Everyday Religion

A Sermon Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, May 22nd, 1881, by Charles Spurgeon

"The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God." Galatians 2:20

I am not about to preach from this whole verse, for I have done that before: this single sentence will suffice me. I shall not attempt to enter into the fullness of the spiritual meaning of this very deep and fruitful passage; I am merely going to bring out one thought from it, and to try to work that out, I trust, to practical ends.

It has sometimes been objected to the preaching of the gospel, that we exhort men to live for another sphere, and do not teach them to live well in the present life. Nothing can be more untrue than this: I venture to say that more practical moral teaching is given by ministers of the gospel, than by all the philosophers, lecturers, and moralists put together. While we count ourselves to be ordained to speak of something higher than mere morals, we nevertheless, nay, and for that very reason, inculcate the purest code of duty, and lay down the soundest rules of conduct. It would be a great pity, dear brethren, if in the process of being qualified for the next life, that we became disqualified for this life; but it is not so. It would be a very strange thing if, in order to be fit for the company of angels, we should grow unfit to associate with men; but it is not so. It would be a singular circumstance if those who speak of Heaven had nothing to say concerning the way there; but it is not so. The calumny is almost too stale to need a new denial. My brethren, true religion has as much to do with this world as with the world to come; it is always urging us onward to the higher and better life; but it does so by processes and precepts which fit us worthily to spend our days while here below. Godliness prepares us for the life which follows the laying down of this mortal flesh; but as Paul tells us in the text, it molds the life which we now live in the flesh. Faith is a principle for present use; see how it has triumphed in ordinary life according to the record of the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Godliness with contentment is great gain: it has the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come. The sphere of faith is both earth and Heaven, both time and eternity; the sweep of its circle takes in the whole of our being--spirit soul, and body; it comprehends the past and the future, and it certainly does not omit the present. It is concerning the life that we now live in the flesh, that I shall speak, trying, by the help of God's Spirit, to show the influence which faith has upon it.

There are seven points in which faith in him who loved us and gave himself for us will have a distinct influence upon the life which we now live in the flesh.

 

I. FAITH INCLINES A MAN TO AN INDUSTRIOUS LIFE. It suggests activity. I will venture to say of any lazy man, that he has little or no faith in God; for faith always works, "works by love." I lay it down as a thesis which shall be proved by observation, that a believing man becomes an active man, or else it is because he cannot act, and, therefore, what would have been activity runs into the channel of patience, and he endures with resignation the will of the Most High. He who does nothing believes nothing--that is to say, in reality and in truth. Faith is but an empty show, if it produces no result upon the life. If a professor manifests no energy, no industry, no zeal, no perseverance, no endeavor to serve God, then there is great cause to question whether he is a believer at all. It is a mark of faith that, whenever it comes into the soul, even in its lowest degree, it suggests activity.

Look at the prodigal, and note his early desires. The life of grace begins to gleam into his spirit, and its first effect is the confession of sin. He cries, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before you, and am no more worthy to be called your son."

But what is the second effect? He desires to be doing something. "Make me as one of your hired servants." Having nothing to do, had helped to make him the prodigal he was. He had wasted his substance in riotous idleness, seeking enjoyment without employment. He had plunged into the foulest vices because he was master of money, but not master of himself. It was not an bad thing for him when he was sent into the fields to feed swine: the company which he met with at the swine trough was better than that which he had kept at his banquets. One of the signs of the return of his soul's sanity, was his willingness to work, although it might be only as a menial servant in his father's house.

In actual history observe how Saul of Tarsus, even before he had found peaceful faith in Christ, cried, "Lord, what will you have me to do?" Faith arouses the soul to action. It is the first question of believing concern, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" Hence faith is such a useful thing to men in the labor and travail of this mortal life, because it puts them into motion and supplies them with a motive for work. Faith does not permit men to lie upon the bed of the sluggard--listless, frivolous, idle; but it it makes life to appear real and earnest, and so girds the loins for the race.

Everyone should follow an honorable vocation. It was a rule of the old church, and it ought to be one of the present, "If any man will not work, then neither let him eat." It is good for us all to have something to do, and plenty of it. When man was perfect, God placed him in a paradise, but not in a dormitory. He set him in the garden to "dress it and to keep it." It would not have been a happy place for Adam, if he had had nothing to do but to smell the roses and gaze at the flowers: work was as essential to the perfect man as it is to us, though it was not of the kind which brings sweat to the face or weariness to the limbs.

