. It tells us 
 that the one thing that needs to be wakened 
 in the hearts of Christians is the faith * in 
 
30 Working for God 
 
 the power that worketh in us.' As one 
 comes to see the worth and the glory of the 
 work to be done, as one beheves in the pos- 
 sibihty of his, too, being able to do that 
 work well; as one learns to trust a Divine 
 energy, the very power and spirit of God 
 working in him ; * he will, in the fullest 
 sense become conscious of a new life, with 
 an infinity of unsuspected glory in the midst 
 of which we go about our daily task, and 
 become lord of an endless kingdom full of 
 light and pleasure and power.' This is the 
 royal life to which God has called all His 
 people. The true Christian is one who 
 knows God's power working in himself, 
 and finds it his true joy to have the very 
 life of God flow into him., and through him, 
 and out from him to those around. 
 
 1. We must learn to believe in the power of 
 littles — of the value of every individual believer. 
 As men are saved one by one, they must be 
 trained one by one for work. 
 
 2. We must believe that work for Christ can 
 become as natural, as much an attraction and a 
 pleasure in the spiritual as in the natural world. 
 
 3. We must believe and teach that everv be- 
 liever can become an effective worker in his 
 sphere. Are you seeking to be filled with love to 
 souls ? 
 
Zo Bacb accorMng to bis Hblllt^ 
 
 ' The kingdom of heaven is as when a man, 
 going into another country, called his own serv- 
 ants, and delivered them his goods. And unto 
 one he gave five talents, to another two, to an- 
 other one ; to each according to his several 
 ability.' — Matt. xxv. 14. 
 
 IN the parable of the talents we have a 
 most instructive summary of our Lord's 
 teaching in regard to the work He has 
 given to His servants to do. He tells us of 
 His going to heaven and leaving His work 
 on earth to the care of His Church ; of His 
 giving every one something to do, however 
 different the gifts might be ; of His expect- 
 ing to get back His money wich interest ; of 
 the failure of him who had received least ; 
 and of what it was that led to that terrible 
 neglect. 
 
 ' He called his ozun servants and delivered 
 unto them his goods, and zvent on his jour- 
 ney' This is literally what our Lord did. 
 He went to heaven, leaving His work with 
 all His goods to the care of His Church. 
 
 31 
 
32 Working for God 
 
 His goods were, the riches of His grace, the 
 spiritual blessings in heavenly places, His 
 word and Spirit, with all the power of His 
 life on the throne of God, — all these He 
 gave in trust to His servants, to be used by 
 them in carrying out His work on earth. 
 The work He had begun they were to prose- 
 cute. As some rich merchant leaves Cape 
 Town to reside in London, while his busi- 
 ness is carried on by trustworthy servants, 
 our Lord took His people into partnership 
 with Himself, and entrusted His work on 
 earth entirely to their care. Through their 
 neglect it would suffer j their diligence 
 would be His enrichment. Here we have 
 the true root-principle of Christian service; 
 Christ has made Himself dependent for the 
 extension of His kingdom on the faithful- 
 ness of His people. 
 
 ' Unto one he gave Hve talents, to another 
 two, to another one ; to each according to his 
 several ability/ Though there was a dif- 
 ference in the measure, every one received 
 a portion of the master's goods. It is in 
 connection with the service we are to render 
 to each other that we read of * the grace 
 given to each of us according to the meas- 
 ure of the gift of Christ.' This truth, that 
 every believer without exception has been 
 set apart to take an active part in the work 
 of winning the zvorld for Christ, has almost 
 
Working for God ^;^ 
 
 been lost sight of. Christ was first a son, 
 then a servant. Every beUever is first a 
 child of God, then a servant. It is the high- 
 est honour of a son to be a servant, to have 
 the father's work entrusted to him. Neither 
 the home nor the foreign missionary work 
 of the Church will ever be done right until 
 every believer feels that the one object of 
 his being in the world is to work for the 
 kingdom. The first duty of the servants in 
 the parable was to spend their life in caring 
 for their master's interests. 
 
 ' After a long time the lord of those serv- 
 ants Cometh and maketh a reckoning with 
 them.' Christ keeps watch over the work 
 He has left to be done on earth ; His king- 
 dom and glory depend upon it. He will not 
 only hold reckoning when He comes again 
 to judge, but comes unceasingly to inquire of 
 His servants as to their welfare and work. 
 He comes to approve and encourage, to cor- 
 rect and warn. By His word and Spirit He 
 asks us to say whether we are using our 
 talents diligently, and, as His devoted serv- 
 ants, living only and entirely for His work. 
 Some He finds labouring diligently, and to 
 them He frequently says : ' Enter into the 
 joy of thy Lord.' Others He sees discour- 
 aged, and them He inspires with new hope. 
 Some He finds working in their own 
 strength ; these He reproves. Still others 
 
34 Working for God 
 
 He finds sleeping or hiding their talent; to 
 such His voice speaks in solemn warning: 
 ' from him that hath shall be taken away 
 even that he hath.' Christ's heart is in His 
 work; every day He watches over it with 
 the intensest interest ; let us not disappoint 
 Him nor deceive ourselves. 
 
 'Lord, I zvas afraid and hid thy talent in 
 the earth/ That the man of the one talent 
 should have been the one to fail, and to be 
 so severely punished is a lesson of deep 
 solemnity. It calls the Church to beware 
 lest, by neglecting to teach the feebler ones, 
 the one-talent men, that their service, too, is 
 needed, she allow them to let their gifts lie 
 unused. In teaching the great truth that 
 every branch is to bear fruit, special stress 
 must be laid on the danger of thinking that 
 this can only be expected of the strong and 
 advanced Christian. When Truth reigns in 
 a school, the most backward pupil has the 
 same attention as the more clever. Care 
 must be taken that the feeblest Christians 
 receive special training, so that they, too, 
 may joyfully have their share in the service 
 of their Lord and all the blessedness it 
 brings. If Christ's work is to be done, not 
 one can be missed. 
 
 'Lord, I knew that thou art a hard man, 
 and I was afraid.' Wrong thoughts of 
 God, looking upon His service as that of a 
 
Working for God 35 
 
 hard master, are one chief cause of failure 
 in service. If the Church is indeed to care 
 for the feeble ones, for the one-talent serv- 
 ants, who are apt to be discouraged by rea- 
 son of their conscious weakness, we must 
 teach them Vv'hat God says of the sufficiency 
 of grace and the certainty of success. They 
 must learn to believe that the pozver of the 
 Holy Spirit zvithin than fits them for the 
 zvork to zi'hich God has called them. They 
 must learn to understand that God Himself 
 will strengthen them with might by His 
 Spirit in the inner man. They must be 
 taught that work is joy and health and 
 strength. Unbelief lies at the root of sloth. 
 Faith opens the eyes to see the blessedness 
 of God's service, the sufficiency of the 
 strength provided, and the rich reward. Let 
 the Church awake to her calling to train the 
 feeblest of her members to know that Christ 
 counts upon every redeemed one to live 
 wholly for His work. This alone is true 
 Christianity, is full salvation. 
 
VI 
 
 %iU an^ movw 
 
 * My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, 
 and to accomplish His zvork. I must work the 
 works of Him that sent Me. I have glorified 
 Thee on the earth; I have finished the work Thou 
 gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me 
 with Thyself.' — John v. 34, ix. 4, xvii. 4. 
 
 i"\l/"ORK is the highest form of exist- 
 VV ence.' The highest manifestation 
 of the Divine Being is in His work. Read 
 carefully again the words of our Blessed 
 Lord at the head of the chapter, and see 
 what Divine glory there is in His work. In 
 His work Christ showed forth His own 
 glory and that of the Father. It was be- 
 cause of the work He had done, and because 
 in it He had glorified the Father, that He 
 claimed to share the glory of the Father in 
 heaven. The greater works He was to do 
 in answer to the prayer of the disciples was, 
 that the Father might be glorified in the 
 Son. Work is indeed the highest form of 
 existence, the highest manifestation of the 
 Divine glory in the Father and in His Son. 
 
 36 
 
Working for God 37 
 
 What is true of God is true of His 
 creature. Life is movement, is action, and 
 reveals itself in what it accomplishes. The 
 bodily life, the intellectual, the moral, the 
 spiritual life — individual, social, national 
 life — each of these is judged of by its work. 
 The character and quality of the work de- 
 pends on the hfe: as the Hfe, so the w^ork. 
 And, on the other hand the life depends on 
 the work ; without this there can be no full 
 development and manifestation and per- 
 fecting of the life : as the work, so the life. 
 
 This is specially true of the spiritual life 
 — the life of the Spirit in us. There may be 
 a great deal of religious work with its exter- 
 nal activities, the outcome of human will 
 and effort, with but little true worth and 
 power, because the Divine life is feeble. 
 When the believer does not know that 
 Christ is living in him, does not know the 
 Spirit and power of God working in him, 
 there may be much earnestness and dili- 
 gence, with little that lasts for eternity. 
 There may, on the contrary, be much exter- 
 nal weakness and apparent failure, and yet 
 results that prove that the life is indeed of 
 God. 
 
 The work depends upon the life. And 
 the life depends on the work for its growth 
 and perfection. All life has a destiny; it 
 cannot accompHsh its purpose without 
 
38 Working for God 
 
 work ; life is perfected by work. The high- 
 est manifestation of its hidden nature and 
 power comes out in its work. And so work 
 is the great factor by which the hidden 
 beauty and the Divine possibiUties of the 
 Christian Hfe are brought out. Not only for 
 the sake of what it accomplishes through 
 the believer as God's instrument, but what 
 it effects on himself, work must in the child 
 of God take the same place it has in God 
 Himself. As in the Father and the Son, 
 so with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, 
 work is the highest manifestation of life. 
 
 "VVork must be restored to its right place 
 in God's scheme of the Christian life as in 
 very deed the highest form of existence. 
 To be the intelligent willing channel of the 
 power of God, to be capable of working the 
 very work of God, to be animated by the 
 Divine Spirit of love, and in that to be al- 
 lov/ed to work life and blessing to men; it 
 is this gives nobility to life, because it is for 
 this we are created in the image of God. 
 As God never for a moment ceases to work 
 His work of love and blessing in us and 
 through us, so our working out what He 
 works in us is our highest proof of being 
 created anew in His likeness. 
 
 If God's purpose with the perfection of 
 the individual beHever, with the appoint- 
 ment of His Church as the body of Christ 
 
Working for God 39 
 
 to carry on His work of winning back a re- 
 bellious world to His allegiance and love, 
 is to be carried out, working for God must 
 have much greater prominence given to it 
 as the true glory of our Christian calling. 
 Every believer must be taught that, as work 
 is the only perfect manifestation, and there- 
 fore the perfection of Hfe in God and 
 throughout the v/orld, so our work is to be 
 our highest glory. Shall it be so in our 
 lives ? 
 
 If this is to come, we must remember 
 two things. The one is that it can only 
 come by beginning to Vv^ork. Those who 
 have not had their attention specially di- 
 rected to it cannot reahse how great the 
 temptation is to make work a matter of 
 thought and prayer and purpose, without its 
 really being done. It is easier to hear than 
 to think, easier to think than to speak, easier 
 to speak than to act. We may listen and 
 accept and admire God's will, and in our 
 prayer profess our willingness to do, — and 
 yet not actually do. Let us, with such meas- 
 ure of grace as we have, and much prayer 
 for more, take up our calling as God's work- 
 ing men, and do good hard work for Him. 
 Doing is the best teacher. If you want to 
 know how to do a thing, begin and do it. 
 
 Then you will feel the need of the second 
 thing I Vv'ish to mention, and be made capa- 
 
40 Working for God 
 
 ble of understanding it, — that there is suffi- 
 cient grace in Christ for all the work you 
 have to do. You will see with ever-increas- 
 ing gladness how He the Head works all in 
 you the member, and how work for God 
 may become your closest and fullest fellow- 
 ship with Christ, your highest participation 
 in the power of His risen and glorified life. 
 
 1. Life and work: beware of separating them. 
 The more work you have, the more your work 
 appears a failure. The more unfit you feel for 
 work, take all the more time and care to have 
 your inner life renewed in close fellowship with 
 God. 
 
 2. Christ liveth in me — is the secret of joy and 
 hope, and also of power for work. Care for the 
 life, the life will care for the work. ' Be filled 
 tvith the Spirit.' 
 
VII 
 
 Ube ifatber ablblna In /n>e boetb tbe 
 mork 
 
 'Jesus answered thtm, My Father worketh even 
 until now, and I work.' — John v. 17-20. 
 
 ' Believest thou not that I am in the Father, 
 and the Father in Me? the words that I speak I 
 speak not of Myself : but the Father abiding in 
 Me doeth the work.' — John xiv. 10. 
 
 T ESUS CHRIST became man that He 
 <J might show us what a true man is, 
 how God meant to live and work in man, 
 and how man may find his life and do his 
 work in God. In words like those above, 
 our Lord opens up the inner mystery of His 
 life, and discovers to us the nature and the 
 deepest secret of His working. He did not 
 come to the world to work instead of the 
 Father; the Father was ever working — 
 * worketh even until now.' Christ's work 
 was the fruit, the earthly reflection of the 
 Heavenly Father working. And it was not 
 as if Christ merely saw and copied what the 
 Father willed or did : ' the Father abiding in 
 Me doeth the work.' Christ did all His 
 
 41 
 
42 Working for God 
 
 work in the power of the Father dweUing 
 and working in Him. So complete and real 
 was His dependence on the Father, that, in 
 expounding it to the Jews, He used the 
 strong expressions (v. 19, 30) : ' The Son 
 can do nothing of Himself, but what He 
 seeth the Father doing ' ; * I can do nothing 
 of Myself.' As literally as what He said is 
 true of us, ' Apart from Me ye can do noth- 
 ing,' is it true of Him too. ' The Father 
 abiding in Me doeth the work.' 
 
 Jesus Christ became man that He might 
 show us what true man is, what the true 
 relation between man and God, what the 
 true way of serving God and doing His 
 work. When we are made new creatures in 
 Christ Jesus, the life we receive is the very 
 life that v/as and is in Christ, and it is only 
 by studying His life on earth that we know 
 how we are to live. ' As I live because of 
 the Father, so he that eateth Me shall live 
 because of Me.' His dependence on the 
 Father is the law of our dependence on 
 Him and on the Father through Him. 
 
 Christ counted it no humiliation to be 
 able to do nothing of Himself, to be always 
 and absolutely dependent on the Father. 
 He counted it His highest glory, because 
 so all His works were the works of the all- 
 glorious God in Him. When shall we un- 
 derstand that to wait on God, to bow before 
 
Working for God 43 
 
 Him in perfect helplessness, and let Him 
 work all in us, is our true nobility, and the 
 secret of the highest activity? This alone 
 is the true Son-life, the true life of every 
 child of God. As this life is known and 
 maintained, the power for work will grow, 
 because the soul is in the attitude in which 
 God can work in us, as the God who 
 ' worketh for him that waiteth on Him/ 
 It is the ignorance or neglect of the great 
 truths, that there can be no true work for 
 God but as God zvorks it in its, and that 
 God cannot work in us fully but as zve live 
 in absolute dependence on Him, that is the 
 explanation of the universal complaint of 
 so much Christian activity with so little 
 real result. The revival which many are 
 longing and praying for must begin with 
 this : the return of Christian ministers and 
 w^orkers to their true place before God — in 
 Christ and like Christ, one of complete de- 
 pendence and continual waiting on God to 
 work in them. 
 
 Let me invite all workers, young and old, 
 successful or disappointed, full of hope or 
 full of fear, to come and learn from our 
 Lord Jesus the secret of true work for God. 
 * My Father worketh, and I work ; ' * The 
 Father abiding in Me doeth the works.' 
 Divine Fatherhood means that God is all, 
 and gives all, and works all. Divine Son- 
 
44 Working for God 
 
 ship means continual dependence on the 
 Father, and the reception, moment by mo- 
 ment, of all the strength needed for His 
 Work, Try to grasp the great truth that 
 because ' it is God who worketh all in all,' 
 your one need is,, in deep humility and 
 weakness, to wait for and to trust in His 
 working. Learn from this that God can 
 only work in us as He dwells in us. * The 
 Father abiding in Me doeth the works.' 
 Cultivate the holy sense of God's continual 
 nearness and presence, of your being His 
 temple, and of His dwelling in you. Offer 
 yourself for Him to work in you all His 
 good pleasure. You will find that work, 
 instead of being a hindrance, can become 
 your greatest incentive to a life of fellow- 
 ship and childlike dependence. 
 
 At first it may appear as if the waiting 
 for God to work will keep you back from 
 your work. It may indeed — but only to 
 bring the greater blessing, v/hen you have 
 learned the lesson of faith, that counts on 
 His working even when you do not feel it. 
 You may have to do your work in weakness 
 and fear and much trembling. You will 
 know that it is all, that the excellency of the 
 power may be of God and not of us. As 
 you know yourself better and God better, 
 you will be content that it should ever be — 
 'His strengfth made perfect in our weakness. 
 
Working for God 45 
 
 1. ' The Father abiding in Me doeth the work.' 
 There is the same law for the Head and the 
 member, for Christ and the behever. ' It is the 
 same God that worketh all in all.' , 
 
 2. The Father not only worked in the Son 
 when He was on earth, but now, too, that He is in 
 heaven. It is as we believe hi Christ in the 
 Father's luorking in Him, that we shall do the 
 greater works, oee John xiv. 10-12. 
 
 3. It is as the indwelling God, the Father 
 abiding in us, that God works ia us. Let the life 
 of God in the soul be clear, the work will be 
 sure. 
 
 4. Pray much for grace to say, in the name of 
 Jesus, ' The Father abiding in me doeth the 
 work.' 
 
VIII 
 Greater Merits 
 
 * Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believ- 
 eth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; 
 and greater works shall he do; because I go unto 
 the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My 
 name, that will I do, that the Father may be glori- 
 fied in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My 
 name, that will I do.' — John xiv. 12-14. 
 
