(A motto for Sunday school teachers.) Work done well, however common, is accounted worthy of its wage, but work done for royalty generally has some special attraction to commend it. Such a man is privileged by appointment to be purveyor of this or that to her Majesty the Queen; and he takes good care to let us know it. It is published in his shop window. It is painted on his sign over the door. He is, “By appointment to the Queen.” Royalty seems to dignify him. Looking at my text I see three or four observations springing from it.
I. Our King has many kinds of servants.
1. Soldiers. It is their duty to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
2. Watchmen.
3. Heralds.
4. Scribes.
5. Musicians.
6. Potters.
These may supply a very good emblem of Sunday school teachers. The potters take the clay while it is pliable and soft, and put it on the wheel and make the wheel revolve, and then with thumb and finger fashion the clay as it revolves before them. If ever at any time the human mind is plastic it is while the child is young.
7. Gardeners.
This is just what a Sunday school teacher should be. He tries to get the plants out from the wild waste and bring them into the “garden walled around.” He knows that the Church is the garden of the Lord and he longs to plant many little slips in it.
II. All who live with our King must work. I have thought that some of our Church members imagined that the cause of Christ was a coach, and that they were to ride on it, and that they would prefer the box-seat, or else a very comfortable seat in the middle of the coach. But all who live with our King must work.
1. Because He works.
2. Because His company always inspires us with the desire to do something for Him.
3. Because there is so much to do that you cannot help doing something.
III. Those that work for our King ought to live with Him.
1. That they may gather strength. In the old fable, when Hercules fought with the giant he could not kill him. He flung him down with all his might, but every time the giant got up stronger than before. The old fable said that the earth was the giant’s mother, and every time that he fell he touched her and got new strength from her. So every time a Christian falls on his knees--draws near to God--he gets new strength.
2. To keep up their enthusiasm.
3. That they may be inspired with courage.
4. If they would cultivate the soft grace of patience.
IV. That which should reconcile us to any work is, that we are working for the King. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Certain members of the royal household
It is a matter of very common occurrence in this world, in forming our estimates of men and things, to ignore altogether the real and constant contributors to success, and to look only at him or them who represent the success. The commander of an ocean steamer is the person whose name is printed, who meets the public eye, and possesses the public confidence; the men who sweat and pant down deep in the ship before the hot and roaring fires, the men who climb the icy rigging, who with stiffening limbs battle with the frozen sails, and watch hour after hour amid cold and darkness for danger, are never thought of. We see the victorious leader of armies surrounded in the hour of triumph by a brilliant staff, while multitudes shout and cheer. How few ever think at such a time of the thousands of silent graves where men lie who paid the costly price of life for this hour of their leader’s triumph! Because the world judges usually in this way the strong contrast of the text strikes us. The royal household is not alone the king with his victorious generals and stately nobles, but the potters and the dwellers or workers among plants and hedges. Our text teaches us--
I. That none are ignored, despised, or forgotten in the royal household of our King because of the apparent insignificance of the position they fill. The work of the Church analagous to that of the potters and hedgers is not in favour. Only a few are willing to do the humble and necessary work of the Church.
II. That the recognition of the value of labour of the humble workers is just as sure, and reward just as certain, as of that which is most prominent. In the service of the King of kings there is no respecting of persons. It is not the position but the work accomplished that obtains consideration from Him. The name of Luther, or even of Paul, is of no account before Him, nor the office of reformer or apostle, only as meaning mighty labour accomplished in and for the Church. The Hudson may be of far more importance to the country because of its deeper channel, broader bosom, than a little brook that meanders through the meadows of some country valley. One is a broad highway, bearing much of the commerce of great States; the other gives grass to the meadows, drink to cattle, and beauty to the landscape; but surely the Hudson is entitled to no more praise forbeing what it is than the brook for being what it is. No occupation that is right, however mean, can debar us from dwelling with our Lord. We see constantly earthern pots, of very little value in themselves, crowned with the sweetest, the most beautiful, the rarest flowers and plants. Cheap as the red clay is, it is about the only material that could be used. One great value is its cheapness; another is, that plants, with a singular want of taste, would refuse to flourish in pots of silver or gold; their very density and want of porosity render them nearly valueless for this purpose. Just so the very humbleness of work renders some peculiarly fitted to do it. Conclusion:
1. Here we have encouragement for all the Lord’s workers, in
(1) the satisfaction connected with the doing;
(2) in the present beneficent results of the work;
(3) in the certain future reward.
2. Here we may find reason for warm sympathy with all the workers of our King. (Henry W. F. Jones.)
Working for the King
I. How work links men to kings. There are many wrong ideas in the world about labour. Not a few people try to bring up their children without it, and you will see a man toil early and late to make money, getting no enjoyment out of it himself, and when you get at the reason it is that he may make his son a gentleman, which means, someone who can live without work. This is not according to the Divine idea: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” It was not for nothing that Christ toiled at the carpenter’s bench. If you were to take out of the Bible all the stories of men who worked for their living, you would rob it of its greatest beauty. The men and women who work, whether with brain or hand, or both, are the people who save a nation from ruin. What is a man’s religion worth if it does not teach him to labour? Are we not to work out our own salvation, and that for the best of reasons, “It is God that worketh in us.” The sunshine and the rain are useless tothe fields that have not been tilled. He who has no plough needs not to trouble to sharpen his scythe. Bibles and sermons to the idle are not, cannot be, appreciated, and Sabbaths are but a weariness to the man who does no kind of Christian work. Do notmistake yourself for a Christian because you like some popular preacher; it is on the same principle that wasps like honey, but they will rather starve than make it. You would not have heard of these men if they had notworked. Their toil has bound up their life with the king’s life. Why should you not act so that the story of God cannot be fully told without your name being mentioned?
II. Kings need different kinds of workers. There is a sense in which God needs us and cannot carry out His plans without us. Whatever your talent there is room for you. Not only genius, but dogged drudgery. We want the artist to paint the picture, and the workman to frame it; the author to write the book, and the printer to give it to the world. How true it is that no one man cando all that needs to be done, even with his own gifts. Does the gardener wish to send in a choice rose he has just cut? Does he wish his rose to stand on the king’s table? Then he must have thehelp of the potter. He must have one of his vases. (Thomas Champness.)