In the garden of grace faith is set to a happy service, and never wishes to be otherwise than occupied for her Lord.

The text says, "The life which I now live in the flesh I live by

faith in the Son of God." Does faith in the Son of God, who loved him and gave himself for him, suggest to the redeemed man that he should be industrious and active? Assuredly it does; for it sets the divine Savior before him as an example, and where was there ever one who worked as Jesus did? In his early youth he said, "Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" He was no loitering heir of a gentleman, but the toiling son of a carpenter. In after life it was his food and his drink to do the will of him that sent him. He says, "My Father works hitherto, and I work." His was stern labor and sore travail: the zeal for God's house ate him up, and the intensity of love consumed him. He worked on until he could say, "I have finished the work which you gave me to do."

Now, it is no small thing for a man to be roused by such an example, and to be made a partaker of such a spirit.

True faith in him who loved us, and gave himself for us, also seeks direction of the Lord as to the sphere of its action, and waits upon him to be guided by him in the choice of a calling. This part of our discourse may be useful to young people who have not settled upon what they are to do in life. Faith is a great service to us here. Much depends upon the choice of our pursuits. Very grievous mistakes have been made here--as grievous mistakes as if a bird in the air should have undertaken the pursuits of a fish, or a laboring ox should have entered into competition with a race-horse. Some people are trying to do what they were never made for, ambitious beyond their line. This is a grievous evil. There should, therefore, be a seeking unto God for guidance and direction; and faith leads us to such seeking.

This prayer may be used in many senses: "Show me what you would have me to do." In the choice of a calling, faith helps a Christian to refuse that which is the most lucrative if it is attended with a questionable morality. If the Christian could have huge purses of that gold which is coined out of the drunkenness, the lust, or the ungodliness of men, then he would scorn to put them among his stores. Trades which are injurious to men's minds and hearts are not lawful callings before God. Dishonest gain is awful loss. Gold gained by deceit or oppression shall burn into the soul of its owner as the fire of Hell. "Make money," said the worldling to his son; "make it honestly if you can; but anyhow, make money." Faith abhors this precept of Mammon, and having God's providence for its inheritance, it scorns the devil's bribe. Choose no calling over which you cannot ask God's blessing, or you will be acting contrary to the law of faith. If you cannot conceive of the Lord Jesus wishing you success in a certain line of trade, then do not touch it. If it is not possible to think of your Lord as smiling upon you in your daily calling, then your calling is not fit for a Christian to follow.

Callings should be deliberately chosen with a view to our own suitableness for them. Faith watches the design of God, and desires to act according to his intent. It would have been bad for David to have lived in retirement, or for the prophet Nathan to have aspired to the throne. The law of the kingdom is, "Every man in his own order"; or in other words, "Every man according to his individual ability." If the Lord has given us one talent let us use it in its own market; or if two, or five, let us trade with them where they can be most profitably employed, so that we may be found faithful servants in the day of the Master's coming.

We should also by faith desire such a calling as Providence evidently has arranged and intended for us. Some people have never had a free choice of what vocation they would follow; for from their birth, position, surroundings, and connections; they are set in a certain line of things, like carriages on the tram lines, and they must follow on the appointed track, or stand still.

Faith expects to hear the voice behind it saying, "This is the way, walk in it." Trusting to our own judgment often means following our own whims; but faith seeks direction from infallible wisdom, and so it is led in a right way. God knows your capacity better than you do; entreat him to choose your calling for you. If the flowers were to revolt against the gardener, and each one should select its own soil, then most of them would pine and die through their unsuitable position. But he who has studied their nature, knows that this flower needs shade and damp; and another needs sunlight and a light soil; and so he puts his plants where they are most likely to flourish. God does the same with us. He has made some to be kings, though few of those plants flourish much. He has made many to be poor, and the soil of poverty, though damp and cold, has produced many a glorious harvest for the great Reaper. The Lord has set some in places of peril, places from which they would gladly escape, but they are there preserved by his hand. He has planted many others in the quiet shade of obscurity, and they blossom to the praise of the great Gardener.