 IN the words (ver. 10), 'The Father 
 abiding in Me doeth the works,' Christ 
 had revealed the secret of His and of all 
 Divine service — man yielding himself for 
 God to dwell and to work in him. When 
 Christ now promises, * He that believeth on 
 Me, the works that I do shall he do also,' 
 the law of the Divine inworking remains 
 unchanged. In us, as much as in Him, 
 one might even say a thousand times more 
 than with Him, it must still ever be: The 
 Father in me doeth the works. With Christ 
 and with us, it is * the same God who 
 worketh all in all' 
 
 How this is to be, is taught us in the 
 words, ' He that believeth on Me.' That 
 
 46 
 
Working for God 47 
 
 does not only mean, for salvation, as a 
 Saviour from sin. But much more. Christ 
 had just said (vers. 10, 11), 'Believe Me 
 that / am in the Father, and the Father in 
 Me: the Father abiding in Me doeth the 
 works.' We need to beUeve in Christ as 
 Him in and through whom the Father un- 
 ceasingly works. To believe in Christ is 
 to receive Him into the heart. When we 
 see the Father's working inseparably con- 
 nected with Christ, we knovv^ that to believe 
 in Christ, and receive Him into the heart, is 
 to receive the Father dwelling in Him and 
 working through Him. The works His 
 disciples are to do cannot possibly be 
 done in any other way than His own are 
 done. 
 
 This becomes still more clear from what 
 our Lord adds : * And greater works shall 
 he do ; because I go unto the Father.' What 
 the greater vvorks are, is evident. The dis- 
 ciples at Pentecost with three thousand 
 baptized, and multitudes added to the Lord ; 
 Philip at Samaria, with the whole city filled 
 with joy ; the men of Cyprus and Cyrene, 
 and, later on, Barnabas at Antioch, with 
 much people added to the Lord ; Paul in his 
 travels, and a countless host of Christ's 
 servants down to our day, have, in the in- 
 gathering of souls, done what the blaster 
 condescendingly calls greater works than 
 
48 Working for God 
 
 He did in the days of His humiliation and 
 weakness. 
 
 The reason why it should be so our Lord 
 makes plain, ' Because I go to the Father/ 
 When He entered the glory of the Father, 
 all power in heaven and on earth was given 
 to Him as our Redeemer. In a way more 
 glorious than ever the Father was to work 
 through Him ; and He then to work 
 through His disciples. Even as His own 
 work on earth, in the days of the weakness 
 of the flesh, had been in a power received 
 from the Father in heaven, so His people, 
 in their weakness, would do works like His, 
 and greater works in the same way, 
 through a power received from heaven. 
 The law of the Divine working is un- 
 changeable: God's work can only be done 
 by God Himself. It is as we see this in 
 Christ, and receive Him in this capacity, as 
 the One in and through whom God works 
 all, and so yield ourselves wholly to the 
 Father working in Him and in us, that we 
 shall do greater works than He did. 
 
 The words that follow bring out still 
 more strongly the great truths we have 
 been learning, that it is our Lord Himself 
 who will work all in us, even as the Father 
 did in Him, and that our posture is to be 
 exactly what His was, one of entire recep- 
 tivity and dependence. ' Greater works 
 
Working for God 49 
 
 shall he do, because I go to the Father, and 
 whatsoever ye shall ask in ^,Iy name, that 
 will I do.' Christ connects the greater 
 works the believer is to do, with the promise 
 that He zvill do whatever the believer asks. 
 Prayer in the name of Jesus will be the 
 expression of that dependence that waits on 
 Him for His working, to which He gives 
 the promise : Whatsoever ye ask, I will do, 
 in you and through you. And when He 
 adds, * that the Father may be glorified in 
 the Son,' He reminds us how He had glori- 
 fied the Father, by yielding to Him as 
 Father, to work all His work in Himself 
 as Son. In heaven Christ would still 
 glorify the Father, by receiving from the 
 Father the power, and working in His dis- 
 ciples what the Father would. The crea- 
 ture, as the Son Himself can give the 
 Father no higher glory than yielding to 
 Him to work all. The believer can glorify 
 the Father in no other way than the Son, 
 by an absolute and unceasing dependence 
 on the Son, in whom the Father works, to 
 communicate and work in us all the 
 Father's work. ' li ye shall ask anything 
 in My name, that will I do' and so ye shall 
 do greater works. 
 
 Let every believer strive to learn the one 
 blessed lesson. I am to do the works I 
 have seen Christ doing; I may even do 
 
50 Working for God 
 
 greater works as I yield myself to Christ 
 exalted on the throne, in a power He had 
 not on earth ; I may count on Him working 
 in me according to that power. My one 
 need is the spirit of dependence and wait- 
 ing, and prayer and faith, that Christ abid- 
 ing in me will do the works, even what- 
 soever I ask. 
 
 1. How was Christ able to work the works of 
 God ? By God abiding in Him ! How can I do 
 the works of Christ ? By Christ abiding in me ! 
 
 2. How can I do greater works than Christ? 
 By believing, not only in Christ, the Incarnate and 
 Crucified, but Christ triumphant on the throne. 
 
 3. In work everything depends, O believer, on 
 the life, the inner life, the Divine life. Pray to 
 realise that work is vain except as it is in ' the 
 power of the Holy Spirit ' dwelling in thee. 
 
IX 
 
 Createb in Cbrist Jesus tor Goob 
 Morfts 
 
 ' By grace have ye been saved through faith ; 
 not of works, lest any man should glory. For 
 we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus 
 for good works, which God afore prepared that 
 we should walk in them.' — Eph. ii. lo. 
 
 WE have been saved, not of works, but 
 for good works. How vast the dif- 
 ference. How essential the apprehension of 
 that difference to the health of the Christian 
 life. Not of works which we have done, 
 as the source whence salvation comes, have 
 we been saved. And yet for good works, 
 as the fruit and outcome of salvation, as 
 part of God's work in us, the one thing 
 for which we have been created anew. As 
 worthless as are our works in procuring 
 salvation, so infinite is their worth as that 
 for which God has created and prepared us. 
 Let us seek to hold these two truths in 
 their fulness of spiritual meaning. The 
 deeper our conviction that we have been 
 saved, not of works, but of grace, the 
 
 51 
 
52 Working for God 
 
 stronger the proof we should give that we 
 have indeed been saved for good works. 
 
 * Not of works, for ye are God's work- 
 manship.' If works could have saved us, 
 there was no need for our redemption. Be- 
 cause our works were all sinful and vain, 
 God undertook to make us anew — we are 
 now His workmanship, and all the good 
 works we do are His workmanship too. 
 * His workmanship, created us anew in 
 Christ Jesus.' So complete had been the 
 ruin of sin, that God had to do the work of 
 creation over again in Christ Jesus. In 
 Him, and specially in His resurrection 
 from the dead, He created us anew, after 
 His own image, into the likeness of the life 
 which Christ had lived. In the power of 
 that hfe and resurrection, we are able, we 
 are perfectly fitted, for doing good works. 
 As the eye, because it was created for the 
 light, is most perfectly adapted for its 
 work, as the vine-branch, because it was 
 created to bear grapes, does its work so 
 naturally, we who have been created in 
 Christ Jesus for good work, may rest 
 assured that a Divine capacity for good 
 works is the very law of our being. If we 
 but know and believe in this our destiny, if 
 we but live our life in Christ Jesus, as we 
 were new created in Him, we can, we will, 
 be fruitful unto every good work. 
 
Working for God 53 
 
 ' Created for good works, which God 
 hath afore prepared that we should walk in 
 them.' We have been prepared for the 
 works, and the works prepared for us. To 
 understand this, think of how God fore- 
 ordained His servants of old, Moses and 
 Joshua, Samuel and David, Peter and Paul, 
 for the work He had for them, and fore- 
 ordained equally the works for them. The 
 feeblest member of the body is equally 
 cared for by the Head as the most hon- 
 oured. The Father has prepared for the 
 humblest of His children their works as 
 much as for those who are counted chief. 
 For every child God has a life-plan, with 
 work apportioned just according to the 
 power, and grace provided just according to 
 the work. And so just as strong and clear 
 as the teaching, salvation not of ivorks, is 
 its blessed counterpart, salvation for good 
 works, because God created us for them, 
 and even prepared them for us. 
 
 And so the Scripture confirms the double 
 lesson this little book desires to bring you. 
 The one, that good works are God's object 
 in the new life He has given you, and 
 ought therefore to be as distinctly your 
 object. As every human being was created 
 for work, and endowed with the needful 
 powers, and can only live out a true and 
 healthy life by working, so every believer 
 
54 Working for God 
 
 exists to do good works, that in them his 
 Hfe may be perfected, his fellowmen may 
 be blessed, his Father in heaven be glorified. 
 We educate all our children with the 
 thought that they must have their work in 
 the world: when shall the Church learn 
 that its great work is to train every believer 
 to take his share in God's great work, and 
 to abound in the good works for which he 
 was created? Let each of us seek to take 
 in the deep spiritual truth of the message, 
 ' Created in Christ Jesus for good zvorks, 
 which God hath afore prepared ' for each 
 one, and which are waiting for him to take 
 up and fulfil. 
 
 The other lesson — that waiting on God is 
 the one great thing needed on our part if 
 we would do the good works God has pre- 
 pared for us. Let us take up into our 
 hearts these words in their Divine mean- 
 ing: We are God's workmanship. Not 
 by one act in the past, but in a continuous 
 operation. We are created for good works, 
 as the great means for glorifying God. 
 The good works are prepared for each of 
 us, that we might walk in them. Sur- 
 render to and dependence upon God's work- 
 ing is our one need. Let us consider how 
 our new creation for good works is all in 
 Christ Jesus, and abiding in Him, believing 
 on Him, and looking for His strength alone 
 
6. 
 
 Working for God 55 
 
 will become the habit of our soul. Created 
 for good works! will reveal to us at once 
 the Divine command and the sufficient 
 power to live a life in good works. 
 
 Let us pray for the Holy Spirit to work 
 the word into the very depths of our con- 
 sciousness : Created in Christ Jesus for 
 good zuorks! In its light we shall learn 
 what a glorious destiny, what an infinite 
 obligation, what a perfect capacity is ours. 
 
 1. Our creation in Adam was for good works. 
 It resulted in entire faikire. Our new creation 
 in Christ is for good works again. But with this 
 difference : perfect provision has been made for 
 securing them. 
 
 2. Created by God for good works; created by- 
 God in Christ Jesus; the good works prepared 
 by God for us — let us pray for the Holy Spirit 
 to show us and impart to us all this means. 
 
 3. Let the life in fellowship with God be true; 
 the power for the work will be sure. As the life, 
 so the work. 
 
Morft, for (3oD works In ]8ou 
 
 ' Work out your own salvation with fear and 
 trembling; for it is God which zuorketh in you 
 both to will and to work, for His good pleasure.' 
 — Phil. ii. 12, 13. 
 
 IN our last chapter we saw what salvation 
 is. It is our being God's workman- 
 ship, created in Christ Jesus for good 
 works. It concludes, as one of its chief and 
 essential elements, all that treasury of good 
 works which God afore prepared that we 
 should walk in them. In the light of this 
 thought we get the true and full meaning 
 of to-day's text. Work out your own sal- 
 vation, such as God has meant it to be, a 
 walk in all the good works which God has 
 prepared for you. Study to know exactly 
 what the salvation is God has prepared for 
 you, all that He has meant and made it 
 possible for you to be, and work it out with 
 fear and trembling. Let the greatness of 
 this Divine and most holy life, hidden in 
 Christ, your own absolute impotence, and 
 
 56 
 
Working for God 57 
 
 the terrible dangers and temptations be- 
 setting you, make you work in fear and 
 trembling. 
 
 And yet, that fear need never become 
 unbelief, nor that trembling discourage- 
 ment, for — it is God which worketh in you. 
 Here is the secret of a power that is abso- 
 lutely sufficient for everything we have to 
 do, of a perfect assurance that we can do 
 all that God really means us to do. God 
 works in us both to will and to work. First, 
 to will; He gives the insight into what is 
 to be done, the desire that makes the work 
 pleasure, the firm purpose of the will that 
 masters the whole being, and makes it 
 ready and eager for action. And then to 
 work. He does not work to will, and then 
 leave us unaided to work it out ourselves. 
 The will may have seen and accepted the 
 work, and yet the power be lacking to per- 
 form. The renewed will of Romans vii. 
 delighted in God's law, and yet the man 
 was impotent to do, until in Romans viii. 
 2-4, by the law of the Spirit of Hfe in Christ 
 Jesus, he was set free from the law of sin 
 and death ; then first could the righteous- 
 ness of the law be fulfilled in him, as one 
 who walked not after the flesh but after 
 the Spirit. 
 
 One great cause of the failure of be- 
 lievers in their work is that, when they 
 
58 Working for God 
 
 think that God has given them to will, they 
 undertake to zvork in the strength of that 
 will. They have never learnt the lesson, 
 that because God has created us in Christ 
 Jesus for good works, and has afore pre- 
 pared the good works in which we are to 
 walk, He must needs, and will most cer- 
 tainly, Himself work them all in us. They 
 have never listened long to the voice speak- 
 ing, ' It is God which worketh in you.' 
 
 We have here to do with one of the 
 deepest, most spiritual, and most precious 
 truths of Scripture — the unceasing opera- 
 tion of Almighty God in our heart and Hfe. 
 In virtue of the very nature of God, as a 
 Spiritual Being not confined to any place, 
 but everywhere present, there can be no 
 spiritual life but as it is upheld by His 
 personal indwelling. 
 
 Not without the deepest reason does 
 Scripture say, He worketh all in all. Not 
 only of Him are all things as their first 
 beginning, and to Him as their end, but also 
 through Him, who alone maintains them. 
 
 In the man Christ Jesus the working of 
 the Father in Him was the source of all He 
 did. In the new man, created in Christ 
 Jesus, the unceasing dependence on the 
 Father is our highest privilege, our true 
 nobility. This is indeed fellowship with 
 
Working for God 59 
 
 God: God Himself working in us to will 
 and to do. 
 
 Let us seek to learn the true secret of 
 working for God. It is not, as many think, 
 that we do our best, and then leave God to 
 do the rest. By no means. But it is this, 
 that we know that God's working His sal- 
 vation in us is the secret of our working 
 it out. That salvation includes every work 
 we have to do. The faith of God's work- 
 ing in us is the measure of our fitness to 
 work effectively. The promises, ' Accord- 
 ing to your faith be it unto you,' ' All things 
 are possible to him that believeth,' have 
 their full application here. The deeper our 
 faith in God's zvorking in us, the more 
 freely will the power of God work in us, 
 the more true and fruitful will our work be. 
 
 Perhaps some Sunday-school worker 
 reads this. Let me ask. Have you really 
 believed that your only power to do God's 
 work is as one who has been created in 
 Christ Jesus for good works, as one in 
 v/hom God Himself works to will and to 
 work? Have you yielded yourself to wait 
 for that working? Do you work because 
 you know God works in you? Say not 
 that these thoughts are too high. The 
 work of leading young souls to Christ is 
 too high for us indeed, but if we live as 
 
6o Working for God 
 
 little children, in believing that God will 
 work all in us. we shall do His work in His 
 strength. Pray much to learn and practise 
 the lesson in all you do: Work, for God 
 worketh in you. 
 
 1. I think we begin to feel that the spiritual 
 apprehension of this great truth, ' God worketh 
 in you,' is what all workers greatly need. 
 
 2. The Holy Spirit is the mighty power of 
 God. dwelling in behevers for life and for work. 
 Beseech God to shovv- it you, that in all our serv- 
 ice our first care must be the daily renewing of 
 the Holy Spirit. 
 
 3. Obey the command to be filled with the Holy 
 Spirit. Believe in His indwelling. Wait for His 
 teaching. Yield to His leading. Pray for His 
 mighty working. Live in the Spirit. 
 
 4. What the mighty power of God works in us 
 we are surely able to do. Only give way to the 
 power working in you. 
 
XI 
 
 faith \vov\nm b^ Xo\>e 
 
 * In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth 
 anything, nor uncircumcision ; but faith working 
 through love. Through love be servants one to 
 another ; for the whole law is fulfilled in this : 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' — Gal. 
 V. 6, 13. 
 
 IN Christ Jesus no external privilege 
 avails. The Jew might boast of his 
 circumcision, the token of God's covenant. 
 The Gentile might boast of his uncircum- 
 cision, with an entrance into the Kingdom 
 free from the Jewish law. Neither availed 
 aught in the Kingdom of heaven — nothing 
 but, as we have it in vi. 15, a new creature, 
 in which old things are passed away and all 
 things become new. Or, as we have it in 
 .our text — as a description of the life of the 
 new creature — nothing but faith working 
 by love, that makes us in love serve one 
 another. 
 
 What a perfect description of the new 
 life. First you have faith, as the root, 
 planted and rooted in Christ Jesus. Then 
 
 61 
 
62 Working for God 
 
 as its aim you have works, as the fruit. 
 And then between the two, as the tree, 
 growing downwards into the root and bear- 
 ing the fruit upward, you have love, with 
 the Hfe-sap flowing through it by which 
 the root brings forth the fruit. Of faith 
 we need not speak here. We have seen 
 how beHeving on Jesus does the greater 
 works ; hov/ the faith in the new creation, 
 and in God working in us, is the secret of 
 all work. Nor need we speak here of 
 Vv^orks — our whole book aims at securing 
 for them the place in every heart and life 
 that thev have in God's heart and in His 
 Word. 
 
 We have here to study specially the 
 great truth that all work is to be love, that 
 faith cannot do its work but through love, 
 that no works can have any worth but as 
 they come of love, and that love alone is the 
 sufficient strength for all the work we have 
 to do. 
 
 The pozver for zvork is love. — It was love 
 that moved God to all His work in creation 
 and redemption. It was love that enabled 
 Christ as man to work and to suffer as He 
 did. It is love that can inspire us with the 
 power of a self-sacrifice that seeks not its 
 own, but is ready to live and die for others. 
 It is love that gives us the patience that 
 refuses to give up the unthankful or the 
 
Working for God 6^ 
 
 hardened. It is love that reaches and over- 
 comes the most hopeless. Both m ourselves 
 and those for whom we labour love is the 
 power for work. Let us love as Christ 
 loved us. 
 
