Chapter 10

SERVICE

There is, perhaps, no part of Christian experience where a greater change isknown upon entering into the life hid with Christ in God, than in the matter ofservice.In all the lower forms of Christian life, service is apt to have more or lessof bondage in it; that is, it is one purely as a matter of duty, and often as atrial and a cross. Certain things, which at the first may have been a joy anddelight, become weary tasks, performed faithfully, perhaps, but with muchsecret disinclination, and many confessed or unconfessed wishes that they neednot be done at all, or at least that they need not be done so often. The soulfinds itself saying, instead of the "May I" of love, the "Must I" of duty. Theyoke, which was at first easy, begins to gall, and the burden feels heavyinstead of light.

     One dear Christian expressed it once to me inthis way. "When I was first converted," she said, "I was so full of joy andlove that I was only too glad and thankful to be allowed to do anything for myLord, and I eagerly entered every open door. But after a while, as my early joyfaded away, and my love burned less fervently, I began to wish I had not beenquite so eager; for I found myself involved in lines of service which weregradually becoming very distasteful and burdensome to me. I could not very wellgive them up, since I had begun them, without exciting great remark, and yet Ilonged to do so increasingly. I was expected to visit the sick, and pray besidetheir beds. I was expected to attend prayer-meetings, and speak at them. I wasexpected to be always ready for every effort in Christian work, and the senseof these expectations bowed me down continually. At last it became sounspeakably burdensome to me to live the sort of Christian life I had enteredupon, and was expected by all around me to live, that I felt as if any kind ofmanual labor would have been easier, and I would have preferred, infinitely,scrubbing all day on my hands and knees, to being compelled to go through thetreadmill of my daily Christian work. I envied," she said, "the servants in thekitchen, and the women at the wash-tubs."

     This may seem to some like a strong statement:but does it not present a vivid picture of some of your own experiences, dearChristian? Have you never gone to your work as a slave to his daily task,knowing it to be your duty, and that therefore you must do it, but reboundinglike an india-rubber ball back into your real interests and pleasures themoment your work was over?

     Of course you have known this was the wrong wayto feel, and have been ashamed of it from the bottom of your heart, but stillyou have seen no way to help it. You have not loved your work, and, could youhave done so with an easy conscience, you would have been glad to have given itup altogether.

     Or, if this does not describe your case, perhapsanother picture will. You do love your work in the abstract; but, in the doingof it, you find so many cares and responsibilities connected with it, so manymisgivings and doubts as to your own capacity or fitness, that it becomes avery heavy burden, and you go to it bowed down and weary, before the labor haseven begun. Then also you are continually distressing yourself about theresults of your work, and greatly troubled if they are not just what you wouldlike, and this of itself is a constant burden.

     Now from all these forms of bondage the soul isentirely delivered that enters fully into the blessed life of faith. In thefirst place, service of any sort becomes delightful to it, because, havingsurrendered its will into the keeping of the Lord, He works in it to will andto do of His good pleasure, and the soul finds itself really wanting to do thethings God wants it to do. It is always very pleasant to do the things we wantto do, let them be ever so difficult of accomplishment, or involve ever so muchof bodily weariness. If a man's will is really set on a thing, he regards witha sublime indifference the obstacles that lie in the way of his reaching it,and laughs to himself at the idea of any opposition or difficulties hinderinghim. How many men have gone gladly and thankfully to the ends of the world insearch of worldly fortunes, or to fulfil worldly ambitions, and have scornedthe thoughts of any cross connected with it! How many mothers havecongratulated themselves and rejoiced over the honor done their sons in beingpromoted to some place of power and usefulness in their country's service,although it has involved perhaps years of separation, and a life of hardshipfor their dear ones? And yet these same men and these very mothers would havefelt and said that they were taking up crosses too heavy almost to be borne,had the service of Christ required the same sacrifice of home, and friends, andworldly ease. It is altogether the way we look at things, whether we think theyare crosses or not. And I am ashamed to think that any Christian should everput on a long face and shed tears over doing a thing for Christ, which aworldly man would be only too glad to do for money.