So, then, you see, faith has much to do with the force and direction of our present life. It provides impetus by giving a man something to live for; it shows him the far-reaching influences of the thoughts and deeds of today, and how they issue in eternal results; and faith also takes the helm and steers the vessel along a safe channel towards the haven of holy rest. Happy are they who in the early days of their youth believe in him who loved them and gave himself for them, and so begin their life-walk with Jesus. Blessed be God for converting some of us while we were yet boys and girls. O happy young people, who begin life with the early dew of grace upon them! No prince of eastern empires was ever so richly bejewelled! You will not in after-days have to lament a score of years spent in error, or half a life wasted in sin, or a whole seventy years frittered away in idleness. O that you, who are yet young, who have the world before you, may now be led by the Spirit to follow Christ, who pleased not himself, but did the will of his Father--so shall the life that you live in the flesh be lived by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.

 

II. FAITH LEADS A MAN TO LOOK TO GOD FOR HELP IN HIS ORDINARY AVOCATION. Here, again, it has a great influence over him. A believer may seek from God, the qualifications for his particular calling. "What," say you, "may we pray about such things?" Yes! The laborer may appeal to God for strength; the artisan may ask God for skill; the student may seek God for help to quicken his intelligence. David was a great warrior, and he attributed his valor to God who taught his hands to war and his fingers to fight. We read of Bezalel, and of the women that were wise-hearted, that God had taught them, so that they made all manner of embroidery and metal work for the house of the Lord. In those days they used to reckon skill and invention, to be the gifts of God; this wretched century has grown too wise to honor any God but its own idolized self. If you pray over your work I am persuaded that you will be helped in it. If for your calling you are as yet but slenderly qualified, you may every morning pray God to help you that you may be careful and observant as an apprentice or a beginner; for has he not promised that as your day, your strength shall be? A mind which is trusting in the Lord is in the best condition for acquiring knowledge, and getting understanding.

As to your behavior in your work, there is room for faith and prayer. For, O brethren, whether qualified or not for any particular offices of this life, our conduct is the most important matter. It is well to be clever, but it is essential to be pure. I would have you to be masters of your trades, but I am even more earnest that you should be honest, truthful, and holy. About this we may confidently go to God and ask him to lead us in a plain path, and to hold up our goings that we slip not. He can and will help us to conduct ourselves wisely. "Lead us not into temptation" is one sentence of our daily prayer, and we may further ask that when we are in the temptation, we may be delivered from the evil. We need prudence, and faith remembers that if any lacks wisdom he may ask of God. Godliness teaches the young men prudence, the babes knowledge and discretion. See how Joseph prospered in Egypt because the Lord was with him. He was placed in very difficult positions: on one occasion in a position of the most terrible danger, but he escaped by saying, "How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?" A sense of God's presence preserved him then, and at all other times. He was set over all the house of Potiphar, because God was with him.

In the same way, dear friends, engaged in service or in business, you may go to your heavenly Father and ask him to guide you with his counsel, and you may rest assured that he will order all your way, so that your daily calling shall not hinder your heavenly calling, nor your conduct belie your profession.

Faith bids you to seek help from God, as to the success of your daily calling. Don't you know what David says, "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he gives his beloved sleep." It is a most pleasant thing to be able by faith to consult the Word of God about everything, whether it arises in trade, or in the family, or in the church. We may say with Abraham's servant, "O Lord, I entreat you to send me good speed this day." You may expect success, if you thus seek it: and perhaps some of you would have prospered more if you had more believingly sought the Lord. I say "perhaps," because God does not always prosper even his own people in outward things, since it is sometimes better for their souls that they should be in adversity, and then the highest prosperity is a lack of prosperity. Faith quiets the heart in this matter by enabling us to leave results in the hand of God.

Faith acts also in reference to our surroundings. We are all very much influenced by those around us. God can raise us up friends who will be eminently helpful to us, and we may ask him to do so: he can put us into a circle of society in which we shall find much assistance in this life's affairs, and also in our progress towards Heaven; and concerning this we know that "The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord." Faith will keep you clear of evil company, and constrain you to seek the society of the excellent of this earth, and thus it will color your whole life. If there are no friends to help him, then the believer's dependence is so fixed upon God, that he goes forward in cheerful confidence knowing that the Lord alone is sufficient for him. Yet, if he is encouraged and assisted by friends, then he looks upon it as God's doing.