 The poziJcr for love is faith. — Faith roots 
 its life in the life of Christ Jesus, which 
 is all love. Faith knows, even when we 
 cannot realise fully, the wonderful gift that 
 has been given into our heart in the Holy 
 Spirit shedding abroad God's love there. A 
 spring in the earth may often be hidden 
 or stopped up. Until it is opened the foun- 
 tain cannot flow out. Faith knows that 
 there is a fountain of love within that can 
 spring up into eternal life, that can flow out 
 as rivers of living waters. It assures us 
 that we can love, that we have a Divine 
 power to love v-ithin us, as an unalienable 
 endowment of our new nature. 
 
 The power to exercise and show love is 
 work. — There is no such thing as power in 
 the abstract; it only acts as it is exercised. 
 Power in repose cannot be found' or felt. 
 This is specially true of the Christian 
 graces, hidden as they are amid the weak- 
 ness of our human nature. It is only by 
 doing that you know that you have ; a grace 
 m.ust be acted ere we can rejoice in its 
 possession. This is the unspeakable 
 blessedness of work, and makes it so essen- 
 
64 Working for God 
 
 tial to a healthy Christian life that it 
 wakens up and strengthens love, and makes 
 us partakers of its joy. 
 
 Faith working by love. — In Christ Jesus 
 nothing avails but this. Workers for God ! 
 believe this. Practise it. Thank God much 
 for the fountain of eternal love opened 
 within you. Pray fervently and frequently 
 that God may strengthen you with might 
 by the power of His Spirit in your inner 
 man, so that, with Christ dwelling in you, 
 you may be rooted and grounded in love. 
 And live then, your daily life, in your own 
 home, in all your intercourse with men, in 
 all your work, as a life of Divine love. 
 The ways of love are so gentle and 
 heavenly, you may not learn them all at 
 once. But be of good courage, only believe 
 in the power that worketh in you, and yield 
 yourself to the work of love : it will surely 
 gain the victory. 
 
 Faith working by love. — In Christ Jesus 
 nothing ayails but this. Let me press home 
 this message, too, on those who have never 
 yet or only just begun to think of working 
 for God. Come and listen. 
 
 You owe everything to God's love. The 
 salvation you have received is all love. 
 God's one desire is to Ull you ivith His love. 
 For His ovv'n satisfaction, for your own 
 happiness, for the saving of men. Now, I 
 
Working for God 65 
 
 ask you — Will you not accept God's won- 
 derful offer to be Med zi'ith His love? Oh ! 
 come and give up heart and life to the joy 
 and the service of His love. Believe that 
 the fountain of love is within you; it will 
 begin to flow as you make a channel for it 
 by deeds of love. Whatever work for God 
 you try to do, seek to put love into it. Pray 
 for the spirit of love. Give yourself to live 
 a life of love; to think how you can love 
 those around you, by praying for them, by 
 serving them, by labouring for their wel- 
 fare, temporal and spiritual. Faith work- 
 ing by love in Christ Jesus, this alone 
 availeth much. 
 
 1. 'Faith, Hope, Love: the greatest of these is 
 Love.' There is no faith or hope in God. But 
 God is love. The most Godlike thing is love. 
 
 2. Love is the nature of God. When it is shed 
 abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit love be- 
 comes our new nature. Believe this, give your- 
 self over to it. and act it out. 
 
 3. Love is God's power to do His work. Love 
 was Christ's power. To work for God pray 
 earnestly to be filled with love to souls! 
 
XII 
 
 Beattna iFtutt in ever^ (3oot> Mori? 
 
 * To walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleas- 
 ing, bearing fruit in every good work, and in- 
 creasing in the knowledge of God ; strengthened 
 with all power, according to the might of His 
 glory, unto all patience.' — Col. i. lo. 
 
 THERE is a difference between fruit and 
 work. Fruit is that which comes 
 spontaneously, without thought or will, the 
 natural and necessary outcome of a healthy 
 life. Work, on the contrary, is the product 
 of effort guided by intelligent thought and 
 will. In the Christian life we have the two 
 elements in combination. All true work 
 must be fruit, the growth and product of 
 our inner life, the operation of God's Spirit 
 within us. And yet all fruit must be work, 
 the effect of our deliberate purpose and ex- 
 ertion. In the words, * bearing fruit in 
 every good work,' we have the practical 
 summing up of the truth taught in some 
 previous chapters. Because God works by 
 His life in us, the work we do is fruit. 
 Because, in the faith of His working, we 
 66 
 
Working for God 67 
 
 have to will and to work, the fruit we bear 
 is work. In the harmony between the per- 
 fect spontaneity that comes from God's life 
 and Spirit animating us, and our co-opera- 
 tion with Him as His intelligent fellow- 
 labourers, lies the secret of all true work. 
 
 In the words that precede our text, 
 ' filled with the knowledge of His will in all 
 wisdom and spiritual understanding,' we 
 have the human side, our need of knowl- 
 edge and wisdom ; in the words that follow, 
 ' strengthened with all power, according to 
 the might of His glory,' we have the Divine 
 side. God teaching and strengthening, man 
 learning to understand and patiently do His 
 will; such is the double life that will be 
 fruitful in every good work. 
 
 It has been said of the Christian life that 
 the natural man must first become spiritual, 
 and then again the spiritual man must be- 
 come natural. As the whole natural life be- 
 comes truly spiritual, all our work will par- 
 take of the nature of fruit, the outgrowth of 
 the life of God within us. And as the spir- 
 itual again becomes perfectly natural to us, 
 a second nature in which we are wholly at 
 home, all the fruit will bear the mark of 
 true work, calling into full exercise every 
 faculty of our being. 
 
 ' Bearing fruit unto every good work* 
 The words suggest again the great thought, 
 
68 Working for God 
 
 that as an apple-tree or a vine is planted 
 solely for its fruit, so the great purpose of 
 our redemption is that God may have us for 
 His work and service. It has been well 
 said : * The end of man is an Action and 
 not a Thought, though it were of the 
 noblest.' It is in his work that the 
 nobility of man's nature as ruler of the 
 world is proved. It is for good works that 
 we have been new created in Christ Jesus : 
 It is when men see our good works that our 
 Father in Heaven will be glorified and have 
 the honour which is His due for His work- 
 manship. In the parable of the vine our 
 Lord insisted on this : ' He that abideth 
 in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much 
 fruit.' ' Herein is My Father glorified, that 
 ye bear much fruit.' Nothing is more to 
 the honour of a husbandman than to suc- 
 ceed in raising an abundant crop — much 
 fruit is glory to God. 
 
 What need that every believer, even the 
 feeblest branch of the Heavenly Vine, the 
 man who has only one talent, be encouraged 
 and helped, and even trained, to aim at the 
 much fruit. A little strawberry plant may, 
 in its measure, be bearing a more abundant 
 crop than a large apple-tree. The call to be 
 'fruitful in every good work is for every 
 Christian without exception. The grace 
 that fits for it, of which the prayer, in which 
 
Working for God 69 
 
 our words are found, speaks, is for every 
 one. Every branch fruitful in every good 
 work — ^this is an essential part of God's 
 Gospel. 
 
 'Bearing fruit in every good zvork/ Let 
 us study to get a full impression of the two 
 sides of this Divine truth. God's first cre- 
 ation of life was in the vegetable kingdom. 
 There it was a life without anything of will 
 or self-effort, all growth and fruit was 
 simply His own direct work, the spon- 
 taneous outcome of His hidden working. 
 In the creation of the animal kingdom there 
 was an advance. A new element was in- 
 troduced — thought and will and work.. In 
 man these two elements were united in per- 
 fect harmony. The absolute dependence of 
 the grass and the lily on the God who 
 clothes them with their beauty were to be 
 the groundwork of our relationship — Na- 
 ture has nothing but what it receives from 
 God. Our works are to be fruit, the prod- 
 uct of a God-given power. But to this 
 was added the true mark of our God-like- 
 ness, the power of will and independent 
 action : all fruit is to be our own work. As 
 we grasp this we shall see how the most 
 absolute acknowledgment of our having 
 nothing in ourselves is consistent with the 
 deepest sense of obligation and the 
 Strongest will to exert our powers to the 
 
70 Working for God 
 
 very utmost. We shall learn to study the 
 prayer of our text as those who must seek 
 all their wisdom and strength from God 
 alone. And we shall boldly give ourselves, 
 as those who are responsible for the use of 
 that wisdom and strength, to the diligence 
 and the sacrifice and the effort needed for 
 a life bearing fruit in every good work. 
 
 1. Much depends, for quality and quantity, on 
 the healthy life of the tree. The life of God, of 
 Christ Jesus, of His Spirit, the Divine life in 
 you, is strong and sure. 
 
 2. That life is love. Believe in it. Act it out. 
 Have it replenished day by day out of the fulness 
 there is in Christ. 
 
 3. Let all your work be fruit ; let all your will- 
 ing and working be inspired by the life of God. 
 So will you walk worthily of the Lord with all 
 pleasing. 
 
XIII 
 
 Hlwai^s abouuMuG in tbe morft of 
 tbe Xort) 
 
 * Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye sted- 
 fast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work 
 of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your 
 labour is not in vain in the Lord.' — i Cor. xv. 58. 
 
 WE all know the fifteenth chapter of ist 
 Corinthians, in its Divine revelation 
 of the meaning of Christ's resurrection, 
 with all the blessings of which it is the 
 source. 
 
 It gives us a living Saviour, who revealed 
 Himself to His disciples on earth, and to 
 Paul from heaven. It secures to us the 
 complete deliverance from all sin. It is 
 the pledge of His final victory over every 
 enemy, when He gives up the kingdom to 
 the Father, and God is all in all. It assures 
 us of the resurrection of the body, and our 
 entrance on the heavenly life. Paul had 
 closed his argument with his triumphant 
 appeal to Death and Sin and the Law : ' O 
 Death, where is thy victory? The sting 
 of Death is Sin, and the power of Sin is 
 
 71 
 
72 Working for God 
 
 the Law. But thanks be to God, which 
 giveth us the victory through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ.' And then follows, after 
 fifty-seven verses of exultant teaching con- 
 cerning the mystery and the glory of the 
 resurrection life in our Lord and His peo- 
 ple, just one verse of practical application : 
 ' Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye 
 stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in 
 the work of the Lord.' The faith in a risen, 
 living Christ, and in all that His resurrec- 
 tion is to us in time and eternity, is to fit 
 us for, is to prove itself in — abounding 
 work for our Lord ! 
 
 It cannot be otherwise. Christ's resur- 
 rection was His final victory over sin, and 
 death, and Satan, and His entrance upon 
 His work of giving the Spirit from heaven 
 and extending His kingdom throughout the 
 earth. Those who shared the resurrection 
 joy at once received the commission to 
 make known the joyful news. It was so 
 with Mary and the women. It was so with 
 the disciples the evening of the resurrec- 
 tion day. * As the Father sent Me, I send 
 you.' It was so with all to whom the charge 
 was given : * Go into all the world, preach 
 the Gospel to every creature.' The resur- 
 rection is the beginning and the pledge of 
 Christ's victory over all the earth. That 
 victory is to be carried out to its complete 
 
Working for God 73 
 
 manifestation through His people. The 
 faith and joy of the resurrection Ufe are the 
 inspiration and the power for the work of 
 doing it. And so the call comes to all be- 
 lievers without exception : ' Wherefore, 
 my beloved brethren, be ye always abound- 
 ing in the work of the Lord ! ' 
 
 'In the zvork of the Lord/ The con- 
 nection tells us at once what that work is. 
 Nothing else, nothing less than, telling 
 others of the risen Lord, and proving to 
 them what new life Christ has brought to 
 us. As we indeed know and acknowledge 
 Him as Lord over all we are, and live in the 
 joy of His service, we shall see that the 
 work of the Lord is but one work — that 
 of zvinuing men to know and bow to Him. 
 Amid all the forms of lowly, living, patient 
 service, this will be the one aim, in the 
 power of the life of the risen Lord, to make 
 Him Lord of all. 
 
 This work of the Lord is no easy one. It 
 cost Christ His life to conquer sin and 
 Satan and gain the risen life. It will cost 
 us our life, too — the sacrifice of the life of 
 nature. It needs the surrender of all on 
 earth to live in the full power of resurrec- 
 tion newness of life. The power of sin, and 
 the world, in those around us is strong, and 
 Satan does not yield his servants an easy 
 prey to our efforts. It needs a heart in 
 
74 Working for God 
 
 close touch with the risen Lord, truly living 
 the resurrection life, to be stedfast, un- 
 moveable, akvays abounding in the work of 
 the Lord. But that is a life that can be 
 lived — because Jesus lives. 
 
 Paul adds : ' Forasmuch as ye know that 
 your labour is not vain in the Lord.' I have 
 spoken more than once of the mighty influ- 
 ence that the certainty of reward for work, 
 in the shape of wages or riches, exerts on 
 the millions of earth's workers. And shall 
 not Christ's workers believe that, with such 
 a Lord, their reward is sure and great? 
 The work is often difficult and slow, and ap- 
 parently fruitless. We are apt to lose heart, 
 because we are working in our strength and 
 judging by our expectations. Let us listen 
 to the message : * O ye children of the 
 resurrection life, be ye always abounding 
 in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye 
 know your labour is not in vain in the 
 Lord.' * Let not your hands be weak ; your 
 work shall be rewarded.' ' You knozu that 
 your labour is not vain in the Lord.' 
 
 'In the Lord/ The expression is a sig- 
 nificant one. Study it in Romans xvi., 
 where it occurs ten times, where Paul uses 
 the expressions : ' Receive here in the 
 Lord ; ' ' my fellow-worker in Christ Jesus ; ' 
 * who are in Christ, in the Lord ; ' ' beloved 
 in the Lord ; ' ' approved in Christ ; ' ' who 
 
Working for God 75 
 
 labour in the Lord; ' ' chosen in the Lord.' 
 The whole Hfe and fellowship and service of 
 these saints had the one mark — they were, 
 their labours were, in the Lord. Here is 
 the secret of effectual service. Your la- 
 bour is not ' in vain in the Lord.' As a 
 sense of His presence and the power of His 
 life is maintained, as all works are wrought 
 in Him, His strength works in our weak- 
 ness ; our labour cannot be in vain in the 
 Lord. Christ said : ' He that abideth in 
 Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth 
 much fruit.' Oh ! let not the children of 
 this world, with their confidence that the 
 masters whose work they are doing will cer- 
 tainly give them their due reward, put the 
 children of light to shame. Let us rejoice 
 and labour in the confident faith of the 
 word : ' Your labour is not in vain in the 
 Lord. Wherefore, beloved brethren, be 
 ve always abounding in the work of the 
 Lord.' 
 
XIV 
 
 HbounMng Grace tor HbounMuG 
 mork 
 
 ' And God is able to make all grace abound 
 unto you, that ye may abound unto every good 
 work.' — 2 CoR, ix. 8. 
 
 IN our previous meditation we had the 
 great motive to abounding work — the 
 spirit of triumphant joy which Christ's 
 resurrection inspires as it covers the past 
 and the future. Our text to-day assures 
 us that for this abounding work we have 
 the ability provided : God is able to make all 
 grace abound, that we may abound to all 
 good works. Every thought of abounding 
 grace is to be connected with the abounding 
 in good works for which it is given. And 
 every thought of abounding work is to be 
 connected with the abounding grace that 
 fits for it. 
 
 Abounding grace has abounding work 
 for its aim. It is often thought that grace 
 and good works are at variance with each 
 other. This is not so. What Scripture 
 calls the works of the law, our own works, 
 
 76 
 
Working for God 77 
 
 the works of righteousness which we have 
 done, dead works — works by which we 
 seek to merit or to be made fit for God's 
 favour, these are indeed the very opposite 
 of grace. But they are also the very 
 opposite of the good works which spring 
 from grace, and for which alone grace is 
 bestowed. As irreconcilable as are the 
 works of the law with the freedom of grace, 
 so essential and indispensable are the works 
 of faith, good works, to the true Christian 
 life. God makes grace to abound, that good 
 works may abound. The measure of true 
 grace is tested and proved by the measure 
 of good works. God's grace abounds in us 
 that we may abound in good works. We 
 need to have the truth deeply rooted in us : 
 Abounding grace has abounding zvork for 
 its aim. 
 
 And abounding work needs abounding 
 grace as its source and strength. There 
 often is abounding work without abounding 
 grace. Just as any man may be very dili- 
 gent in an earthly pursuit, or a heathen in 
 his religious service of an idol, so men may 
 be very diligent in doing religious work in 
 their own strength, with but little thought 
 of that grace which alone can do true, 
 spiritual effective work. For all work that 
 is to be really acceptable to God, and truly 
 fruitful, not only for some visible result 
 
7 8 Working for God 
 
 here on earth, but for eternity, the grace of 
 God is indispensable. Paul continually 
 speaks of his own work as owing ever>^- 
 thing to the grace of God working in him : 
 * I laboured more abundantly than they all : 
 yet not I, but the grace of God which was 
 with me' (i Cor. xv. lo). 'According to 
 the gift of that grace of God which was 
 given me according to the working of His 
 power' (Eph. iii. 7). And he as frequently 
 calls upon Christians to exercise their gifts 
 ' according to the grace that was given us ' 
 (Rom. xii. 6). 'The grace given accord- 
 ing to the measure of the gift of Christ ' 
 (Eph. iv. 7). It is only by the grace of 
 God working in us that we can do what 
 are truly good works. It is only as we seek 
 and receive abounding grace that we can 
 abound in every good work. 
 
 ' God is able to make all grace abound 
 unto you, that ye may abound in all good 
 works.' With what thanksgiving every 
 Christian ought to praise God for the 
 abounding grace that is thus provided for 
 him. And with what humiliation to con- 
 fess that the experience of, and the sur- 
 render to, that abounding grace has been 
 so defective. And with what confidence to 
 believe that a life abounding in good works 
 is indeed possible, because the abounding 
 grace for it is so sure and so Divinely suffi- 
 
Working for God 79 
 
 cient. And then, with what simple childHke 
 dependence to wait upon God day by day to 
 receive the more grace which He gives to 
 the humble. 
 
 Child of God ! do take time to study and 
 truly apprehend God's purpose with you, 
 that you abound in every good work! He 
 means it! He has provided for it! Make 
 the measure of your consecration to Him 
 nothing less than His purpose for you. 
 And claim, then, nothing less than the 
 abounding grace He is able to bestow. 
 Make His omnipotence and His faithful- 
 ness your confidence. And live ever in the 
 practice of continual prayer and depend- 
 ence upon His powder working in you. This 
 will make you abound in every good work. 
 According to your faith be it unto you. 
 