     What we need in the Christian life is to getbelievers to want to do God's will, as much as other people want to do theirown will. And this is the idea of the Gospel. It is what God intended for us;and it is what He has promised. In describing the new covenant in Heb. 8:6-13,He says it shall no more be the old covenant made on Sinai, that is, a lawgiven from the outside, controlling a man by force, but it shall be a lawwritten within constraining a man by love. "I will put my laws," He says, "intheir mind, and write them in their hearts." This can mean nothing but that weshall love His law, for anything written on our hearts we must love. Andputting it into our minds is surely the same as God working in us to "will andto do of His good pleasure," and means that we shall will what God wills, andshall obey His sweet commands, not because it is our duty to do so, but becausewe ourselves want to do what He wants us to do. Nothing could possibly beconceived more effectual than this. How often have we thought when dealing withour children, "Oh, if I could only get inside of them and make them want to dojust what I want, how easy it would be to manage them then!" And how oftenpractically in experience we have found that, to deal with cross-grainedpeople, we must carefully avoid suggesting our wishes to them, but must in someway induce them to suggest them themselves, sure that then there will be noopposition to contend with. And we, who are by nature a stiff-necked people,always rebel more or less against a law from outside of us, while we joyfullyembrace the same law springing up within.

     God's plan for us therefore is to get possessionof the inside of a man, to take the control and management of his will, and towork it for him; and then obedience is easy and a delight, and service becomesperfect freedom, until the Christian is forced to exclaim, "This happy service!Who could dream earth had such liberty?"

     What you need to do then, dear Christian, if youare in bondage, is to put your will over completely into the hands of yourLord, surrendering to Him the entire control of it. Say, "Yes, Lord, YES!" toeverything; and trust Him so to work in you to will, as to bring your wholewishes and affections into conformity with His own sweet and lovable and mostlovely will. I have seen this done over and over, in cases where it lookedbeforehand an utterly impossible thing. In one case, where a lady had been foryears rebelling fearfully against a thing which she knew was right, but whichshe hated, I saw her, out of the depths of despair and without any feeling,give her will in that matter up into the hands of her Lord, and begin to say toHim, "Thy will be done; thy will be done!" And in one short hour that verything began to look sweet and precious to her. It is wonderful what miraclesGod works in wills that are utterly surrendered to Him. He turns hard thingsinto easy, and bitter things into sweet. It is not that He puts easy things inthe place of the hard, but He actually changes the hard thing into an easy one.And this is salvation. It is grand. Do try it, you who are going about yourdaily Christian living as to a hard and weary task, and see if your divineMaster will not transform the very life you live now as a bondage, into themost delicious liberty!

     Or again, if you do love His will in theabstract, but find the doing of it hard and burdensome, from this also there isdeliverance in the wonderful life of faith. For in this life no burdens arecarried, nor anxieties felt. The Lord is our burden-bearer, and upon Him wemust lay off every care. He says, in effect, Be careful for nothing, but justmake your requests known to Me, and I will attend to them all. Be careful fornothing, He says, not even your service. Above all, I should think, ourservice, because we know ourselves to be so utterly helpless in this, that evenif we were careful, it would not amount to anything. What have we to do withthinking whether we are fit or not! The Master-workman surely has a right touse any tool He pleases for His own work, and it is plainly not the business ofthe tool to decide whether it is the right one to be used or not. He knows; andif He chooses to use us, of course we must be fit. And in truth, if we onlyknew it, our chiefest fitness is in our utter helplessness. His strength canonly be made perfect in our weakness. I can give you a convincing illustrationof this.