Do you say: We see the connection of this with faith, but how with faith upon the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us? I answer--Our Savior as the object of our faith is also the object of our imitation, and you know, brethren, how in all things he rested upon God. Whenever he undertook a great enterprise, you find him spending a night in prayer. If anybody could have dispensed with prayer, it was our Lord Jesus. If any man that ever lived could have found his own way without heavenly guidance, it was Christ the Son of God. If then he was much in prayer and exercised faith in the great Father, much more should you and I bring everything before God. We should live in the flesh, expecting that the Lord Jesus will be with us even to the end, and that we shall be upheld and comforted by his sympathetic love and tenderness. Faith enables us to follow Jesus as the great Shepherd of the sheep, and to expect to be led in a right way, and daily upheld and sustained until the Redeemer shall come to receive us unto himself.

 

III. Thirdly, faith exercises a power over a man's life of a remarkable kind, because IT LEADS HIM TO SERVE GOD IN HIS DAILY CALLING. Never is life more ennobled than when we do all things as unto God. This makes drudgery sublime, and links the poorest menial with the brightest angel. Seraphs serve God in Heaven, and you and I may serve him in the pulpit or in the kitchen, and be as accepted as they are. Brethren, Christian men are helped by faith, to serve God in their calling by obedience to God's commands, by endeavoring to order everything according to the rules of love to God and love to men. In such a case integrity and uprightness preserve the man, and his business becomes true worship. Though there is no straining after eccentric unworldliness and superstitious singularity--yet in doing that which is right and just, the common tradesman is separated unto the service of the Lord. Jesus says, "If any man serves me, then let him follow me," as much as to say that obedience to the divine command is the true mode of showing love to Jesus. If you wish to do something great for God, be greatly careful to obey his commands. For "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."

Godly men exercise faith in God in their callings by trying to manifest a Christian spirit in all that they do. The spirit which actuates us may seem to be a small matter, so long as we are outwardly right; but it is in reality the essence of the whole thing. Take away the flavor from the fruit, or the fragrance from the flower--and what is left? Such is correct living without the savor of grace. The same thing can be done in several ways: you can do a right thing in so wrong a way, as to make it wrong. Even in giving to the poor, a churl will trample upon their feelings in the very act of his charity; while I have known others who have been unable to give who, nevertheless, have expressed their inability in so kindly a form that they have comforted the disappointed applicant. Oh, to act in your trade and your calling, as Christ would have acted had he been in your place. Hang that question up in your houses, "What would Jesus do?" And then think of another, "How would Jesus do it?" for what he would do, and how he would do it, may always stand as the best guide to us. Thus faith puts a man upon serving God by leading him to exhibit the spirit of Christ in what he ordinarily does, showing all courtesy, gentleness, forbearance, charity, and grace.

Furthermore, in all that we do, we should be aiming at God's glory. We should do everything as unto God, and not unto men. There would be no eye-service, if we left off being men pleasers and began to please God. Neither would there be impatience under injustice; for if men do not accept our service when we have done it with all our hearts, then we shall comfort ourselves with the reflection that our Master in Heaven knows how little we deserve the unrighteous censure. To live as kings and priests unto God, is the cream of living. Then will you be the Lord's free men. Serve God in serving men, and serve men by serving God; there is a way of working out those two sentences even to the full, and thus rendering life sublime. May God the Holy Spirit teach us to do this.

If we really live to serve God, then we shall live intensely day by day, allowing no time to waste. Sophia Cook sought Mr. Wesley's counsel as to what she should do in life, and he answered, "Live today!" This is a very short direction, but one that is full of wisdom. "Live today!" and tomorrow you may do the same. Many of you may not be able to construct plans for the whole term of life, but mind that you work while it is called today. "Son, go work today in my vineyard" is the great Father's word. How would a man live, if he felt that he was specially to live for God this day? Suppose that today there was a vow upon you, or some other bond, by which you felt that this whole day was solemnly consecrated to the Lord: how would you behave yourself? So ought you to behave this day, and every day; for you belong wholly to him who loved you, and gave himself for you. Let the love of Christ constrain us in this matter. Let us put on the yoke of Christ, and feel at once that we are his blood-bought possession, and his servants forever, because by faith he has become ours, and we are his. We ought to live as Christ's men in every little thing, as well as in every great matter; whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, we should do all to the glory of God, giving thanks unto God the Father by Christ Jesus.

Thus, you see that faith in him who gave himself for us leads us to spend our energies in his service, and to do our ordinary work with an eye to his glory, and so our life is colored and savored by our faith in the Son of God.