 Christian worker, learn here the secret of 
 all failure and all success. Work in our 
 own strength, with little prayer and waiting 
 on God for His spirit, is the cause of fail- 
 ure. The cultivation of the spirit of abso- 
 lute impotence and unceasing dependence 
 will open the heart for the workings of the 
 abounding grace. We shall learn to ascribe 
 all we do to God's grace. We shall learn to 
 measure all we have to do by God's grace. 
 And our Hfe will increasingly be in the joy 
 of God's making His grace to abound in us, 
 and our abounding in every good work. 
 
8o Working for God 
 
 1. ' That ye may abound to every good work.' 
 Pray over this now till you feel that this is what 
 God has prepared for you. 
 
 2. If your ignorance and feebleness appear to 
 make it impossible, present yourself to God, and 
 say you are willing, if He will enable you to 
 abound in good works, to be a branch that brings 
 forth much fruit. 
 
 3. Take into your heart, as a living seed, the 
 precious truth : God is able to make all grace 
 abound in you. Trust His power and His faith- 
 fulness (Rom. iv. 20, 21 ; i Thess. v. 24). 
 
 4. Begin at once by doing lowly deeds of love. 
 As the little child in the kindergarten. Learn by 
 doing. 
 
XV 
 
 Hn tbe IKHork of /iDinlstertna 
 
 * And he gave some to be apostles ; and some, 
 prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pas- 
 tors and teachers ; for the perfecting of the 
 saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the 
 building up of the body of Christ.' — Eph. iv. ii, 
 
 12. 
 
 THE object with which Christ when He 
 ascended to heaven bestowed on His 
 servants the various gifts that are men- 
 tioned is threefold. Their first aim is — 
 for the perfecting of the saints. Believers 
 as saints are to be led on in the pursuit of 
 holiness until they * stand perfect and com- 
 plete in all the will of God.' It was for 
 this Epaphras laboured in prayer. It is of 
 this Paul writes : * Whom we preach, teach- 
 ing every man in all wisdom, that we may 
 present every man perfect in Christ' (Col. 
 iv. 12, i. 28). 
 
 This perfecting of the saints is, however, 
 only a means to a higher end : unto the work 
 of ministering, to fit all the saints to take 
 their part in the service to which every be- 
 
 81 
 
Sa Working for God 
 
 liever is called. It is the same word as is 
 used in texts as these : ' They ministered to 
 Him of their substance ; ' ' Ye ministered 
 to the saints and do minister ' (Luke iv. 30, 
 viii. 3; I Cor. xvi. 15; Heb. vi. 10; i Pet. 
 iv. 11). 
 
 And this, again, is also a means to a still 
 higher end: unto the building tip of the 
 body of Christ. As every member of our 
 body takes its part in working for the health 
 and growth and maintenance of the whole, 
 so every member of the body of Christ is 
 to consider it his first great duty to take 
 part in all that can help to build up the 
 body of Christ. And this, whether by the 
 helping and strengthening of those who are 
 already members, or the ingathering of 
 those who are to belong to it. And the 
 great work of the Church is, through its 
 pastors and teachers, so to labour for the 
 perfecting of the saints in hoHness and love 
 and fitness for service, that every one may 
 take his part in the zvork of ministering, 
 that so, the body of Christ may be built up 
 and perfected. 
 
 Of the three great objects with which 
 Christ has given His Church apostles and 
 teachers, the work of ministering stands 
 thus in the middle. On the one hand, it is 
 preceded by that on which it absolutely de- 
 pends — the perfecting of the saints. On 
 
Working for God 83 
 
 the other, it is followed by that which it is 
 meant to accomplish — the building up of 
 the body of Christ: Every believer without 
 exception, every member of Christ's body, 
 is called to take part in the work of minis- 
 tering. Let every reader try and realise the 
 sacredness of his holy calling. 
 
 Let us learn what the qualification is for 
 our work. ' The perfecting of the saints ' 
 prepares them for the ' work of minister- 
 ing.' It is the lack of true sainthood, of 
 true holiness, that causes such lack and fee- 
 bleness of service. As Christ's saints are 
 taught and truly learn what conformity to 
 Christ means, a life like his, given up in 
 self-sacrifice for the service and salvation of 
 men, as His humility and love, His separa- 
 tion from the world and devotion to the 
 fallen, are seen to be the very essence and 
 blessedness of the life He gives, the work 
 of ministering, the ministry of love, will 
 become the one thing we live for. Humility 
 and Love — these are the two great virtues 
 of the saint — they are the two great powers 
 for the work of ministering. Humility 
 makes us willing to serve; love makes us 
 wise to know how to do it. Love is inven- 
 tive; it seeks patiently, and suffers long, 
 until it find a way to reach its object. Hu- 
 mility and love are equally turned away 
 from self and its claims. Let us pray, let 
 
84 Working for God 
 
 the Church labour for * the perfecting of 
 the saints ' in humiHty and love, and the 
 Holy Spirit will teach us how to minister. 
 
 Let us look at what the great work is the 
 members of Christ have to do. It is to min- 
 ister to each other. Place yourself at 
 Christ's disposal for service to your fellow- 
 Christians. Count yourself their servant. 
 Study their interest. Set yourself actively 
 to promote the welfare of the Christians 
 round you. Selfishness may hesitate, the 
 feeling of feebleness may discourage, sloth 
 and ease may raise difficulties — ask your 
 Lord to reveal to you His will, and give 
 yourself up to it. Round about you there 
 are Christians who are cold and worldly 
 and wandering from their Lord. Begin to 
 think what you can do for them. Accept 
 as the will of the Head that you as a mem- 
 ber should care for them. Pray for the 
 Spirit of love. Begin somewhere — only 
 begin, and do not continue hearing and 
 thinking while you do nothing. Begin ' the 
 work of ministering ' according to the meas- 
 ure of the grace you have. He will give 
 more grace. 
 
 Let us believe in the power that worketh 
 in us as sufficient for all we have to do. As 
 I think of the thumb and finger holding the 
 pen with which I write this, I ask. How is it 
 that during all these seventy years of my 
 
Working for God 85 
 
 life they have always known just to do 
 my will? It was because the Hfe of the 
 head passed into and worked itself out in 
 them. ' He that believeth on Me/ as his 
 Head working in him, ' the works that I do 
 shall he do also.' Faith in Christ, whose 
 strength is made perfect in our weakness, 
 will give the power for all we are called 
 to do. 
 
 Let us cry to God that all believers may 
 waken up to the power of this great truth : 
 Every member of the body is to live wholly 
 for the building up of the body. 
 
 1. To be a true worker the first thing is close, 
 humble fellowship with Christ the Head, to be 
 guided and empowered by Him. 
 
 2. The next is humble, loving fellowship with 
 Christ's members serving one another in love, 
 
 3. This prepares and fits for service in the 
 world. 
 
XVI 
 
 HccorMuG to tbe Morftino ot eacb 
 several part 
 
 * That we may grow up in all things into Him, 
 which is the Head, even Christ; from whom all 
 the body fitly framed and knit together through 
 that which every joint supplieth, according to the 
 working in due measure of each several part, 
 maketh the increase of the body unto the build- 
 ing up of itself in love.' — Eph. iv. 15, 16. 
 
 THE Apostle is here speaking of the 
 growth, the increase, the building up 
 of the body. This growth and increase 
 has, as we have seen, a double reference. 
 It includes both the spiritual uniting and 
 strengthening of those who are already 
 members, so as to secure the health of the 
 whole body; and also the increase of the 
 body by the addition of all who are as yet 
 outside of it, and are to be gathered in. 
 Of the former we spoke in the previous 
 chapter — the mutual interdependence of all 
 believers, and the calling to care foi each 
 other's welfare. In this chapter we look 
 at the growth from the other side — the call- 
 86 
 
Working for God 87 
 
 ing of every member of Christ's body to 
 labour for its increase by the labour of love 
 that seeks to bring in them who are not yet 
 of it. This increase of the body and build- 
 ing up of itself in love can only be by the 
 working in due measure of each several 
 part. 
 
 Think of the body of a child ; how does it 
 reach the stature of a full-grown man ? In 
 no other way but by the working in due 
 measure of every part. As each member 
 takes its part, by the work it does in seeking 
 and taking and assimilating food, the in- 
 crease is made by its building up itself. 
 Not from without, but from within, comes 
 the work that assures the growth. In no 
 other way can Christ's body attain to the 
 stature of the fulness of Christ. As it is 
 unto Christ the Head we grow up, and from 
 Christ the Head that the body maketh in- 
 crease of itself, so it is all through that 
 which every joint supplieth, according to 
 the working in due measure of each several 
 part. Let us see what this implies. 
 
 The body of Christ is to consist of all 
 who believe in Him throughout the world. 
 There is no possible way in which these 
 members of the body can be gathered in, 
 but by the body building itself up in love. 
 Our Lord has made Himself, as Head, ab- 
 solutely dependent on His members to do 
 
88 Working for God 
 
 this work. What nature teaches us of our 
 own bodies, Scripture teaches us of Christ's 
 body. The head of a child may have 
 thought and plans of growth — they will all 
 be vain, except as the members all do their 
 part in securing that growth. Christ Jesus 
 has committed to His Church the growth 
 and increase of His body. He asks and 
 expects that as wholly as He the Head lives 
 for the growth and welfare of the body, 
 every member of His body, the very fee- 
 blest, shall do the same, to the building up 
 of the body in love. Every believer is to 
 count it his one duty and blessedness to live 
 and labour for the increase of the body, the 
 ingathering of all who are to be its mem- 
 bers. 
 
 What is it that is needed to bring the 
 Church to accept this calling, and to train 
 and help the members of the body to know 
 and fulfil it? One thing. We must see 
 that the new birth and faith, that all insight 
 into truth, with all resolve and surrender 
 and effort to live according to it, is only a 
 preparation for our true work. What is 
 needed is that in every believer Jesus Christ 
 be so formed, so dwell in the heart, that 
 His life in us shall be the impulse and in- 
 spiration of our love to the whole body, and 
 our life for it. It is because self occupies 
 the heart that it is so easy and natural and 
 
Working for God 89 
 
 pleasing to care for ourselves. When Jesus 
 Christ lives in us, it will be as easy and 
 natural and pleasing to live wholly for the 
 body of Christ. As readily and naturally 
 as the thumb and fingers respond to the 
 will and movement of the head will the 
 members of Christ's body respond to the 
 Head, as the body grows up into Him, and 
 from Him maketh increase of itself. 
 
 Let us sum up. For the great work the 
 Head is, doing in gathering in from 
 throughout the world and building up His 
 body, He is entirely dependent on the serv- 
 ice of the members. Not only our Lord, 
 but a perishing world is waiting and calling 
 for the Church to awake and give herself 
 wholly to this work — the perfecting of the 
 number of Christ's members. Every be^ 
 liever, the very feeblest, must learn to know 
 his calling — to live zvith this as the main 
 object of this existence. This great truth 
 will be revealed to us in power, and obtain 
 the mastery, as we give ourselves to the 
 work of ministering according to the grace 
 zve already have. We may confidently wait 
 for the full revelation of Christ in us as the 
 power to do all He asks of us. 
 
XVII 
 
 Momen aborneD witb Goob Mot!? 
 
 ' Let women adorn themselves; not with 
 braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly rai- 
 ment ; but through good zvorks. Let none be 
 enrolled as a widow under threescore years old, 
 well reported of for good works; ... if she hath 
 diligently followed every good work. — i Tim. ii. 
 10, V. 9, 10. 
 
 IN the three Pastoral Epistles, written to 
 two young pastors to instruct them in 
 regard to their duties, * good works ' are 
 more frequently mentioned than in Paul's 
 other Epistles.^ In writing to the Churches, 
 as in a chapter like Romans xii. he mentions 
 the individual good work by name. In 
 writing to the pastors he had to use this 
 expression as a summary of what, both in 
 their own life and their teaching of others, 
 they had to aim at. A minister was to be 
 prepared to every good work, furnished 
 completely to every good work, an ensample 
 
 ^ In I Tim. 6 times — ii. ii, iii. i, v. lo, a. 2, v. 
 25, vi. i8. In 2 Tim. twice — ii. 2i, iii. 17. In 
 Titus 6 times— i. 16, ii. 7, 14, iii. i, 8, 14. 
 
 90 
 
Working for God 91 
 
 of good works. And they were to teach 
 Christians — the women to adorn themselves 
 with good works, dihgently to follow every 
 good work, to be well reported of for good 
 works; the men to be rich in good works, 
 zealous of good works, ready to every good 
 work, to be careful and to learn to maintain 
 good works. No portion of God's work 
 presses home more definitely the absolute 
 necessity of good works as an essential, 
 vital element in the Christian life. 
 
 Our two texts speak of the good works 
 of Christian women. In the first they are 
 taught that their adorning is to be not with 
 braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly 
 raiment, but, as becomes women preferring 
 godliness, with good works. We know 
 what adornment is. A leafless tree in win- 
 ter has life; when spring comes it puts on 
 its beautiful garments, and rejoices in the 
 adornment of foliage and blossom. The 
 adorning of Christian women is not to be 
 in hair or pearls or raiment, but in good 
 works. Whether it be the good works that 
 have reference to personal duty and con- 
 duct, or those works of beneficence that aim 
 at the pleasing and helping of our neigh- 
 bour, or those that more definitely seek the 
 salvation of souls — the adorning that 
 pleases God, that gives true heavenly 
 beauty, that will truly attract others to 
 
92 Working for God 
 
 come and serve God, too, is what Christian 
 women ought to seek after. John saw the 
 holy city descend from heaven, ' made 
 ready as a bride adorned for her husband/ 
 ' The fine hnen is the righteous acts of the 
 saints' (Rev. xxi. 2, xix. 8). Oh! that 
 every Christian woman might seek so to 
 adorn herself as to please the Lord that 
 loved her. 
 
 In the second passage we read of widows 
 who were placed upon a roll of honour in 
 the early Church, and to whom a certain 
 charge was given over the younger women. 
 No one was to be enrolled who was not 
 ' well reported of for good works.' Some 
 of these are mentioned: if she has been 
 known for the careful bringing up of her 
 children, for her hospitality to strangers, 
 for her washing the saints' feet, for her re- 
 lieving the afflicted ; and then there is 
 added, ' if she hath diligently follozved 
 every good work/ If in her home and out 
 of it, in caring for her own children, for 
 strangers, for saints, for the afflicted, her 
 life has been devoted to good works, she 
 may indeed be counted fit to be an example 
 and guide to others. The standard is a high 
 one. It shows us the place good works 
 took in the early Church. It shows how 
 woman's blessed ministry of love was 
 counted on and encouraged. It shows how, 
 
Working for God 93 
 
 in the development of the Christian Hfe, 
 nothing so fits for rule and influence as a 
 life given to good works. 
 
 Good works are part and parcel of the 
 Christian life, equally indispensable to the 
 health and growth of the individual, and to 
 the welfare and extension of the Church. 
 And yet what multitudes of Christian 
 women there are whose active share in the 
 good work of blessing their fellow-creatures 
 is little more than playing at good works. 
 They are waiting for the preaching of a full 
 gospel, which shall encourage and help and 
 compel them to give their lives so to work 
 for their Lord, that they, too, may be well 
 reported of as diligently following every 
 good work. The time and money, the 
 thought and heart given to jewels or costly 
 raiment will be redeemed to its true object. 
 Religion will no longer be a selfish desire 
 for personal safety, but the joy of being 
 like Christ, the helper and saviour of the 
 needy. Work for Christ will take its true 
 place as indeed the highest form of exist- 
 ence, the true adornment of the Christian 
 life. And as diligence in the pursuits of 
 earth is honoured as one of the true ele- 
 ments of character and worth, diligently 
 to follow good works in Christ's service 
 will be found to give access to the highest 
 reward and the fullest joy of the Lord. 
 
94 Working for God 
 
 1. We are beginning to awaken to the wonder- 
 ful place woman can take in church and school 
 and mission. This truth needs to be brought 
 home to every one of the King's daughters, that 
 the adorning in which they are to attract the 
 world, to please their Lord, and enter His pres- 
 ence is — good works. 
 
 2. Woman, as the image of 'the weakness of 
 God,' ' the meekness and gentleness of Christ,' is 
 to teach man the beauty and the power of the 
 long-suffering, self-sacrificing ministry of love. 
 
 3. The training for the service of love begins 
 in the home life; is strengthened in the inner 
 chamber; reaches out to the needy around, and 
 finds its full scope in the world for which Christ 
 died. 
 
XVIII 
 IRtcb In 6oob Timorfts 
 
 * Charge them that are rich in the present 
 world, that they do good, that they be rich in 
 good works, that they be ready to distribute, will- 
 ing to communicate, laying up for themselves a 
 good foundation against the time to come, that 
 they may lay hold on the life which is life in- 
 deed.' — I Tim. vi. i8. 
 
 IF women are to regard good work as 
 their adornment, men are to count them 
 their riches. As good works satisfy 
 woman's eye and taste for beauty, they meet 
 man's craving for possession and power. 
 In the present world riches have a wonder- 
 ful significance. They are often God's re- 
 ward on diligence, industry, and enterprise. 
 They represent and embody the life-power 
 that has been spent in procuring them. As 
 such they exercise power in the honour or 
 service they secure from others. Their 
 danger consists in their being of this world, 
 in their drawing off the heart from the liv- 
 ing God and the heavenly treasures. They 
 may become a man's deadliest enemy : How 
 
 95 
 
96 Working for God 
 
 hardly shall they that have riches enter the 
 kingdom of heaven ! 
 
 The gospel never takes away anything 
 from us without giving us something better 
 in its stead. It meets the desire for riches 
 by the command to be rich in good works. 
 Good works are the coin that is current in 
 God's kingdom : according to these will be 
 the reward in the world to come. By 
 abounding in good works we lay up for 
 ourselves treasures in heaven. Even here 
 on earth they constitute a treasure, in the 
 testimony of a good conscience, in the con- 
 sciousness of being well-pleasing to God 
 (i John iii.), in the power of blessing 
 others. 
 