     I was once visiting an idiot asylum and lookingat the children going through dumb-bell exercises. Now we all know that it is avery difficult thing for idiots to manage their movements. They have strengthenough, generally, but no skill to use this strength, and as a consequencecannot do much. And in these dumb-bell exercises this deficiency was veryapparent. They made all sorts of awkward movements. Now and then, by a happychance, they would make a movement in harmony with the music and the teacher'sdirections, but for the most part all was out of harmony. One little girl,however, I noticed, who made perfect movements. Not a jar nor a break disturbedthe harmony of her exercises. And the reason was, not that she had morestrength than the others, but that she had no strength at all. She could not somuch as close her hands over the dumb-bells, nor lift her arms, and the masterhad to stand behind her and do it all. She yielded up her members asinstruments to him, and his strength was made perfect in her weakness. He knewhow to go through those exercises, for he himself had planned them, andtherefore when he did it, it was done right. She did nothing but yield herselfup utterly into his hands, and he did it all. The yielding was her part, theresponsibility was all his. It was not her skill that was needed to makeharmonious movements, but only his. The question was not of her capacity, butof his. Her utter weakness was her greatest strength. And if this is a pictureof our Christian life, it is no wonder that Paul could say, "Most gladlytherefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ mayrest upon me." Who would not glory in being so utterly weak and helpless, thatthe Lord Jesus Christ should find no hindrance to the perfect working of Hismighty power through us and in us?

     Then, too, if the work is His, the responsibilityis His, and we have no room left for worrying about it. Everything in referenceto it is known to Him, and He can manage it all. Why not leave it all with Himthen, and consent to be treated like a child and guided where to go. It is afact that the most effectual workers I know are those who do not feel the leastcare or anxiety about their work, but who commit it all to their dear Master,and, asking Him to guide them moment by moment in reference to it, trust Himimplicitly for each moment's needed supplies of wisdom and of strength. To seesuch, you would almost think perhaps that they were too free from care, wheresuch mighty interests are at stake. But when you have learned God's secret oftrusting, and see the beauty and the power of that life which is yielded up toHis working, you will cease to condemn, and will begin to wonder how any ofGod's workers can dare to carry burdens, or assume responsibilities which Healone is able to bear.

     There are one or two other bonds of service fromwhich this life of trust delivers us. We find out that we are not responsiblefor all the work in the world. The commands cease to be general, and becomepersonal and individual. The Master does not map out a general course of actionfor us and leave us to get along through it by our own wisdom and skill as bestwe may, but He leads us step by step, giving us each hour the special guidanceneeded for that hour. His blessed Spirit dwelling in us, brings to ourremembrance at the time the necessary command; so that we do not need to takeany thought ahead but simply to take each step as it is made known to us,following our Lord whithersoever He leads us. "The steps of a good man areordered of the Lord" not his way only, but each separate step in that way. ManyChristians make the mistake of expecting to receive God's commands all in alump, as it were. They think because He tells them to give a tract to oneperson in a railway train, for instance, that He means them always to givetracts to everybody, and they burden themselves with an impossible command.

     There was a young Christian once, who, becausethe Lord had sent her to speak a message to one soul whom she met in a walk,took it as a general command for always, and thought she must speak to everyone she met about their souls. This was, of course, impossible, and as aconsequence she was soon in hopeless bondage about it. She became absolutelyafraid to go outside of her own door, and lived in perpetual condemnation. Atlast she disclosed her distress to a friend who was instructed in the ways ofGod with His servants, and this friend told her she was making a great mistake;that the Lord had His own especial work for each especial workman, and that theservants in a well-regulated household might as well each one take it uponhimself to try and do the work of all the rest, as for the Lord's servants tothink they were each one under obligation to do everything. He told her just toput herself under the Lord's personal guidance as to her work, and trust Him topoint out to her each particular person to whom He would have her speak,assuring her that He never puts forth His own sheep without going before them,and making a way for them Himself. She followed this advice, and laid theburden of her work on the Lord, and the result was a happy pathway of dailyguidance, in which she was led into much blessed work for her Master, but wasable to do it all without a care or a burden, because He led her out andprepared the way before her.

     Putting ourselves into God's hands in this way,seems to me just like making the junction between the machinery and the steamengine. The power is not in the machinery, but in the steam; disconnected fromthe engine, the machinery is perfectly useless; but let the connection be made,and the machinery goes easily and without effort, because of the mighty powerthere is behind it. Thus the Christian life becomes an easy, natural life whenit is the development of the divine working within. Most Christians live on astrain, because their wills are not fully in harmony with the will of God, theconnection is not perfectly made at every point, and it requires an effort tomove the machinery. But when once the connection is fully made, and the law ofthe Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can work in us with all its mighty power, weare then indeed made free from the law of sin and death, and shall know theglorious liberty of the children of God. We shall lead frictionless lives.