 

IV. Fourthly, faith has a very beneficial influence upon the life that we live in the flesh, for IT RECONCILES A MAN TO THE DISCOMFORTS OF HIS CALLING. It is not every calling that is easy or lucrative, or honored among men. It is a happy circumstance when a man has espoused a business which is so congenial with his taste, that he would not change it for another if he could: but many find their trades irksome to them. This is an evil under the sun. Some employments are despised by the thoughtless, and involve much self-denial, and hence those who follow them need much faith to enable them to live above the trials of their position. Faith teaches the humble worker to see Jesus in all his lowliness, condescending to take upon himself the form of a servant for our sakes. Faith reads, "Jesus took a towel, and girded himself, and washed his disciples' feet." That was one of the most menial of employments, and if our Lord and Master did not disdain it, then why should we be ashamed of the humblest form of service? From henceforth let no man trouble you, but rejoice because the poor man's Savior was a servant, even as you are, and he too was "despised and rejected by men."

Your faith ought to help you by arousing your gratitude for deliverance from a far worse drudgery. You did for Satan, things of which you are now ashamed. Any work for the devil, and for his wicked cause, would be dishonorable: to rule an empire for Satan, would disgrace us; to wear the crown put on our heads by sinning, would be a horrible curse; but to wash feet for Christ is glorious service! There is no degradation in anything that is done for God. Faith in God sanctifies the man, and his calling too, and makes it pleasant to him to carry the cross of Christ in his daily labor.

There are some who hold their heads high, who nevertheless, do things that are disgraceful to humanity, but surely you and I ought never to think anything to be a hardship, which falls to our lot by the appointment of divine providence.

Faith is a great teacher of humility; for it bids us to think little of ourselves, and rest alone in God; and because it fosters humility, then it renders a man's task pleasant when else it would be irksome. Pride makes a man stiff in the back: there are some works which he cannot do, though he would be happy enough in doing them if he had not such foolish ideas of his own importance. Hard work is no disgrace to any man; it is far more degrading to be leading the life of a fashionable do-nothing.

When the Lord makes us feel that we are poor, undeserving creatures, then we do not mind taking the lowest place, or doing the lowest work; for we feel that as long as we are out of Hell, and have a hope of Heaven, then the lowest employment is an honor to us. We are glad enough to be where God would have us be, seeing Christ has loved us and given himself for us.

Faith also removes discomforts by reminding us that they will not last long. Faith says of trial, "Bear it! The time is short. Soon the Savior comes, and the poorest of his followers shall then reign with him forever!" Toil on, O weary one, for the morning light will put an end to your labor, which lasts only through the hours of darkness. The glory breaks; the night is wearing away, and the dawn appears. Therefore patiently wait and quietly hope, for you shall see the salvation of God. Thus faith takes the thorns from our pillow, and makes us learn to be content in whatever state we are in. Do you call this nothing? Has not Jesus done much for us when by faith in him, we have learned to endure the ills of life with sweet contentment?

 

V. Fifthly, faith has this further influence upon ordinary life--THAT IT CASTS ALL THE BURDEN OF IT UPON THE LORD. Faith is the great remover of yokes, and it does this in part by making us submissive to God's will. When we have learned to submit, then we cease to repine. Faith teaches us so to believe in God's infallible wisdom and perfect love for us, that we consent unto the Lord's will and rejoice in it. Faith teaches us to look to the end of every present trial, and to know that it works together for good; thus again reconciling us to the passing grief which it causes. Faith teaches us to depend upon the power of God to help us in the trial, and through the trial, and in this way we are no longer downcast by afflictions, but rise above them as on eagles' wings. Brethren, if any of you are anxious, careworn, and worried, then do not stay in such a state of mind; it cannot do you any good; and it reflects no honor upon your great Father. Pray for more faith, that you may have no back-breaking load to carry, but may transfer it to the great Burden-bearer. Pray to your great Lord so to strengthen and ease your heart, that your only care may be to please him, and that you may be released from all other care. By this means will you be greatly helped, for if the burden is lightened, then it comes to much the same thing as if the strength were multiplied. Contentment with the divine will is better than increase of riches, or removal of affliction; for with wealth no peace may come; and out of prosperity no joy in the Lord may arise; but contentment is peace itself.