 There is more. Wealth of gold is not 
 only a symbol of the heavenly riches; it is 
 actually, though so opposite in its nature, a 
 means to it. ' Charge the rich that they do 
 good, that they be ready to distribute, will- 
 ing to communicate, laying up for them- 
 selves a good foundation.' ' Make to your- 
 selves friends by means of the mammon of 
 unrighteousness, that, when it fails, they 
 may receive you into the eternal taber- 
 nacles.' Even as the widow's mite, the gifts 
 of the rich, when given in the same spirit, 
 may be an offering with which God is well 
 pleased (Heb. xiii. 16). The man who is 
 rich in money may become rich in good 
 
Working for God 97 
 
 works, if he follows out the instructions 
 Scripture lays down. The money must not 
 be given to be seen of men, but as unto the 
 Lord. Nor as from an owner, but a stew- 
 ard who administers the Lord's money, 
 with prayer for His guidance. Nor with 
 any confidence in its power or influence, 
 but in deep dependence on Him who alone 
 can make it a blessing. Nor as a substitute 
 for, or bringing out from that personal 
 work and witness, which each believer is 
 to give. As all Christian work, so our 
 money-giving has its value alone from the 
 spirit in which it is done, even the spirit of 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 What a field there is in the world for 
 accumulating these riches, these heavenly 
 treasures. In reheving the poor, in educa- 
 ting the neglected, in helping the lost, in 
 bringing the gospel to Christians and 
 heathen in darkness, what investment might 
 be made if Christians sought to be rich in 
 good works, rich toward God. We may 
 well ask the question, ' What can be done 
 to waken among believers a desire for these 
 true riches? Men have made a science of 
 the wealth of nations, and carefully studied 
 all the laws by which its increase and uni- 
 versal distribution can be promoted. How 
 can the charge to be rich in good works find 
 a response in the hearts that its pursuit shall 
 
98 Working for God 
 
 be as much a pleasure and a passion as the 
 desire for the riches of the present world? 
 All depends upon the nature, the spirit, 
 there is in man. To the earthly nature, 
 earthly riches have a natural affinity and 
 irresistible attraction. To foster the desire 
 for the acquisition of what constitutes 
 wealth in the heavenly kingdom, we must 
 appeal to the spiritual nature. That spir- 
 itual nature needs to be taught and edu- 
 cated and trained into all the business hab- 
 its that go to make a man rich. There 
 must be the ambition to rise above the level 
 of a bare existence, the deadly contentment 
 with just being saved. There must be 
 some insight into the beauty and worth of 
 good works as the expression of the Divine 
 life — God's working in us and our working 
 in Him ; as the means of bringing glory to 
 God; as the source of Hfe and blessing to 
 men; as the laying up of a treasure in 
 heaven for eternity. There must be a faith 
 that these riches are actually within our 
 reach, because the grace and Spirit of God 
 are working in us. And then the outlook 
 for every opportunity of doing the work 
 of God to those around us, in the footsteps 
 of Him who said, ' It is more blessed to 
 give than receive.' Study and apply these 
 principles — they will open the sure road to 
 your becoming a rich man. A man who 
 
Working for God 99 
 
 wants to be rich often begins on a small 
 scale, but never loses an opportunity. Begin 
 at once with some work of love, and ask 
 Christ, who became poor, that you might he 
 rich, to help you. 
 
 1. What is the cause that the appeal for money 
 for missions meets with such insufficient re- 
 sponse? It is because of the low spiritual state 
 of the Church. Christians have no due concep- 
 tion of their calling to live wholly for God and 
 His kingdom, 
 
 2. How can the evil be remedied? Only when 
 believers see and accept their Divine calling to 
 make God's kingdom their first care, and with 
 humble confession of their sins yield themselves 
 to God, will they truly seek the heavenly riches 
 to be found in working for God. 
 
 3. Let us never cease to plead and labour for a 
 true spiritual awakening throughout the Church. 
 
XIX 
 
 IPrepareb unto cvcv^ 6oo^ Morft 
 
 * If a man therefore cleanse himself from them, 
 he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, meet 
 for the Master's use, prepared unto every good 
 work.' — 2 Tim. ii. 21. 
 
 PAUL had spoken of the foundation of 
 God standing sure (ii. 19), of the 
 Church as the great house built upon that 
 foundation, of vessels, not only of gold, 
 silver, costly and lasting, vessels to honour, 
 but also of wood and of earth, common and 
 perishable, vessels to dishonour. He dis- 
 tinguishes between them of whom he had 
 spoken, who gave themselves to striving 
 about words and to vain babblings, and 
 such as truly sought to depart from all in- 
 iquity. In our text he gives us the four 
 steps in the path in which a man can be- 
 come a vessel unto honour in the great 
 household of God. These are, the cleansing 
 from sin ; the being sanctified ; the meetness 
 for the Master to use as He will ; and last, 
 the spirit of preparedness for every good 
 work. It is not enough that we desire or 
 
 100, 
 
Working for God loi 
 
 attempt to do good works. As we need 
 training and care to prepare us for every 
 work we are to do on earth, we need it no 
 less, or rather we need it much more, to be 
 — what constitutes the chief mark of the 
 vessels unto honour — to be prepared unto 
 every good work. 
 
 ' If a man cleanse himself from them ' — 
 from that which characterises the vessels 
 of dishonour — ^the empty profession leading 
 to ungodliness, against which he had 
 warned. In every dish and cup we use, 
 how we insist upon it that it shall be clean. 
 In God's house the vessels must much more 
 be clean. And every one who would be 
 truly prepared unto every good work must 
 see to this first of all, that he cleanse him- 
 self from all that is sin. Christ Himself 
 could not enter upon His saving work in 
 heaven until He had accomplished the 
 cleansing of our sins. How can we become 
 partners in His work, unless there be with 
 us the same cleansing first. Ere Isaiah 
 could say, ' Here am I, send me,' the fire 
 of heaven had touched his lips, and he 
 heard the voice, * Thy sin is purged.' An 
 intense desire to be cleansed from every sin 
 lies at the root of fitness for true service. 
 
 'He shall be a vessel of honour, sancti- 
 fied' Cleansing is the negative side, the 
 emptying out and removal of all that is im^ 
 
I02 Working for God 
 
 pure. Sanctified, the positive side, the re- 
 filling and being possessed of the spirit of 
 holiness, through whom the soul becomes 
 God-possessed, and so partakes of His holi- 
 ness. ' Let us cleanse ourselves from all 
 defilement of flesh and spirit ' — this first, 
 then, and so ' perfecting holiness in the fear 
 of the Lord.' In the temple the vessels 
 were not only to be clean, but holy, devoted 
 to God's service alone. He that would truly 
 work for God must follow after holi- 
 ness ; ' a heart established in holiness ' 
 (i Thess. iv. 14), a holy habit of mind and 
 disposition, yielded up to God and marked 
 by a sense of His presence, fit for God's 
 work. The cleansing from sin secures the 
 filling with the Spirit. 
 
 'Meet for the Master's use.' We are 
 vessels for our Lord to use. In every work 
 we do, it is to be Christ using us and work- 
 ing through us. The sense of being a serv- 
 ant, dependent on the Master's guidance, 
 working under the Master's eye, instru- 
 ments used by Him and His mighty power, 
 lies at the root of effectual service. It 
 maintains that unbroken dependence, that 
 quiet faith, through which the Lord can do 
 His work. It keeps up that blessed con- 
 sciousness of the work being all His, which 
 leads the worker to become the humbler the 
 
Working for God 103 
 
 more he is used. His one desire is — meet 
 for the Master's use. 
 
 'Prepared unto every good work.' Pre- 
 pared. The word not only means equip- 
 ment, fitness, but also the disposition, the 
 alacrity which keeps a man on the outlook, 
 and makes him earnestly desire and joy- 
 fully avail himself of every opportunity of 
 doing his Master's work. As he lives in 
 touch with his Lord Jesus, and holds him- 
 self as a cleansed and sanctified vessel, 
 ready for Him to use, and he sees how good 
 works are what he was redeemed for, and 
 what his fellowship with his Lord is to be 
 proved in, they become the one thing he is 
 to live for. He is prepared unto every 
 good work. 
 
 1. 'Meet for the Master's use,' that is the cen- 
 tral thought. A personal relation to Christ, an 
 entire surrender to His disposal, a dependent 
 waiting to be used by Him, a joyful confidence 
 that He will use us — such is the secret of true 
 work. 
 
 2. Let the beginning of your work be a giving 
 yourself into the hands of the Master, as your 
 living, loving Lord. 
 
XX 
 
 ffutnisbeb completely unto everi^ 
 (Boob Mork 
 
 * Give diligence to present thyself approved 
 unto God, a workman that needeth not to he 
 ashamed, handling aright the word of truth.' — 2 
 Tim. ii. 15. 
 
 'Every scripture inspired of God is also profit- 
 able for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for 
 instruction which is in righteousness ; that the man 
 of God may be complete, furnished completely 
 unto every good work.' — 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 
 
 A WORKMAN that needeth not to be 
 ashamed is one who is not afraid to 
 have the master come and inspect his work. 
 In hearty devotion to it, in thoroughness 
 and skill, he presents himself approved to 
 him who employs him. God's workers are 
 to give diligence to present themselves ap- 
 proved to Him ; to have their work worthy 
 of Him unto all well-pleasing. They are 
 to be as a workman that needeth not to be 
 ashamed. A workman is one who knows 
 his work, who gives himself wholly to it, 
 who is known as a working man, who takes 
 delight in doing his work well. Such every 
 
 104 
 
Working for God 105 
 
 Christian minister, every Christian worker, 
 is to be — a workman that makes a study 
 of it to invite and expect the Master's 
 approval. 
 
 ' Handling aright the zuord of truth/ 
 The word is a seed, a fire, a hammer, a 
 sword, is bread, is Ught. Workmen in any 
 of these spheres can be our example. In 
 work for God everything depends upon 
 handling the word aright. Therefore it is 
 that, in the second text quoted above, the 
 personal subjection to the word, and the 
 experience of its power, is spoken of as the 
 one means of our being completely fur- 
 nished to every good work. God's workers 
 must know that the Scripture is inspired of 
 God, and has the life and life-giving power 
 of God in it. Inspired is Spirit-breathed — 
 as the life in a seed, God's Holy Spirit is 
 in the word. The Spirit in the word and 
 the Spirit in our heart is One. As by the 
 power of the Spirit within us we take the 
 Spirit-filled word we become spiritual men. 
 This word is given for teaching, the reve- 
 lation of the thoughts of God ; for reproof, 
 the discovery of our sins and mistakes ; for 
 correction, the removal of what is defective 
 to be replaced by what is right and good; 
 for instruction zvhich is in righteousness, 
 the communication of all the knov/ledge 
 needed to walk before God in His ways. 
 
io6 Working for God 
 
 As one yields himself wholly and heartily 
 to all this, and the true Spirit-filled word 
 gets mastery of his whole being, he be- 
 comes a man of God, complete and fur- 
 nished completely to every good work. He 
 becomes a workman approved of God, who 
 needs not to be ashamed, rightly handling 
 the word of God. And so the man of God 
 has the double mark — his own life wholly 
 moulded by the Spirit-breathed word — and 
 his whole work directed by his rightly hand- 
 ling that word. 
 
 ' That the man of God may be complete, 
 thoroughly furnished unto every good 
 work/ In our previous meditation we 
 learnt how in the cleansing and sanctification 
 of the personal life the worker becomes a 
 vessel meet for the Master's use, prepared 
 unto every good work. Here we learn the 
 same lesson — it is the man of God who al- 
 lows God's word to do its work of reprov- 
 ing and correcting and instructing in his 
 own life who will be complete, completely 
 furnished unto every good work. Complete 
 equipment and readiness for every good 
 work — that is what every worker for God 
 must aim at. 
 
 If any worker, conscious of how defect- 
 ive his preparation is, ask how this com- 
 plete furnishing for every good work is to 
 be attained, the analogy of an earthly work- 
 
Working for God 107 
 
 man, who needs not be ashamed, suggests 
 the answer. He would tell us that he owes 
 his success, first of all, to devotion to his 
 work. He gave it his close attention. He 
 left other things to concentrate his efforts 
 on mastering one thing. He made it a life- 
 study to do his work perfectly. They who 
 would do Christ's work as a second thing, 
 not as the first, and who are not willing to 
 sacrifice all for it, will never be complete or 
 completely furnished to every good work. 
 
 The second thing he will speak of will be 
 patient training and exercise. Proficiency 
 only comes through painstaking effort. You 
 may feel as if you know not how or what 
 to work aright. Fear not — all learning be- 
 gins with ignorance and mistakes. Be of 
 good courage. He who has endowed 
 human nature with the wonderful power 
 that has filled the world with such skilled 
 and cunning workmen, will He not much 
 more give His children the grace they need 
 to be His fellow-workers? Let the neces- 
 sity that is laid upon you — the necessity 
 that you should glorify God, that you 
 should bless the world, that you should 
 through work ennoble and perfect your life 
 and blessedness, urge you to give immedi- 
 ate and continual diligence to be a work- 
 man completely furnished unto every good 
 work. 
 
io8 Working for God 
 
 It is only in doing we learn to do aright. 
 Begin working under Christ's training; He 
 will perfect His work in you, and so lit you 
 for your work for Him. 
 
 1. The work God is doing, and seeking to have 
 done in the world, is to win it back to Himself. 
 
 2. In this work every believer is expected to 
 take part. 
 
 3. God wants us to be skilled workmen, who 
 give our whole heart to His work, and delight 
 in it. 
 
 4. God does His work by working in us, in- 
 spiring and strengthening us to do His work. 
 
 5. What God asks is a heart and life devoted 
 to Him in surrender and faith. 
 
 6. As God's work is all love, love is the power 
 that works in us, inspiring our efforts and con- 
 quering its object. 
 
XXI 
 Zealous ot 6oob MorRs 
 
 * He gave Himself for us, that He might redeem 
 us from all iniquity, and purify us for Himself, 
 a people of His own, zealous of good works.' — 
 Tit. ii. 14. 
 
 IN these words we have two truths — what 
 Christ has done to make us His own, 
 and what He expects of us. In the former 
 we have a rich and beautiful summary of 
 Christ's work for us : He gave Himself for 
 lis, He redeemed us from all iniquity. He 
 cleansed us for Himself, He took us for a 
 people, for His own possession. And all 
 with the one object, that we should be a 
 people zealous of good zcorks. The doc- 
 trinal half of this wonderful passage has 
 had much attention bestowed on it; let us 
 devote our attention to its practical part — 
 we are to be a people zealous of good works. 
 Christ expects of us that v/e shall be zealots 
 for good works — ardently, enthusiastically 
 devoted to their performance. 
 
 This cannot be said to be the feeling with 
 which most Christians regard good works. 
 
 109 
 
no Working for God 
 
 What can be done to cultivate this dispo- 
 sition ? One of the first things that wakens 
 zeal in work is a great and urgent sense of 
 need. A great need wakens strong desire, 
 stirs the heart and the will, rouses all the 
 energies of our being. It was this sense of 
 need that roused many to be zealous of the 
 law ; they hoped their works would save 
 them. The Gospel has robbed this motive 
 of its power. Has it taken away entirely 
 the need of good works? No, indeed, it 
 has given that urgent need a higher place 
 than before. Christ needs, needs urgently, 
 our good works. We are His servants, the 
 members of His body, without whom He 
 cannot possibly carry on His work on earth. 
 The work is so great — with the hundreds 
 of millions of the unsaved — the work is so 
 great, that not one worker can be spared. 
 There are thousands of Christians to-day 
 who feel that their own business is urgent, 
 and must be attended to, and have no con- 
 ception of the urgency of Christ's work 
 committed to them. The Church must 
 waken up to teach each believer this. 
 
 As urgently as Christ needs our good 
 works the world needs them. There are 
 around you men and women and children 
 who need saving. To see men swept down 
 past us in a river, stirs our every power 
 to try and save them. Christ has placed 
 
Working for God 1 1 1 
 
 His people in a perishing world, with the 
 expectation that they will give themselves, 
 heart and soul, to carry on His work of 
 love. Oh ! let us sound forth the blessed 
 Gospel message : He gave Himself for us 
 that He might redeem us for Himself, a 
 people of His own, to serve Him and carry 
 on His work — zealous of good works. 
 
 A second great element of zeal in work 
 is delight in it. An apprentice or a student 
 mostly begins his work under a sense of 
 duty. As he learns to understand and 
 enjoy it, he does it with pleasure, and be- 
 comes zealous in its performance. The 
 Church must train Christians to believe that 
 when once we give our hearts to it, and seek 
 for the training that makes us in some de- 
 gree skilled workmen, there is no greater 
 joy than that of sharing in Christ's work 
 of mercy and beneficence. As physical and 
 mental activity give pleasure, and call for 
 the devotion and zeal of thousands, the 
 spiritual service of Christ can waken our 
 highest enthusiasm. 
 
 Then comes the highest motive, the per- 
 sonal one of attachment to Christ our Re- 
 deemer : * The love of Christ constraineth 
 us.' The love of Christ to us is the source 
 and measure of our love to Him. Our love 
 to Him becomes the power and the measure 
 of our love to souls. This love, shed abroad 
 
112 Working for God 
 
 in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, this love as 
 a Divine communication, renewed in us by 
 the renewing of the Holy Ghost day by day, 
 becomes a zeal for Christ that shows itself 
 as a zeal for good works. It becomes the 
 link that unites the two parts of our text, 
 the doctrinal and the practical, into one. 
 Christ's love, that gave Himself for us, that 
 redeemed us from all iniquity, that cleansed 
 us for Himself, that made us a people of 
 His own in the bonds of an everlasting 
 loving kindness, that love believed in, 
 known, received into the heart, makes the 
 redeemed soul of necessity zealous in good 
 works. 
 
 'Zealous of good works!' Let no be- 
 liever, the youngest, the feeblest, look upon 
 this grace as too high. It is Divine, pro- 
 vided for and assured in the love of our 
 Lord. Let us accept it as our calling. Let 
 us be sure it is the very nature of the new 
 life within us. Let us, in opposition to all 
 that nature or feeling may say, in faith 
 claim it as an integral part of our redemp- 
 tion — Christ Himself will make it true in 
 us. 
 
XXII 
 
 IReaC)^ to ever^ Goo& Mot?? 
 
 * Put them in mind to be ready to every good 
 work.' — Tit. iii. i. 
 
