Itis a brief one but very common: the question of the idler, the steward in the parable, the statesman. It is one of the standing proofs of its practical character that the Bible makes this the first question as soon as there is a movement towards heaven; the audience of the Baptist, the multitude On the day of Pentecost, the Philippian jailer, St. Paul. The latter adds one word which is vital to the sense - “Lord.” Two words are on record in connection with this crisis. “Who art Thou, Lord”; “What shall I do, Lord?” He must know who speaks; he must place himself in His hands. We must look upward as we ask the question; then wait for the answer that we may do it, thus combining the spiritual with the practical. The man who asks and means this question is well started in the race, for--
I. He has done the most difficult thing. He has apprehended the invisible God as his Master and Saviour. He no longer stands afar off saying, “Oh, that I knew where I could find Him;” he has grasped the gospel of free forgiveness, and can go in and out where God is and inquire in His temple. In each perplexing alternative, in the dark day of trouble, when no friend is near and life trembling in the balance, he can look up to God as his Counsellor and Helper. It was thus that Paul henceforth lived, and the maturity of the question is seen in his confidence, “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me.”
II. The question is of large compass.
1. It is the question which a young man asks in choosing his life vocation. Well is it when it has been asked in the fear of God. The addition of “Lord” would have altered in many cases the character of the question and the nature of the reply.
2. In forming an acquaintance, or taking a partner for life, what miseries, entanglements, sins, and crimes would be avoided if the Oracle were visited before determining on the course.
3. This is the question most appropriate to the penitent sinner. Witness the futility of the sinner to break the chain of evil habits without God.
III. The question earnestly asked is never left without an answer. The answer is adapted with the most discrimination to the circumstances of--
1. The man who has lost the light.
2. The man who has never had the light. (Dean Vaughan.)
The supreme problem
Analyse these words and you will discover four important elements of belief underlying the thoughts of the speaker.
I. A consciousness that something must be done in order to obtain salvation. A man cannot morally be saved by inaction. Effort is essential.
II. A consciousness that something must be done agreeable to the Divine will. “What wilt Thou have me to do?” The work to be done must be done, not by blind excitement or capricious act, but by the will of God. God’s will is to be consulted.
III. A consciousness that the thing to be done must be done by the man himself. “What wilt Thou have me to do?” No one can do the work that is necessary for me--no priest, preacher, or Church. I must do it.
IV. A consciousness of the need of Divine help in the work. “What wilt Thou have me to do? “I want Divine direction. As if he had said something must be done, whatever Thou teachest I will do. “Teach me Thy will.” (Homilist.)
The servant’s question to his Lord
These words bring before us--
I. The first and strongest instinct of a newborn soul. “How shall I express my gratitude and love? how let Thee and others know how thankful I am?” Saul’s heaviest punishment would have been consignment to a life of inactivity. The Master seemingly could hardly find work enough for him to do. It is not more natural for a fountain to flow, or a star to shine, or a seraph to sing, than it is for a new-born soul to work.
II. A man who had made an absolute surrender of himself to the Lord. From that hour on he was in the hands of the Master as clay is in the hands of the potter. Much that passes under the name of consecration is little more than a profane attempt to compound with the Master, giving up that which we do not care to keep, that we may retain that with which we cannot afford to part.
III. A man who, having made an absolute self-surrender, let the Lord choose his life work for him. When he heard the command to depart from Jerusalem (Act_22:18), Paul ventured reverently to expostulate. He said, as it were, “Lord, it seems to me that this is the place, above all others, for me to preach the gospel. My past life will help me here. They know how I persecuted Thy people. And when I tell them of that great light which I saw on the way to Damascus; when they see the wonderful change which has come over me--they will have to lend me their ears. Let Peter go to the Gentiles, let John go, let James go; they will not listen to any of them as they will listen to me.” Now, if you and I had been there we should have taken the same view, and yet it was soon very evident that the Master was right and the servant wrong (verses 21, 22). Had Saul stayed at Jerusalem, his career would have been brought to an untimely end. It is a great thing to let the Lord choose our life work for us. Many in choosing their life consult their ease or their pride or their avarice or their ambition, and if they go to the Lord at all, it is after they have made their choice.
IV. Past life an element of inspiration. Paul felt that he had so much to undo. Can you think of anything more touching than his allusion to Stephen (verse 20)? Avenge my death, cries the blood of every martyr, by waging a war of extermination against sin. Is your past life an element of your inspiration? Does no ghost of a slighted opportunity, or a neglected duty, or an abused mercy, or a murdered moment summon thee to greater fidelity? Hast thou no lost time to redeem, no neglected work to make up? Does it not become thee to be about thy Master’s work? You cannot recall the past, but you may do much toward redeeming it. (J. B. Shaw, D. D.)
Adjusted faculties
There is produced in a telescope an image of a star. There is produced in a soul an image of God. When does the image of the star start up in the chamber of the telescope? Only when the lenses are clear and rightly adjusted, and when the axis of vision in the tube is brought into exact coincidence with the line of the rays of light from the star. When does the image of God, or the inner sense of peace and pardon, spring up in the human soul? Only when the faculties of the soul are rightly adjusted in relation to each other, and the will brought into coincidence with God’s will. How much is man’s work, and how much is the work of the light? Man adjusts the lenses and the tube; the light does all the rest. Man may, in the exercise of his freedom, as upheld by Divine power, adjust his faculties to spiritual light, and when adjusted in a certain way God flashes through them. (Joseph Cook.)