Whatever burden faith finds in her daily avocation, she casts it upon God by prayer. We begin with God in the morning, seeking help to do our work, and to do it well. At his hands we seek guidance and prosperity from hour to hour. We ask him to prevent our doing any wrong to others, or suffering any wrong from them. We ask him to keep our temper and to preserve our spirit while we are with worldly men. We beg that we may not be infected by the evil example of others, and that our example may be such as may be safely followed.

These are our great concerns in our work; we tremble lest in anything we should dishonor God, and we trust in him to keep us. A believer goes to God with the matters of each day, and looks for the morning dew to fall upon him; he looks up through the day, expecting the Lord to be his constant shield, and at night before he goes to rest, he empties out the gathered troubles of the day, and so falls into a happy sleep. A man lives sweetly when he lives by the day, trusting his Lord with everything, and finding God to be ever near.

To all this the example of the Savior leads us, and his love within our hearts draws us. "He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him," and "was heard in that he feared."

 

VI. Sixthly, faith has a happy influence upon the present life, for IT MODERATES A MAN'S FEELINGS AS TO THE RESULT OF HIS WORK. Sometimes the result of our work is prosperity, and here the grace of God prevents a glut of worldly things. There is a keen test of character in prosperity. Everybody longs for it, but it is not every man that can bear it when it comes. True faith forbids our setting great store by worldly goods and pleasures and enjoyments; for it teaches us that our treasure is in Heaven. If we begin to idolize the things that are seen, we shall soon degenerate and turn aside from God. How easily we may spoil a blessing!

Two friends gathered each a rose: the one was continually smelling at it, touching its leaves and handling it as if he could not hold it too fast; you do not wonder that it was soon withered. The other took his rose, enjoyed its perfume moderately, carried it in his hand for a while, and then placed it on the table in water, and hours after it was almost as fresh as when it was plucked from the bough. In the same way, we may dote on our worldly gear until God becomes jealous of it, and sends a blight upon it; and, on the other hand, we may with holy moderateness use these things as not abusing them, and get from them the utmost good which they are capable of conveying to us.

Many pursue wealth or fame as some eager boy hunts the painted butterfly: at last, after a long and weary run, he dashes it down with his cap, and with the stroke he spoils its beauty! Many a man has reached the summit of a life-long ambition, and found it to be mere vanity. In gaining all, he has lost all; wealth has come, but the power to enjoy it has gone; life has been worn out in the pursuit, and no strength is left with which to enjoy the gain! It shall not be so with the man who lives by faith, for his chief joys are above, and his comfort lies within. To him God is joy so rich, that other joy is comparatively flavorless.

But perhaps the result of all our work may be adversity. Some men row very hard, and yet their boat makes no headway. When an opportunity presents itself, then the tide of trade suddenly turns against them. When they have grain to be threshed, then the wind does not blow. Perhaps they lose all but their character, and then it is that faith comes in to cheer them under the disaster.

I am deeply grieved when I hear of people committing suicide because they were in difficulties: it is a dreadful thing thus to rush before one's Creator unbidden. Faith sustains the heart and puts aside all thought of such desperate attempts to flee from present griefs by plunging into far more awful woes. We shall bear up and come through our trials triumphantly, if we have faith in God. If our heavenly Father has appointed a bitter cup for us, then shall we not drink it? If the fields which we have tilled yield no harvests, and the animals that we have foddered die in the stall, then shall we not bow the head and say, "The Lord has done it"? Must it not be right if the Lord ordains it? let us bless him still. If not, it will be our unbelief which hinders. How many have been happy in poverty, happier than they were in wealth! How often have the saints rejoiced more during sickness, than in their health. Payson declared that during illness he felt happier than he had ever been, far happier than he had ever expected to be. Though bereavement has come into the family, and sickness unto the household--yet faith has learned to sing in all weathers, because her God is still the same.

O brothers and sisters, faith is a precious preparative for anything and everything that comes; mind that you have it always ready for action. Do not leave it at home in time of storm, as the foolish seaman left his anchor. Faith is not a grace to be shut up in a closet, or fastened to a communion table, or boxed up in a pew, but it is an everyday grace which is to be our companion in the shop and in the market, in the parlor and in the kitchen, in the workroom and in the field. Yes, it may go into the workhouse with the poor, as well as into the mansion with the rich. Faith may either cheer the dreary hours of the infirmary, or sanctify the sunny weeks of holiday. Faith is for every place in which a holy man may lawfully be found. "Should fate command you to the utmost verge of the green earth, to rivers unknown to song," yet shall a childlike faith in God find you a home in every climate, under every sky. Oh, to feel the power of it, as to all that comes of our labor, that the life which we live in the flesh, may be lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved us and gave himself for us.