 ^ pUT them in mind.' The words sug- 
 A gest the need of believers to have 
 the truths of their calHng to good works 
 ever again set before them. A healthy tree 
 spontaneously bears its fruit. Even where 
 the life of the believer is in perfect health, 
 Scripture teaches us how its growth and 
 fruitfulness only come through teaching, 
 and the influence that exerts on mind and 
 will and heart. For all who have charge 
 of others the need is great of Divine wis- 
 dom and faithfulness to teach and train all 
 Christians, specially young and feeble 
 Christians, to be ready to every good work. 
 Let us consider some of the chief points of 
 such training. 
 
 Teach them clearly what good works are. 
 Lay the foundation in the will of God, as 
 revealed in the law. and show them how 
 integrity and righteousness and obedience 
 
 113 
 
114 Working for God 
 
 are the groundwork of Christian character. 
 Teach them how in all the duties and rela- 
 tionships of daily life true religion is to b^ 
 carried out. Lead them on to the virtues 
 which Jesus specially came to exhibit and 
 teach — humility, meekness and gentleness 
 and love. Open out to them the meaning oi 
 a life of love, self-sacrifice, and beneficence 
 — entirely given to think of and care for 
 others. And then carry them on to what 
 is the highest, the true life of good works — 
 the winning of men to know and love God. 
 Teach them zvhat an essential part of the 
 Christian life good works are. They are 
 not, as many think, a secondary element in 
 the salvation which God gives. They are 
 not merely to be done in token of our grati- 
 tude, or as a proof of the sincerity of our 
 faith, or as a preparation for heaven. They 
 are all this, but they are a great deal more. 
 They are the very object for which we have 
 been redeemed : we have been created anew 
 unto good works. They alone are the evi- 
 dence that man has been restored to his 
 original destiny of working as God works, 
 and with God, and because God works 
 through him. God has no higher glory 
 than His works, and specially His work of 
 saving love. In becoming imitators of God, 
 and walking and working in love, even as 
 Christ loved us and gave Himself for us, 
 
Working for God 115 
 
 we have the very image and likeness of 
 God restored in us. The works of a man 
 not only reveal his life, they develop and 
 exercise, they strengthen and perfect it. 
 Good works are of the very essence of the 
 Divine life in us. 
 
 Teach them, too, what a rich reward they 
 bring. All labour has its market value. 
 From the poor man who scarce can earn a 
 shilling a day, to the man who has made 
 his millions, the thought of the reward 
 there is for labour has been one of the 
 great incentives to undertake it. Christ 
 appeals to this feeling when He says, 
 Great shall be your reward.' Let Chris- 
 tians understand that there is no service 
 where the reward is so rich as that of God. 
 Work is bracing, work is strength, and cul- 
 tivates the sense of mastery and conquest. 
 Work wakens enthusiasm and calls out a 
 man's noblest qualities. In a life of good 
 works the Christian becomes conscious of 
 his Divine ministry of dispensing the life 
 and grace of God to others. They bring us 
 into closer union with God. There is no 
 higher fellowship with God than fellowship 
 in His saving work of love. It brings us 
 into sympathy with Him and His purposes ; 
 it fills us with His love; it secures His ap- 
 proval. And great is the reward, too, on 
 those around us. When others are won to 
 
1 1 6 Working for God 
 
 Christ, when the weary and the erring and 
 the desponding are helped and made par- 
 takers of the grace and life there are in 
 Christ Jesus for them, God's servants share 
 in the very joy m which our blessed Lord 
 found His recompense. 
 
 And now the chief thing. Teach them 
 to believe that it is possible for each of us 
 to abound in good zvorks. Nothing is so 
 fatal to successful effort as discourage- 
 ment or despondency. Nothing is more a 
 frequent cause of neglect of good works 
 than the fear that we have not the power 
 to perform them. Put them in mind of the 
 power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. 
 Show them that God's promise and pro- 
 vision of strength is always equal to what 
 He demands ; that there is always grace 
 sufficient for all the good works to which 
 we are called. Strive to waken in them a 
 faith in ' the power that worketh in us,' 
 and in the fulness of that life which can 
 flow out as rivers of living water. Train 
 them to begin at once their service of love. 
 Lead them to see how it is all God working 
 in them, and to offer themselves as empty 
 vessels to be filled with His love and grace. 
 And teach them that as they are faithful 
 in a little, even amid mistakes and short- 
 comings, the acting out of the life will 
 
Working for God 117 
 
 strengthen the Hfe itself, and work for God 
 will become in full truth a second nature. 
 
 God grant that the teachers of the 
 Church may be faithful to its commission 
 in regard to all her members — ' Put them 
 in mind to be ready for every good work.' 
 Not only teach them, but train them. 
 Show them the work there is to be done by 
 them ; see that they do it ; encourage and 
 help them to do it hopefully. There is no 
 part of the office of a pastor more impor- 
 tant or more sacred than this, or fraught 
 with richer blessing. Let the aim be 
 nothing less than to lead every believer to 
 live entirely devoted to the work of God 
 in winning men to Him. What a change 
 it would make in the Church and the world ! 
 
 1. Get a firm hold of the great root-principle. 
 Every believer, every member of Christ's body, 
 has his place in the body solely for the welfare of 
 the whole body. 
 
 2. Pastors have been given for the perfecting of 
 the saints with the work of ministering, of serving 
 in love. 
 
 3. In ministers and members of the churches, 
 Christ will work mightily if they will wait upon 
 Him. 
 
XXIII 
 
 Careful to maintatn (Boo^ TKIlorF?s 
 
 * I will that thou affirm these things confidently, 
 to the end that they which have believed God may 
 be careful to maintain good zvorks. Let our peo- 
 ple also leant to maintain good works for neces- 
 sary uses, that they be not unfruitful.' — Tit. iii. 
 8, 14. 
 
 IN the former of these passages Paul 
 charges Titus confidently to affirm the 
 truths of the blessed Gospel to the end, 
 with the express object that all who had 
 believed should be careful, should make a 
 study of it, to maintain good zvorks. Faith 
 and good works were to be inseparable ; the 
 diligence of every believer in good works 
 was to be a main aim of a pastor's work. 
 In the second passage he reiterates the in- 
 struction, with the expression, let them 
 learn, suggesting the thought that, as all 
 work on earth has to be learned, so in the 
 good works of the Christian life there is 
 an equal need of thought and application 
 and teachableness, to learn how to do them 
 aright and abundantly. 
 118 
 
Working for God 119 
 
 There may be more than one reader of 
 this Httle book who has felt how Httle he 
 has Hved in accordance with all the teach- 
 ing of God's word, prepared, thoroughly 
 furnished, ready unto, zealous of good 
 works. It appears so difficult to get rid of 
 old habits, to break through the conven- 
 tionalities of society, to know how to begin 
 and really enter upon a life that can be 
 full of good works, to the glory of God. 
 Let me try and give some suggestions that 
 may be helpful. They may also aid those 
 who have the training of Christian workers, 
 in showing in what way the teaching and 
 learning of good works may best succeed. 
 Come, young workers all, and listen. 
 
 I. A learner must begin by beginning to 
 work at once. There is no w^ay of learning 
 an art like swimming or music, a new lan- 
 guage or a trade, but by practice. Let 
 neither the fear that you cannot do it, nor 
 the hope that something will happen that 
 will make it easier for you, keep you back. 
 Learn to do good works, the works of love, 
 by beginning to do them. However insig- 
 nificant they appear, do them. A kind 
 word, a little help to some one in trouble, 
 an act of loving attention to a stranger or a 
 poor man, the sacrifice of a seat or a place 
 to some one who longs for it — practise 
 these things. All plants we cultivate are 
 
I20 Working for God 
 
 small at first. Cherish the consciousness 
 that, for Jesus' sake, you are seeking to do 
 what would please Him. It is only in 
 doing you can learn to do. 
 
 2. The learner must give his heart to the 
 work, must take interest and pleasure in it. 
 Delight in work ensures success. Let the 
 tens of thousands around you in the world 
 who throw their whole soul into their daily 
 business, teach you how to serve your 
 blessed Master. Think sometimes of the 
 honour and privilege of doing good works, 
 of serving others in love. It is God's own 
 work, to love and save and bless men. He 
 works it in you and through you. It makes 
 you share the spirit and likeness of Christ. 
 It strengthens your Christian character. 
 Without actions, intentions lower and con- 
 demn a man instead of raising him. Only 
 as much as you act out, do you really live. 
 Think of the Godlike blessedness of doing 
 good, of communicating life, of making 
 happy. Think of the exquisite joy of 
 growing up into a life of beneficence, and 
 being the blessing of all you meet. Set 
 your heart upon being a vessel meet for 
 the Master's use, ready to every good 
 work. 
 
 3. Be of good courage, and fear not. The 
 learner who says I cannot, will surely fail. 
 There is a Divine power working in you. 
 
Working for God 121 
 
 Study and believe what God's word says 
 about it. Let the holy self-reliance of St. 
 Paul, grounded on his reliance on Christ, 
 be your example: I can do all things — in 
 Christ which strengtheneth me. Study and 
 take home to yourself the wonderful prom- 
 ises about the" power of the Holy Spirit, the 
 abundance of grace, Christ's strength made 
 perfect in weakness, and see how all this 
 can only be made true to you in working. 
 Cultivate the noble consciousness that as 
 you have been created to good works by 
 God, He Himself will fit you for them. 
 And believe then that just as natural as it 
 is to any workman to delight and succeed 
 in his profession, it can be to the new 
 nature in you to abound in every good 
 work. Having this confidence, you need 
 never faint. 
 
 4. Above all, cling to your Lord Jesus as 
 your Teacher and Master. He said: 
 ' Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of 
 heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls.' 
 Work as one who is a learner in His school, 
 who is sure that none teaches like Him, 
 and is therefore confident of success. Cling 
 to Him, and let a sense of His presence 
 and His power working in you make you 
 meek and lowly, and yet bold and strong. 
 He who came to do the Father's work on 
 earth, and found it the path to the Father's 
 
122 Working for God 
 
 glory, will teach you what it is to work for 
 God. 
 
 To sum up again, for the sake of any who want 
 to learn how to work, or how to work better : 
 
 1. Yield yourself to Christ. Lay yourself on 
 the altar, and say you wish to give yourself wholly 
 to live for God's work. 
 
 2. Believe quietly that Christ accepts and takes 
 charge of you for His work, and will fit you for 
 it. 
 
 3. Pray much that God would open to you the 
 great truth of His own working in you. Nothing 
 else can give true strength. 
 
 4. Seek to cultivate a spirit of humble, patient, 
 trustful dependence upon God. Live in loving 
 fellowship with Christ, and obedience to Him. 
 You can count upon His strength being made per- 
 fect in your weakness. 
 
XXIV 
 
 ^5 Ibis ffeUow*'CClor??ers 
 
 ' We are God's fellow-zvorkers: ye are God's 
 building.' — i Cor. iii 9. 
 
 ' And ijorking together ivith Him we intreat 
 also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.' 
 — 2 Cor. vi. i. 
 
 WE have listened to Paul's teaching on 
 good works (chaps. IX.-XXII.) ; 
 let us turn now to his personal experience. 
 and see if we can learn from him some of 
 the secrets of eflfective service. 
 
 He speaks here of the Church as God's 
 building, which, as the Great Architect, He 
 is building up into a holy temple and dwell- 
 ing for Himself. Of his own work, Paul 
 speaks as of that of a master builder, to 
 whom a part of the great building has been 
 given in charge. He had laid a foundation 
 in Corinth ; to all who were working there 
 he said : ' Let each man take heed how he 
 buildeth thereon.' ' V/e are God's fellow- 
 workers.' The word is applicable not only 
 to Paul, but to all God's servants who take 
 part in His work; and because ever^^ be- 
 123 
 
124 Working for God 
 
 liever has been called to give his life to 
 God's service and to win others to His 
 knowledge, every, even the feeblest, Chris- 
 tian needs to have the word brought to him 
 and taken home : * We are God's fellow- 
 workers.' How much it suggests in regard 
 to our working for God ! 
 
 As to the zvork zve have to do. — The eter- 
 nal God is building for Himself a temple; 
 Christ Jesus, God's Son, is the foundation ; 
 believers are the living stones. The Holy 
 Spirit is the mighty power of God through 
 which believers are gathered out of the 
 world made fit for their place in the tem- 
 ple, and built up into it. As living stones, 
 believers are at the same time the living 
 workmen, whom God uses to carry out His 
 work. They are equally God's workman- 
 ship and God's fellow-workers. The work 
 God is doing He does through them. The 
 work they have to do is the very work God 
 is doing. God's own work, in which He de- 
 lights, on which His heart is set, is saving 
 men and building them into His temple. 
 This is the one work on which the heart of 
 every one who would be a fellow-worker 
 with God must be set. It is only as we 
 know how great, how wonderful, this work 
 of God is — giving life to dead souls, im- 
 parting His own life to them, and living 
 in them — that we shall enter somewhat into 
 
Working for God 125 
 
 the glory of our work, receiving the very 
 Ufe of God from Him, and passing it on to 
 men. 
 
 As to the strength for the zvork. — Paul 
 says of his work as a mere master builder, 
 that it was ' according to the grace of God 
 which was given me.' For Divine work 
 nothing but Divine power suffices. The 
 power by which God works must work in 
 us. That power is His Holy Spirit. Study 
 the second chapter of this Epistle, and the 
 third of the Second, and see how absolute 
 was Paul's acknowledgment of his own im- 
 potence, and his dependence on the teaching 
 and power of the Holy Spirit. As this 
 great truth begins to live in the hearts of 
 God's workers, that God's work can only 
 be done by God's power in us, we shall feel 
 that our first need every day is to have 
 the presence of God's Spirit renewed within 
 us. The power of the Holy Spirit is the 
 power of love. God is love. All He works 
 for the salvation of men is love ; it is love 
 alone that truly conquers and wins the 
 heart. In all God's fellow-workers love is 
 the power that reaches the hearts of men. 
 Christ conquered and conquers still by the 
 love of the cross. Let that mind be in you, 
 O worker, which was in Christ Jesus, the 
 spirit of a love that sacrifices itself to the 
 death, of a humble, patient, gentle love. 
 
126 Working for God 
 
 and you will be made meet to be God's 
 fellow-worker. 
 
 As to the relation zve are to hold to God. 
 — In executing the plans of some great 
 building the master builder has but one 
 care — to carry out to the minutest detail the 
 thoughts of the architect who designed it. 
 He acts in constant consultation with him, 
 and is guided in all by his will; and his 
 instructions to those under him have all 
 reference to the one thing — the embodi- 
 ment, in visible shape, of what the master 
 mind has conceived. The one great charac- 
 teristic of fellow-workers with God ought 
 to be that of absolute surrender to His will, 
 unceasing dependence on His teaching, 
 exact obedience to His wishes. God has 
 revealed His plan in His Word. He has 
 told us that His Spirit alone can enable us 
 to enter into His plans, and fully master 
 His purpose with the way he desires to have 
 it carried out. The clearer our insight into 
 the Divine glory of God's work of saving 
 souls, into the utter insufficiency of our 
 natural powers to do the work, into the 
 provision that has been made by which the 
 Divine love can animate us, and the Divine 
 Spirit guide and strengthen us for its due 
 performance, the more we shall feel that a 
 childHke teachableness, a continual looking 
 upward and waiting on God, is ever to be 
 
Working for God 127 
 
 the chief mark of one who is His fellow- 
 labourer. Out of the sense of humility, 
 helplessness, and nothingness there will 
 grow a holy confidence and courage that 
 knows that our weakness need not hinder 
 us, that Christ's strength is made perfect in 
 weakness, that God Himself is working out 
 His purpose through us. And of all the 
 blessings of the Christian life, the most 
 wonderful will be that we are allowed to 
 be — God's fellow-workers ! 
 
 1. God's fellow-worker ! How easy to use the 
 word, and even to apprehend some of the great 
 truths it contains ! How little we live in the 
 power and the glory of what it actually involves ! 
 
 2. Fellow-workers with God ! Everything de- 
 pends upon knowing, in His holiness and love, the 
 God with whom we are associated as partners. 
 
 3. He who has chosen us, that in and through 
 us He might do His great work, will fit us for 
 His use. 
 
 4. Let our posture be adoring worship, deep de- 
 pendence, great waiting, full obedience. 
 
XXV 
 
 HccorMrtG to tbe TKIlorF?tna of 1bt0 
 IPower 
 
 ' Whom we preach, warning every man, and 
 teaching: every man, that we may present every 
 man perfect in Christ Jesus; whereunto I also 
 labour, striving according to His working, which 
 worketh in me mightily.' — Col. i. 29. 
 
 ' The mystery of Christ, whereof I was made a 
 minister, according to the gift of that grace of God 
 which was given me according to the working of 
 His power.' — Eph. iii. 7. 
 
 IN the words of Paul to the Philippians, 
 which we have already considered 
 (Chap. IX.), in which he called upon them 
 and encouraged them to work, because it 
 was God who worked in them, we found 
 one of the most pregnant and comprehen- 
 sive statements of the great truth that it is 
 only by God's working in us that we can do 
 true work. In our texts for this chapter 
 we have Paul's testimony as to his own 
 experience. His whole ministry was to be 
 according to the grace which was given him 
 according to the working of God's power. 
 
 128 
 
Working for God 129 
 
 And of his labour he says that it was a 
 striving according to the power of Him 
 who worked mightily in him. 
 
 We find here the same principle we found 
 in our Lord — the Father doing the works 
 in Him. Let every worker who reads this 
 pause, and say — If the ever-blessed Son, if 
 the Apostle Paul, could only do their work 
 according to the working of His power 
 who worked in them mightily, how much 
 more do I need this working of God in me, 
 to fit me for doing His work aright. This 
 is one of the deepest spiritual truths of 
 God's word ; let us look to the Holy Spirit 
 w^ithin us to give it such a hold of our in- 
 most life, that it may become the deepest 
 inspiration of all our work. I can only do 
 true work as I yield myself to God to work 
 in me. 
 