     Another form of bondage as to service, from whichthe life of faith delivers the soul, is in reference to the after-reflectionswhich always follow any Christian work. These self-reflections are of twosorts. Either the soul congratulates itself upon its success, and is lifted up;or it is distressed over its failure, and is utterly cast down. One of these issure to come, and of the two I think the first is the more to be dreaded,although the last causes at the time the greater suffering. But in the life oftrust, neither will trouble us; for, having committed ourselves and our work tothe Lord, we will be satisfied to leave it to Him, and will not think aboutourselves in the matter at all.

     Years ago I came across this sentence in an oldbook: "Never indulge, at the close of an action, in any self-reflective acts ofany kind, whether of self-congratulation or of self-despair. Forget the thingsthat are behind, the moment they are past, leaving them with God." It has beenof unspeakable value to me. When the temptation comes, as it always does, toindulge in these reflections, either of one sort or the other, I turn from themat once, and positively refuse to think about my work at all, leaving it withthe Lord to overrule the mistakes, and to, bless it as He chooses.

     To sum it all up then, what is needed for happyand effectual service is simply to put your work into the Lord's hands, andleave it there. Do not take it to Him in prayer, saying, "Lord, guide me; Lord,give me wisdom; Lord, arrange for me," and then arise from your knees, and takethe burden all back, and try to guide and arrange for yourself. Leave it withthe Lord, and remember that what you trust to Him, you must not worry over norfeel anxious about. Trust and worry cannot go together. If your work is aburden, it is because you are not trusting it to Him. But if you do trust it toHim, you will surely find that the yoke He puts upon you is easy, and theburden He gives you to carry is light, and even in the midst of a life ofceaseless activity you shall find rest to your soul.

     But some may say that this teaching would make usinto mere puppets. I answer, No, it would simply make us into servants. It isrequired of a servant, not that he shall plan, or arrange, or decide, or supplythe necessary material, but simply and only that he shall obey. It is for theMaster to do all the rest. The servant is not responsible, either, for results.The Master alone knows what results he wished to have produced, and thereforehe alone can judge of them. Intelligent service will, of course, include somedegree of intelligent sympathy with the thoughts and plans of the Master, butafter all there cannot be a full comprehension, and the responsibility cannotbe transferred from the Master's shoulders to the servant's. And in our case,where our outlook is so limited and our ignorance so great, we can do verylittle more than be in harmony with the will of our Divine Master, withoutexpecting to comprehend it very fully, and we must leave all the results withHim. What looks to us like failure on the seen side, is often, on the unseenside, the most glorious success; and if we allow ourselves to lament and worry,we shall often be doing the foolish and useless thing of weeping where we oughtto be singing and rejoicing.

     Far better is it to refuse utterly to indulge inany self-reflective acts at all; to refuse, in fact, to think about self in anyway, whether for good or evil. We are not our own property, nor our ownbusiness. We belong to God, and are His instruments and His business; and sinceHe always attends to His own business, He will of course attend to us.

     I heard once of a slave who was on board a vesselin a violent storm, and who was whistling contentedly while every one else wasin an agony of terror. At last someone asked him if he was not afraid he wouldbe drowned. He replied with a broad grin, "Well, missus, s'pose I is. I don'tb'long to myself, and it will only be massa's loss any how."

     Something of this spirit would deliver us frommany of our perplexities and sufferings in service. And with a band of servantsthus abandoned to our Master's use and to His care, what might He notaccomplish? Truly one such would "chase a thousand, and two would put tenthousand to flight"; and nothing would be impossible to them. For it is nothingwith the Lord "to help, whether with many or with them that have no power."

     May God raise up such an army speedily!

     And may you, my dear reader enroll your name inthis army today and, yielding yourself unto God as one who is alive from thedead, may every one of your members be also yielded unto Him as instruments ofrighteousness, to be used by Him as He pleases.

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