 

VII. Seventhly, faith has this sweet influence upon our present life, that IT ENABLES A MAN CHEERFULLY TO LEAVE HIS OCCUPATION WHEN THE TIME COMES. A Christian may have to quit a favorite vocation on account of circumstances over which he has no control; he may have to emigrate to a distant land, or altogether to change his mode of living, and this may involve many a wrench to his feelings. It is not always easy to leave the old house, and all its surroundings, and to take a long journey; nor is it pleasant to change one's settled habits and begin life anew. Yet true faith sets loose by worldly things, and is ready to haul up the anchor and make sail at the divine bidding. The believer says, "Command my journey, and I will go. I am but a tent dweller, and must expect to be on the move." Like Israel in the desert, we must follow the cloud, and journey or rest as the cloud ordains, for here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Faith has the same gracious influence upon those who enjoy unbroken prosperity; it keeps them from taking root in the soil of earth, and this is a miracle of grace!

Sometimes our vocations have to be given up through weakness or old age. It is a hard pinch to many a busy man, when he feels that he has no more strength for business, when he perceives that other and more vigorous minds must be allowed to step into the long occupied position. The workman cannot bear to feel that his hand has lost its skill: it is a sharp experience. Faith is of essential service here. It helps a man to say, "My Master, I am one of the vessels of your house; if you will use me, then I will be glad; but if you will put me on the shelf, then I will be glad too. It must be best for me, to be as you would have me." If faith resigns herself to the supreme wisdom and love and goodness of Christ, and says, "Do with me even as you will: use me, or set me aside," then retirement will be a release from care and no source of distress. The evening of advanced age may be spent as joyfully as the noontide of manhood, if the mind is stayed on God. "They shall bring forth fruit in old age" is a promise full often realized by believers, for all around me are venerable brethren who are more useful and more happy than ever, though the infirmities of old age are growing upon them.

And then comes at last the leaving of your vocation by death, which will arrive in due time to us all. Then faith displays its utmost energy of blessing. Brethren, may we meet death as Moses did, who when God bade him climb the mountain, for there he must die, uttered no word of sorrow, but like a child obeyed his father, went upstairs to bed, looked wistfully out at the window upon the promised land, and then fell asleep. How sweet to look upon the fine land and Lebanon, and then to be kissed to sleep by his Father's own mouth, and to be buried where no man knows. His work was done, and his rest was come. Beautiful are the departing words of Samuel when, laying down his office; he can challenge all men to bear witness to his character. Happy man, to depart amid universal blessing. O that each one of us may be ready to render in his account before the judgment-seat of Christ--let the last day come when it may.

Our Master, by whose love we have been endowed with faith, has taught us how to die, as well as how to live. He could say, "I have finished the work which you gave me to do," and he would have us say it as well. Thrice happy man who, in laying down the shepherd's crook or the carpenter's plane, in putting aside the ledger or the class-book, never to open them again, can exclaim, "I have fought a good fight; I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of life which never fades away."

Good old Matthew Mead, the Puritan, when he was very old, and leaning on his staff, was asked how he was; answered thus: "Why, going home as fast as I can; as every honest man ought to do when his day's work is done! I bless God that I have a wondrous home to go to." Dear aged saints, so near home, does not faith transform death from an enemy into a friend, as it brings the glory so near to you? You will soon be in the Father's house and leave me behind; and yet I cannot know that I shall not die before you! I remember that the other disciple outran Peter, and came first to the sepulcher. Just so, perhaps, may I. You have the start of us in years, but we may be called home before you. Let death come when it may, we shall not be afraid, for Jesus, who has loved us and given himself for us, is the resurrection and the life. Living this life in the flesh by faith in the Son of God, we are waiting for the usher of the black rod, to bring a message from the King to summon us to meet him in the upper house. Why should we be reluctant to go? What is there here that we should wait? What is there on this poor earth to detain a heaven-born and heaven-bound spirit? Nay, let us go, for he is gone in whom our treasure is, whose beauties have engrossed our love! He is not here, why should we desire to linger? He has risen, let us rise also!

Thus, from the beginning to the end of the life that we live in the flesh, faith in the Son of God answers all things, and all its paths drop fatness.

Portion of scripture read before sermon--Matthew 6.