 We know the ground on which this truth 
 rests, ' There is none good but God ' ; * There 
 is none holy but the Lord ' ; ' Power be- 
 longeth unto God.' All goodness and holi- 
 ness and power are only to be found in God, 
 and where He gives them. And He can 
 only give them in the creature, not as 
 something He parts with, but by His own 
 actual presence and dwelling and working. 
 And so God can only work in His people 
 in as far as He is allowed to have complete 
 possession of the heart and life. As our 
 
130 Working for God 
 
 will and life and love are yielded up in de- 
 pendence and faith, and God is waited on 
 to keep possession and to abide, even as 
 Christ waited on Him, God can work in us. 
 
 This is true of all our spiritual life, but 
 specially of our work for God. The work 
 of saving souls is God's own work: none 
 but He can do it. The gift of His Son is 
 the proof of how great and precious He 
 counts the work, and how His heart is, set 
 upon it. His love never for one moment 
 ceases working for the salvation of men. 
 And when He calls His children to be part- 
 ners in His work, He shares with them the 
 joy and the glory of the work of saving 
 and blessing men. He promises to work 
 His work through them, inspiring and ener- 
 gising them by His power working in them. 
 To him who can say with Paul : ' I labour, 
 striving according to His power who work- 
 eth in me mightily,' his whole relation to 
 God becomes the counterpart and the con- 
 tinuation of Christ's, a blessed, unceasing, 
 momentary, and most absolute dependence 
 on the Father for every word He spoke and 
 every work He did. 
 
 Christ is our pattern. Christ's life is our 
 law and works in us. Christ lived in Paul 
 his life of dependence on God. Why 
 should any of us hesitate to believe that the 
 grace given to Paul of labouring and striv- 
 
Working for God 131 
 
 ing ' according to the working of the power ' 
 will be given to us too. Let every worker 
 learn to say — As the power that worked in 
 Christ worked in Paul too, that power 
 works no less in me. There is no possible 
 way of working God's work aright, but by 
 God working it in us. 
 
 How I wish that I could take every 
 worker who reads this by the hand, and 
 say — Come, my brother! let us quiet our 
 minds, and hush every thought in God's 
 presence, as I whisper in your ears the won- 
 derful secret : God is working in you. All 
 the work you have to do for Him, God will 
 work in yoti. Take time and think it over. 
 It is a deep spiritual truth which the mind 
 cannot grasp nor the heart realise. Accept 
 it as a Divine truth from heaven; believe 
 that this word is a seed out of which can 
 grow the very spiritual blessing of which it 
 speaks. And in the faith of the Holy 
 Spirit's making it live within you, say ever 
 again: God worketh in me. All the work 
 I have to work for Him, God will work in 
 me. 
 
 The faith of this truth, and the desire to 
 have it made true in you, will constrain you 
 to live very humbly and closely with God. 
 You will see how work for God must be 
 the most spiritual thing in a spiritual life. 
 And you will ever anew bow in holy stilK 
 
132 Working for God 
 
 ness: God is working; God will work in 
 me; I will work for Him according to the 
 power which worketh in me mightily. 
 
 1. The gift of the grace of God (Eph. ii. 7, iii. 
 7), the power that worketh in us (Eph. iii. 20), 
 the strengthening with might by the Spirit (Eph. 
 iii. 16), — the three expressions all contain the same 
 thought of God's working all in us. 
 
 2. The Holy Spirit is the power of God. Seek 
 to be filled with the Spirit, to have your whole life 
 led by Him, and you will become fit for God's 
 working mightily in you. 
 
 3. * Ye shall receive the power of the Holy 
 Spirit coming on you.' Through the Spirit dwell- 
 ing in us God can work in us mightily. 
 
 4. What holy fear, what humble watchfulness 
 and dependence, what entire surrender and obedi- 
 ence become us if we believe in God's working in 
 us. 
 
XAVi 
 
 Xabouring more Hbunt)antl^ 
 
 * By the grace of God I am what I am : and His 
 grace which was bestowed on me was not in 
 vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they 
 all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was 
 with me.' — i Cor. xv. id. 
 
 ' And He hath said unto me. My grace is suffi- 
 cient for thee: for My power is made perfect in 
 weakness. ... In nothing was I behind the 
 chief est of the apostles, though I am nothing.' — 
 2 Cor. xii. 9, II. 
 
 IN both of these passages Paul speaks of 
 how he had abounded in the work of 
 the Lord. ' In nothing was I behind the 
 chiefest of the Apostles.' ' 1 laboured more 
 abundantly than they all.' In both he tells 
 how entirely it was all of God, who worked 
 in Him, and not of himself. In the first he 
 says : * Not I, but the grace of God which 
 was with me.' And then in the second, 
 showing how this grace is Christ's strength 
 working in us, while we are nothing, he 
 tells us : * He said unto me : My grace is 
 sufficient for thee : My power is made per- 
 fect in weakness.' May God give us *the 
 133 
 
134 Working for God 
 
 Spirit of revelation, enlightened eyes of the 
 heart/ to see this wonderful vision, a man 
 who knows himself to be nothing, glorying 
 in his weakness, that the power of Christ 
 may rest on him, and work through him, 
 and who so labours more abundantly than 
 all. What does this teach us as workers 
 for God. 
 
 God's work can only be done in God's 
 strength. — It is only by God's power, that is, 
 by God Himself working in us, that we can 
 do effective work. Throughout this little 
 book this truth has been frequently repeated. 
 It is easy to accept of it ; it is far from easy 
 to see its full meaning, to give it the mas- 
 tery over our whole being, to live it out. 
 This will need stillness of soul, and medita- 
 tion, strong faith and fervent prayer. As 
 it is God alone who can work in us, it is 
 equally God who alone can reveal Himself 
 as the God who works in us. Wait on Him, 
 and the truth that ever appears to be be- 
 yond thy reach will be opened up to thee, 
 through the knowledge of who and what 
 God is. When God reveals Himself as 
 ' God who worketh all in all/ thou wilt 
 learn to believe and work ' according to the 
 power of Him who worketh in thee 
 mightily.' 
 
 God's strength can only work in zveak- 
 ness. — It is only when we truly say, Not II 
 
Working for God 135 
 
 that we can fully say, but the grace of God 
 with me. The man who said, In nothing 
 behind the chief est of the Apostles! had first 
 learnt to say, though I am nothing. He 
 could say : * I take pleasure in weaknesses, 
 for when I am weak then am I strong.' 
 This is the true relation between the Crea- 
 tor and the creature, between the Divine 
 Father and His child, between God and His 
 servant. Christian worker ! learn the lesson 
 of thine own weakness, as the indispensable 
 condition of God's power working in thee. 
 Do believe that to take time and in God's 
 presence to realise thy weakness and noth- 
 ingness is the sure way to be clothed with 
 God's strength. Accept every experience 
 by which God teaches thee thy weakness as 
 His grace preparing thee to receive His 
 strength. Take pleasure in weaknesses ! 
 
 God's strength comes in our fellowship 
 with Christ and His service. — Paul says : 
 ' 1 will glory in my weakness, that the 
 strength of Christ may rest upon me.' ' I 
 take pleasure in weaknesses for Christ's 
 sake.' And he tells how it was when he had 
 besought the Lord that the messenger of 
 Satan might depart from him, that He an- 
 swered : ' My grace is sufficient for thee.' 
 * Christ is the wisdom and the power of 
 God.' We do not receive the wisdom to 
 know, or the power to do God's will as 
 
136 Working for God 
 
 something that we can possess and use at 
 discretion. It is in the personal attachment 
 to Christ, in a Hfe of continual communica- 
 tion with Him, that His power rests on us. 
 It is in taking pleasure in weaknesses for 
 Christ's sake that Christ's strength is 
 known. 
 
 God's strength is given to faith, and the 
 work that is done in faith. — It needs a liv- 
 ing faith to take pleasure in weaknesses, and 
 in weakness to do our work, knowing that 
 God is working in us. Without seeing or 
 feeling anything, to go on in the confidence 
 of a hidden power working in us — this is 
 the highest exercise of a life of faith. To 
 do God's own work in saving souls, in per- 
 severing prayer and labour ; amid outwardly 
 unfavourable circumstances and appear- 
 ances still to labour more abundantly — this 
 faith alone can do. Let us be strong in 
 faith, giving glory to God. God will show 
 Himself strong towards him whose heart is 
 perfect with Him. 
 
 My brother! be willing to yield yourself 
 to the very utmost to God, that His power 
 may rest upon you, may work in you. Do 
 let God zvork through you. Ofifer yourself 
 to Him for His work as the one object of 
 your life. Count upon His working all in 
 you, to fit you for His service, to strengthen 
 and bless you in it. Let the faith and love 
 
Working for God 137 
 
 of your Lord Jesus, whose strength is going 
 to be made perfect in your weakness, lead 
 you to Hve even as He did, to do the Father's 
 will and finish His work. 
 
 1. Let every minister seek the full personal ex- 
 perience of. Christ's strength made perfect in His 
 weakness : this alone will fit him to teach be- 
 lievers the secret of their strength. 
 
 2. Our Lord says : ' j\Iy grace, My strength.' 
 It is as, in close personal fellowship and love, we 
 abide in Christ, and have Christ abiding in us, 
 that His grace and strength can work. 
 
 3. It is a heart wholly given up to God, to His 
 will and love, that will know His power working 
 in our weakness. 
 
XXVII 
 
 .a 2)oer tbat worftetb sball be blesse& 
 in Bolna 
 
 ' Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, 
 deluding your own selves. He that looketh into 
 the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so con- 
 tinueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth, but a 
 doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in 
 doing.' — Jas. i. 22, 25. 
 
 ir^OT) created us not to contemplate 
 v-J but to act. He created us in His 
 own image, and in Him there is no Thought 
 without simultaneous Action.' True action 
 is born of contemplation. True contempla- 
 tion, as a means to an end, always begets 
 action. If sin had not entered there had 
 never been a separation between knowing 
 and doing. In nothing is the power of sin 
 more clearly seen than this, that even in the 
 believer there is such a gap between intel- 
 lect and conduct. It is possible to delight 
 in hearing, to be diligent in increasing our 
 knowledge of God's word, to admire and 
 approve the truth, even to be willing to do 
 it, and yet to fail entirely in the actual per- 
 
 138 
 
Working for God 139 
 
 formance. Hence the warning of James, 
 not to delude ourselves with being hearers 
 and not doers. Hence his pronouncing the 
 doer who worketh blessed in his doing. 
 
 Blessed in doing. — The words are a sum- 
 mary of the teaching of our Lord Jesus at 
 the close of the Sermon on the Mount : 
 ' He that doeth the will of My Father shall 
 enter the kingdom of heaven.' * Every one 
 that heareth My words, and doeth them, 
 shall be likened unto a wise man.' To the 
 woman who spoke of the blessedness of her 
 who was his mother : ' Yea rather, blessed 
 are they that hear the word of God and 
 keep it/ To the disciples in the last night : 
 ' If ye know these things, happy are ye if 
 ye do them/ It is one of the greatest dan- 
 gers in religion that we rest content with the 
 pleasure and approval which a beautiful 
 representation of a truth calls forth, with- 
 out the immediate performance of what it 
 demands. It is only when conviction has 
 been translated into conduct that we have 
 proof that the truth is mastering us. 
 
 A doer that worketh shall be blessed in 
 doing. — The doer is blessed. The doing is 
 the victory that overcomes every obstacle; 
 it brings out and confirms the very image of 
 God, the Great Worker; it removes every 
 barrier to the enjoyment of all the blessing 
 God has prepared. We are ever inclined to 
 
140 Working for God 
 
 seek our blessedness in what God gives, in 
 privilege and enjoyment. Christ placed it 
 in what we do, because it is only in doing 
 that we really prove and know and possess 
 the life God has bestowed. When one said, 
 ' Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the 
 kingdom of God,' our Lord answered with 
 the parable of the supper, * Blessed is he 
 that forsakes all to come to the supper.' 
 The doer is blessed. As surely as it is 
 only in doing that the painter or musi- 
 cian, the man of science or commerce, the 
 discoverer or the conqueror find their 
 blessedness, so, and much more, is it only in 
 keeping the commandments and in doing the 
 will of God that the believer enters fully 
 into the truth and blessedness of deliver- 
 ance from sin and fellowship with God. 
 Doing is the very essence of blessedness, 
 the highest manifestation, and therefore the 
 fullest enjoyment of the life of God. 
 
 A doer that workcth shall he blessed in 
 doing. — This was the blessedness of Abra- 
 ham, of whom we read (ii. 22}: * Thou 
 seest that faith wrought with his works, and 
 by works was faith made perfect.' He had 
 no works without faith ; there was faith 
 working with them and in them all. And 
 he had no faith without works: through 
 them his faith was exercised and strength- 
 ened and perfected. As his faith, so his 
 
Working for God 141 
 
 blessedness was perfected in doing. It is 
 in doing that the doer that worketh is 
 blessed. The true insight into this, as a 
 Divine revelation of the true nature of good 
 works, in perfect harmony with all our ex- 
 perience in the world, will make us take 
 every command, and every truth, and every 
 opportunity to abound in good works as an 
 integral part of the blessedness of the sal- 
 vation Christ has brought us. Joy and 
 work, work and joy, will become synony- 
 mous : we shall no longer be hearers but 
 doers. 
 
 Let us put this truth into immediate 
 practice. Let us live for others, to love and 
 serve them. Let not the fact of our being 
 unused to labours of love, or the sense of 
 ignorance and unfitness, keep us back. 
 Only begin. If you think you are not able 
 to labour for souls, begin with the bodies. 
 Only begin, and go on, and abound. Be- 
 lieve the word, It is more blessed to give 
 than to leceive. Pray for and depend on 
 the promised grace. Give yourself to a 
 ministr}^ of love ; in the very nature of 
 things, in the example of Christ, in the 
 promise of God you have the assurance : 
 If you know these things, happy are ye if ye 
 do them. Blessed is the doer! 
 
XXVIII 
 
 Zbc Mork of SouUSavtna 
 
 ' My brethren, if any of you do err from the 
 truth, and one convert him, let him know that he 
 zvhich converteth a sinner from the error of his 
 ways shall save a soul from death, and shall cover 
 a multitude of sins.' — Jas. v. 19. 
 
 WE sometimes hesitate to speak of men 
 being converted and saved by men. 
 Scripture here twice uses the expression of 
 one man converting another, and once of 
 his saving him. Let us not hesitate to ac- 
 cept it as part of our work, of our high pre- 
 rogative as the sons of God, to convert and 
 to save men. ' For it is God who worketh 
 in us.' 
 
 ' Shall save a soul from death.' Every 
 workman studies the material in which he 
 works : the carpenter the wood, the gold- 
 smith the gold. ' Our works are wrought 
 in God.' In our good works we deal with 
 souls. Even when we can at first do no 
 more than reach and help their bodies, 
 our aim is the soul. For these Christ 
 came to die. For these God has ap- 
 142 
 
Working for God 143 
 
 pointed us to watch and labour. Let us 
 study these. What care a huntsman or a 
 fisherman takes to know the habits of the 
 spoil he seeks. Let us remember that it 
 needs Divine wisdom and training and skill 
 to become winners of souls. The only way 
 to get that training and skill is to begin 
 to work: Christ Himself will teach each 
 one who waits on Him 
 
 In that training the Church with its min- 
 isters has a part to take. The daily experi- 
 ence of ordinary life and teaching prove 
 how often there exist in a man unsuspected 
 powers, which must be called out by train- 
 ing before they are known to be there. 
 When a man thus becomes conscious and 
 master of the power there is in himself he 
 is, as it were, a new creature ; the power 
 and enjoyment of life is doubled. Every 
 believer has hidden within himself the 
 power of saving souls. The Kingdom of 
 Heaven is within us as a seed, and every 
 one of the gifts and graces of the spirit are 
 each also a hidden seed. The highest aim 
 of the ministry is to waken the conscious- 
 ness of this hidden seed of power to save 
 souls. A depressing sense of ignorance or 
 impotence keeps many back. James writes : 
 * Let him who converts another knozv that 
 he has saved a soul from death.' Every 
 believer needs to be taught to know and 
 
144 Working for God 
 
 use the wondrous blessed power with which 
 he has been endowed. When God said to 
 Abraham : ' I will bless thee, then shall all 
 the nations of the earth be blessed,' He 
 called him to a faith not only in the blessing 
 that would come to him from above, but in 
 the power of blessing he would be in the 
 world. It is a wonderful moment in the life 
 of a child of God when he sees that the 
 second blessing is as sure as the first. 
 
 ' He shall save a soul.' Our Lord bears 
 the name of Jesus, Saviour. He is the em- 
 bodiment of God's saving love» Saving 
 souls is His own great work, is His work 
 alone. As our faith in Him grows to know 
 and receive all there is in Him, as He lives 
 in us, and dwells in our heart and disposi- 
 tion, saving souls will become the great 
 work to which our life will be given. We 
 shall be the willing and intelligent instru- 
 ments through whom He will do His 
 mighty work. 
 
 ' If any err, and one convert him, he 
 which convert eth a sinner shall save' a soul.' 
 The words suggest personal work. We 
 chiefly think of large gatherings to whom 
 the Gospel is preached ; the thought here is 
 of one who has erred and is sought after. 
 We increasingly do our work through as- 
 sociations and organisations. * If one con- 
 vert him, he saveth a soul ; ' it is the love 
 
Working for God 145 
 
 and labour of some individual believer that 
 has won the erring one back. It is this we 
 need in the Church of Christ, — every be- 
 liever who truly follows Jesus Christ look- 
 ing out for those who are erring from the 
 way, loving them, and labouring to help 
 them back. Not one of us may say, ' Am 
 I my brother's keeper ? ' We are in the 
 world only and solely that as the members 
 of Christ's body we may continue and carry 
 out His saving work. As saving souls was 
 and is His work. His joy. His glory, let it 
 be ours, let it be mine, too. Let me give 
 myself personally to watch over individu- 
 als, and seek to save them one by one. 
 
 ' Know that he which convert eth a sinner 
 shall save a soulf If ye know these things, 
 happy are ye if you do them.' Let me 
 translate these Scripture truths into action ; 
 let me give these thoughts shape and sub- 
 stance in daily Hfe; let me prove their 
 power over me, and my faith in them, by 
 work. Is there not more than one Christ- 
 ian around me wandering from the way, 
 needing loving help and not unwilling to 
 receive it? Are there not some whom I 
 could take by the hand, and encourage to 
 begin again? Are there not many who 
 have never been in the right way, for some 
 of whom Christ Jesus would use me, if I 
 .were truly at His disposal ? 
 
146 Working for God 
 
 If I feel afraid — oh! let me believe that 
 the love of God as a seed dwells within me, 
 not only calling but enabling me actually to 
 do the work. Let me yield myself to the 
 Holy Spirit to fill my heart with that love, 
 and fit me for its service. Jesus the Saviour 
 lives to save ; He dwells in me ; He will do 
 His saving work through me. ' Know that 
 he which converteth a sinner shall save a 
 soul from death, and cover a multitude of 
 sins/ 
 
 1. More love to souls, born out of fervent love 
 to the Lord Jesus — is not this our great need? 
 
 2. Let us pray for love, and begin to love, in the 
 faith that as we exercise the little we have more 
 will be given. 
 
 3. Lord ! open our eyes to see Thee doing Thy 
 great work of saving men, and waiting to give 
 Thy love and strength into the heart of every 
 willing one. Make each one of Thy redeemed a 
 soul-winner. 
 
XXIX 
 pra^tna ant) XKIlor??tna 
 
 ' If any man see his brother sinning a sin not 
 unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him 
 life for them that sin not unto death/ — i John 
 V. 1 6. 
 
 i T ET us consider one another to pro- 
 1— ' voke unto love and good works ' — 
 these words in Hebrews express what lies 
 at the very root of a life of good works — 
 the thoughtful loving care we have for 
 each other, that not one may fall away. 
 As it is in Galatians : ' Even if a man be 
 overtaken in a trespass, ye which are spir- 
 itual, restore such a one in the spirit of 
 meekness. Or as Jude writes, apparently 
 of Christians who were in danger of falling 
 away, ' Some save, snatching them out of 
 the fire; and on some have mercy with 
 fear.' As Christ's doing good to men's 
 bodies ever aimed at winning their souls, 
 all our ministry of love must be subordi- 
 nated to that which is God's great purpose 
 and longing — the salvation unto Hfe eter- 
 nal. 
 
 147 
 
148 Working for God 
 
 In this labour of love praying and work- 
 ing must ever go together. At times 
 prayer may reach those whom the words 
 cannot reach. At times prayer may chiefly 
 be needed for ourselves, to obtain the 
 wisdom and courage for the words. At 
 times it may be specially called forth 
 for the soul by the very lack of fruit 
 from our words. As a rule, praying and 
 working must be inseparable — the praying 
 to obtain from God what we need for the 
 soul; the working to bring to it what God 
 has given us. The words of John here are 
 most suggestive as to the power of prayer 
 in our labour of love. It leads us to think 
 of prayer as a personal work; with a very 
 definite obj ect ; and a certainty of answer. 
 
 Let prayer be a personal effort. // any 
 man see his brother he shall ask. We are 
 so accustomed to act through societies and 
 associations that we are in danger of losing 
 sight of the duty resting upon each of us 
 to watch over those around him. Every 
 member of my body is ready to serve any 
 other member. Every believer is to care 
 for the fellow-believers who are within his 
 reach, in his church, his house, or social 
 circle. The sin of each is a loss and a hurt 
 to the body of Christ. Let your eyes be 
 open to the sins of your brethren around 
 you; not to speak evil or judge or help- 
 
Working for God 149 
 
 lessly complain, but to love and help and 
 care and pray. Ask God to see your 
 brother's sin, in its sinfulness, its danger 
 to himself, its grief to Christ, its loss to 
 the body ; but also as within reach of God's 
 compassion and deliverance. Shutting our 
 eyes to the sin of our brethren around us 
 is not true love. See it, and take it to God, 
 and make it part of your work for God to 
 pray for your brother and seek new life for 
 him. 
 
 Let prayer be definite. If any man see 
 his brother sinning let him ask. We need 
 prayer from a person for a person. Scrip- 
 ture and God's spirit teach us to pray for 
 all society, for the Church with which we 
 are associated, for nations, and for special 
 spheres of work. Most needful and blessed. 
 But somehow more is needed — to take of 
 those with whom we come into contact, 
 one by one, and make them the subjects of 
 our intercession. The larger supplications 
 must have their place, but it is difficult with 
 regard to them to know when our prayers 
 are answered. But there is nothing will 
 bring God so near, will test and strengthen 
 our faith, and make us know we are fellow- 
 workers with God, as when we receive an 
 answer to our prayers for individuals. It 
 will quicken in us the new and blessed con- 
 sciousness that we indeed have power with 
 
150 Working for God 
 
 God. Let every worker seek to exercise 
 this grace of taking up and praying for 
 individual souls. ^ 
 
 Count upon an answer. He shall ask, 
 and God will give him (the one who prays) 
 life for them that sin. The words follow 
 on those in which John had spoken about 
 the confidence we have of being heard, if 
 we ask anything according to His zvill. 
 There is often complaint made of not 
 knowing God's will. But here there is no 
 difficulty. ' He willeth that all men should 
 be saved.' If we rest our faith on this will 
 of God, we shall grow strong and grasp 
 the promise. ' He shall ask, and God will 
 give him life for them that sin. The Holy 
 Spirit will lead us, if we yield ourselves to 
 be led by Him, to the souls God would have 
 us take as our special care, and for which 
 the grace of faith and persevering prayer 
 will be given us. Let the wonderful prom- 
 ise : God will give to him who asks life for 
 them who sin, stir us and encourage us to 
 our priestly ministry of personal and defi- 
 nite intercession, as one of the most blessed 
 
 ^ This thought is very strikingly put in a penny 
 tract, One by One, to be obtained from the author, 
 Mr. Thomas Hogben, Welcome Mission, Ports- 
 mouth. 
 
Working for God 151 
 
 among the good works in which we can 
 serve God and man. 
 
 Praying and working are inseparable. 
 Let all who work learn to pray well. Let 
 all who pray learn to work well. 
 
 1. To pray Thee confidently, and, if need be, 
 perseveringly, for an individual, needs a close 
 walk with God, and the faith that we can prevail 
 with Him. 
 
 2. In all our work for God, prayer must take a 
 much larger place. If God is to work all ; if our 
 posture is to be that of entire dependence, waiting 
 for Him to work in us ; if it takes time to per- 
 severe and to receive in ourselves what God 
 gives us for others ; there needs to be a work and 
 a labouring in prayer. 
 
 3. Oh that God would open our eyes to the 
 glory of this work of saving souls, as the one 
 thing God lives for, as the one thing He wants 
 to work in us. 
 
 4. Let us pray for the love and power of God 
 to come on us, for the blessed work of soul-win- 
 ning. 
 
XXX 
 
 f Iknow thv MorftB 
 
 ' To the angel of the church in Ephesus — in 
 Thyatira — in Sardis — in Philadelphia — in Laodi- 
 cea write: / know thy works''^ — Rev. ii. iii. 
 
 ij KNOW thy works.' These are the 
 A words of Him who walketh in the 
 midst of the seven golden candlesticks, 
 and whose eyes are like a flame of fire. As 
 He looks upon the churches, the first thing 
 He sees and judges of is — the works. The 
 works are the revelation of the life and 
 character. If we are willing to bring our 
 works into His holy presence. His words 
 can teach us what our work ought to be. 
 
 To Ephesus He says : ' I know thy works, 
 and thy toil and patience, and that thou 
 canst not bear evil men, and thou hast 
 patience and didst bear for My name's sake, 
 and hast not grown weary. But I have this 
 against thee, that thou hast left thy first 
 
 ^ In the A. V. we find the words in all the 
 seven epistles ; according to R. V. they occur only 
 five times. 
 
 152 
 
Working for God 153 
 
 love. Repent, and do the first works/ 
 There was here much to praise — toil, and 
 patience, and zeal that had never grown 
 weary. But there was one thing lacking — 
 the tenderness of the first love. 
 
 In His work for us Christ gave us before 
 and above everything His love, the personal 
 tender affection of His heart. In our work 
 for Him He asks us nothing less. There 
 is such a danger of work being carried on, 
 and our even bearing much for Christ's 
 sake, while the freshness of our love has 
 passed away. And that is what Christ 
 seeks. And that is what gives power. And 
 that is what nothing can compensate for. 
 Christ looks for the warm loving heart, the 
 personal affection which ever keeps Him 
 the centre of our love and joy. 
 
 Christian workers, see that all your work 
 be the work of love, of tender personal 
 devotion to Christ Jesus. 
 
 To Thyatira: ' I know thy zvorks, and 
 thy love and faith and ministry and pa- 
 tience, and that the last zuorks are more 
 than the first. But I have this against thee, 
 that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel, and 
 she teacheth and seduceth My servants.' 
 Here again the works are enumerated and 
 praised: the last had even been more than 
 the first. But then there is one failure: a 
 false toleration of what led to impurity and 
 
154 Working for God 
 
 idolatry. And then He adds of His judg- 
 ments : ' the churches shall know that I am 
 He which searches the reins and hearts; 
 and / will give to each one of you accord- 
 ing to your works/ 
 
 Along with much of good works there 
 may be some one form of error or evil tol- 
 erated which endangers the whole church. 
 In Ephesus there was zeal for orthodoxy, 
 but a lack of love ; here love and faith, but 
 a lack of faithfulness against error. If 
 good works are to please our Lord, if our 
 whole life must be in harmony with them, 
 in entire separation from the world and its 
 allurements, we must seek to be what He 
 promised to make us, stablished in every 
 good word and work. Our work will de- 
 cide our estimate in His judgment. 
 
 To Sardis : ' I knozv thy zvorks, that thou 
 hast a name to live, and thou art dead. Be 
 watchful and stablish the things that are 
 ready to die : for I have found no works of 
 thine fulfilled before My God/ 
 
 There may be all the forms of godliness 
 without the power ; all the activities of re- 
 ligious organisation without the life. There 
 may be many works, and yet He may say : 
 I have found no work of thine fulfilled 
 before My God, none that can stand the 
 test and be really acceptable to God as a 
 spiritual sacrifice. In Ephesus it was works 
 
Working for God 155 
 
 lacking in love, in Thyatira works lacking 
 in purity, in Sardis works lacking in life. 
 
 To Philadelphia: '/ kiiozv thy works, 
 that thou hast a little power, and didst 
 keep My ivord and didst not deny My 
 name. Because thou didst keep My word, 
 I also will keep thee.' 
 
 On earth Jesus had said : He that hath 
 My commandments and keepeth them, he 
 it is that loveth Me. If a man love Me, 
 he will keep My word, and My Father will 
 love him. Philadelphia, the church for 
 which there is no reproof, had this mark: 
 its chief work, and the law of all its work, 
 was, it kept Christ's word, not in an ortho- 
 dox creed only, but in practical obedience. 
 Let nothing less, let this truly, be the mark 
 and spirit of all our work: a keeping of 
 the word of Christ. Full, loving conform- 
 ity to His will will be rewarded. 
 
 To Laodicea : ' / knozv thy zvorks, that 
 thou art neither cold nor hot. Thou sayest, 
 I am rich and have gotten riches, and have 
 need of nothing.' There is not a church 
 without its works, its religious activities. 
 And yet the two great marks of Laodicean 
 religion, lukewarmness, and its natural ac- 
 companiment, self-complacence, may rob 
 them of their worth. It not only, like 
 Ephesus, teaches us the need of a fresh and 
 fervent love, but also the need of that pov- 
 
156 Working for God 
 
 erty of spirit, that conscious weakness out 
 of which the absolute dependence on 
 Christ's strength for all our work will 
 grow, and which will no longer leave Christ 
 standing at the door, but enthrone Him in 
 the Heart. 
 
 ' I know thy works.' He who tested the 
 works of the seven churches still lives and 
 watches over us. He is ready in His love 
 to discover what is lacking, to give timely 
 warning and help, and to teach us the path 
 in which our works can be fulfilled before 
 His God. Let us learn from Ephesus the 
 lesson of fervent love to Christ, from Thya- 
 tira that of purity and separation from all 
 evil, from Sardis that of the need of true 
 life to give worth to work, from Philadel- 
 phia that of keeping His word, and from 
 Laodicea that of the poverty of spirit which 
 possesses the kingdom of heaven, and gives 
 Christ the throne of all ! Workers ! Let 
 us live and work in Christ's presence. He 
 will teach and correct and help us, and one 
 day give the full reward of all our works 
 because they were His own works in us. 
 
XXXI 
 XTbat Gob map be Glortfieb 
 
 ' If any man servcth, let him serve as of the 
 strength which God suppheth : that in all things 
 God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, whose 
 is the glory and dominion for ever and ever. 
 Amen.' — i Pet. iv. ii. 
 
 WORK is not done for its own sake. Its 
 value consists in the object it attains. 
 The purpose of him who commands or per- 
 forms the work gives it its real worth. 
 And the clearer a man's insight into the 
 purpose, the better fitted will he be to take 
 charge of the higher parts of the work. 
 In the erection of some splendid building, 
 the purpose of the day-labourer may simply 
 be as a hireling to earn his wages. The 
 trained stone-cutter has a higher object: he 
 thinks of the beauty and perfection of the 
 work he does. The master mason has a 
 wider range of thought : his aim is that all 
 the masonr\^ shall be true and good. The 
 contractor for the whole building has a 
 higher aim — that the whole building shall 
 perfectly correspond to the plan he has to 
 
 157 
 
158 Working for God 
 
 carry out. The architect has had a still 
 higher purpose — that the great principles 
 of art and beauty might find their full ex- 
 pression in material shape. With the 
 owner we find the final end — the use to 
 which the grand structure is to be put when 
 he, say, presents the building as a gift for 
 the benefit of his townsmen. All who have 
 worked upon the building honestly have 
 done so with some true purpose. The 
 deeper the insight and the keener the in- 
 terest in the ultimate design, the more im- 
 portant the share in the work, and the 
 greater the joy in carrying it out. 
 
 Peter tells us what our aim ought to be 
 in all Christian service — ' that in all things 
 God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.' 
 In the work of God, a work not to be done 
 for wages but for love, the humblest 
 labourer is admitted to a share in God's 
 plans, and to an insight into the great pur- 
 pose which God is working out. That 
 purpose is nothing less than this : that God 
 may be glorified. This is the one purpose 
 of God, the great worker in heaven, the 
 source and master of all work, that the 
 glory of His love and power and blessing 
 may be shown. This is the one purpose of 
 Christ, the great worker on earth in hu- 
 man nature, the example and leader of all 
 our work. This is the great purpose of the 
 
Working for God 159 
 
 Holy Spirit, the power that worketh in us, 
 or, as Peter says here, ' the strength that 
 God suppUeth.' As this becomes our de- 
 liberate, intelligent purpose, our work will 
 rise to its true level, and lift us into living 
 fellowship with God. 
 
 ' That in all things God may be glorified.' 
 What does this mean? The glor>^ of God 
 is this, that He alone is the Living One, 
 who has Hfe in Himself. Yet not for Him- 
 self alone, but, because His life is love, for 
 the creatures as much as for Himself. This 
 is the glory of God, that He is the alone 
 and ever-flowing fountain of all life and 
 goodness and happiness, and that His crea- 
 tures can have all this only as He gives it 
 and works it in them. His working all in 
 all, this is His glory. And the only glory 
 His creature, His child, can give Him is 
 this — receiving all He is willing to give, 
 yielding to Him to let Him work, and then 
 acknowledging that He has done it. Thus 
 God Himself shows forth His glor\^ in us ; 
 in our willing surrender to Him, and our 
 joyful acknowledgment that He does all, 
 we glorify Him. And so our life and work 
 is glorified, as it has one purpose with all 
 God's own work, ' that in all things God 
 may be glorified, whose is the glory for 
 ever and ever.' 
 
 See here now the spirit that ennobles and 
 
i6o Working for God 
 
 consecrates Christian service according to 
 Peter: * He that serveth (in ministering to 
 the saints or the needy), let him serve as 
 of the strength which God supplieth.' Let 
 me cultivate a deep conviction that God's 
 work, down into the details of daily life, 
 can only be done in God's strength, ' by 
 the power of the Spirit working in us.' Let 
 me believe firmly and unceasingly that the 
 Holy Spirit does dwell in me, as the power 
 from on high, for all work to be done 
 for on high. Let me in my Christian 
 work fear nothing so much as working in 
 my own human will and strength, and so 
 losing the one thing needful in my work, 
 God working in me. Let me rejoice in the 
 weakness that renders me so absolutely de- 
 pendent upon such a God, and wait in 
 prayer for His power to take full posses- 
 sion. 
 
 ' Let him serve as of the strength which 
 God supplieth, that in all things God may 
 be glorified through Jesus Christ.* The 
 more you depend on God alone for your 
 strength, the more will He be glorified. The 
 more you seek to make God's purpose your 
 purpose, the more will you be led to give 
 way to His working and His strength and 
 love. Oh! that every, the feeblest, worker 
 might see what a nobility it gives to work, 
 jvhat a new glory to life, what a new ur- 
 
Working for God i6i 
 
 gency and joy in labouring for souls, when 
 the one purpose has mastered us: that in 
 all things God may be glorified through 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 1. The glory of God as Creator was seen in 
 His makinp- man in His own image. The glory 
 of God as Redeemer is seen in the work He car- 
 ries on for saving men, and -bringing them to 
 Himself. 
 
 2. This glory is the glory of His holy love, 
 casting sin out of the heart, and dwelling there 
 
 3. The only glory we can bring to God is to 
 yield ourselves to His redeeming love to take 
 possession of us, to fill us with love to others, 
 and so through us to show forth His glory. 
 
 4. Let this be the cne end of our lives — to glo- 
 rify God ; in living to work for Him, ' as of the 
 strength which God supplieth ' ; and winning 
 souls to know and live for His glory, 
 
 5. Lord ! teach us to serve in the strength which 
 God supplieth, that God in all things may be 
 glorified through Jesus Christ, whose is the glory 
 for ever and ever. Amen. 
 
DATE DUE 1 
 
 MAR 1 7 7 
 
 » 
 
 
 
 kim.^,^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ^^j^-^^^ 
 
 li 
 
 
 
 fEr?*M 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 Mhmhm*' 
 
 
 
 
 DFC ^' 
 
 
 
 
 
 ljl^jg^^_ 
 
 
 
 
 «J«§ljlgl^. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i.i 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 CAYLORO 
 
 
 
 
 T^ 
 
iiiniiiini