Astory is told of an old man who rived long ago. A friend asked him the cause of his complaints, since in the evening he so often complained of great weariness and pain. “Alas,” answered he, “I have every day so much to do: I have two falcons to tame, two hares to keep from running away, two hawks to manage, a serpent to confine, a lion to chain, and a sick man to tend and wait upon.” “Why, this is only folly,” said the friend; “no man has all these things to do at once.” “Yes indeed,” he answered, “it is with me asI have said. The two falcons are my two eyes, which I must diligently guard, lest something should please them which may be hurtful to my salvation; the two hares are my feet, which I must hold back lest they should run after evil objects, and walk in the ways of sin; the two hawks are my two hands, which I must train and keep to work, in order that I may be able to provide for myself and for my brethren who are in need; the serpent is my tongue, which I must always keep in with a bridle, lest it should speak anything unseemly; the lion is my heart, with which I have to maintain a continual fight in order that vanity and pride may not fill it, but that the grace of God may dwell and work there; the sick man is my body, which is ever needing my watchfulness and care. All this daily wears out my strength.” The friend listened with wonder, and then said, “Dear brother, if all men laboured and struggled after this manner, the times would be better, and more according to the will of God.” (J. M. Randall.)
Determination of purpose
The ancient Greeks had an aphorism which is worthy of remembrance: “He is formidable who does one thing.” A man must have a fixed design, or he will not have a steady course. As the instrument tuned to no key-note, so is the man whose spirit is strung to no commanding aim. In vain does the vessel launch forth from the harbour if she have no haven for which to steer and no helm by which to shape her voyage. Take a just view of your life, and all is but dung and dross in comparison with your final acceptance with God. This is the object, the one object which you must enterprise, prosecute, and secure. What a work is before us! (Hugh Stowell, M. A.)
A great work in the face of strong antagonism
The Christian has a great work to do for himself, working out under gospel influences his own salvation with fear and trembling. It is great in regard of others. We are not merely children of God going home to glory; but we are fellow-workers with God--keepers of beacons to imperilled mariners in a dark night of storms--oarsmen of a lifeboat out on the wild ocean saving drowning souls from destruction. Yea, we have a great work in regard of our glorious God and Saviour. We may not understand it, yet we are assured by God Himself of the truth that more than in all His works of creation and providence is there manifestation made of His manifold wisdom in this work of salvation. Every soul saved on earth by our human instrumentality is a radiant diadem in the many crowns of Jesus. Moreover, like Nehemiah, we are doing this great work in the face of strong antagonisms, and against the insidious opposition of enemies striving to hinder us. Alas! how many are the Sanballats and Tobiahs of the world! I am not railing at the world itself, for it is a good world for Christian work--a world whereof we are to make the most; and the pleasures and honours and riches of it, when accepted as gifts of God and used for His glory, are among our mighty means of grace, whereby our own souls may be edified and Christ’s kingdom enlarged. I am thinking now of the world as used by Satan to hinder Christian work--those scornful words or seductive arts of temptation, and, I repeat, they are many. Pleasure comes to the scene of Christian labour with all-bewitching beauty and bewildering blandishments, and she pleads for sensual indulgence, and would draw the worker for Christ forth and down to the fair plains of Ono. Avarice comes with jewels of great price, and keys offering coffers of untold wealth in the stronghold of Mammon. Ambition comes, in the pomp and glory of an archangel, fallen from heaven, and points to a perspective of surpassing splendour, with shining palms and triumphal processions, outflashing diadems and uprising throne. With these and many other specious beguilements come the great adversaries of the soul and the Church. They plead with the Christian worker as he builds the walls of Zion, crying eloquently and earnestly, “Oh, come down and meet us in some plain of Ono!” And to all this our reply should be just that of Nehemiah, “I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.” Oh, fellow-worker with God in this glorious salvation, take to your heart as the inspiration of your lives this strong argument; rise to a comprehension of the magnificent part you are acting in the face of the universe; of the vastness of the issues you are working out for God! Say to the assaulting tempter, “Let me alone. I am working--working. I am working out my own destiny. I am striving for a guerdon in the skies grander than the Conqueror’s. I am working for others--for the beloved of my own house-hold--my child, my parent, my brother, my friend. Oh, do not hinder me! I am working for a world--a world for which the Son of God bled in the garden--died on the Cross! See! see! that world rolls like a shattered wreck on the stormy seas of time, and I am keeping the beacon aflame! Oh, hinder me not! Nay, more, I am working for Jehovah--that God who, when I was lost, sent His own Son to save me.”(T. L. Cuyler.)
Nehemiah, the model man of business
In studying Nehemiah as a man of business we notice--
I. He was a model of earnstness.
II. He wasa model of unselfishness.
III. He was a model of faithfulness.
IV. He was a model of prayer. (R. Newton, D. D.)
A good man in a great work
This narrative illustrates--
I. The characteristics of a great work. It has--
1. A high purpose. It was--
2. Beset with difficulties. A true work will have generally to surmount--
(1) Men’s scorn.
(2) External hindrances.
II. The temptations that beset a great work.
1. Temptations from armed enemies.
2. Temptations from professed friends.
III. The spirit of a true worker. There will be--
1. Prayer for the work.
2. Earnest prosecution of it.
3. Resistance of all temptations to leave it. (Urijah R. Thomas.)
The great work
We learn from these words--
I. That Nehemiah was “doing a great work.”
II. That there were those who endeavoured to hinder him.
III. That the magnitude of the work required that he should not cease or allow himself to be hindered from prosecuting it.
IV. We may learn from the context that Nehemiah succeeded in accomplishing the work by prayer and painstaking diligence. (James Shore, M. A.)
The great work
I. That the work of religion in general is a great work. This will appear when we contemplate it as being--
1. God’s work. It originated with God; its foundations were laid in heaven; it emanated from the throne of the Eternal; it is the product of infinite wisdom, love, and truth. It bears on its countenance the image of its immaculate Author, and it is every way worthy of its great Original. Unmistakable traces and manifestations of its Divinity are seen in the loftiness of its character, in the purity of its principles, and in the efficiency and permanency of its influences. Nothing is worth the name of greatness compared with the system God has devised to heal the sorrows and cleanse the pollutions of the soul.And is there not a glory and majesty about it immeasurably great? God appears great in the works of creation. If, then, God is so great throughout the wide range of creation, how great must He be in restoring man to His favour, in giving life, vigour, and beauty to souls once dead in trespasses and sins! That religion is a great work is evident--
2. From the importance attached to it in the Bible. The Bible, God’s holy book, is pregnant with it, its glory and beauty being reflected from every page. This book was written expressly to pourtray religion, its doctrines, principles, and duties. Let the question be settled in our minds--religion is the “principal thing”; it is emphatically the world’s great bless ing; so the sacred penmen estimate it. They speak of it as “God’s salvation”; as the “great salvation”; as the “pearl of great price”; as the “one thing needful”; as the “good part”; the “more excellent way”; “the bread of life”; and “life eternal.” That religion is a great work is evident from--
3. The qualifications necessary to engage in it. A high state of intellect is not essential to it. The most gigantic intellect is no qualification for God’s service, if not renewed and sanctified by the Holy Ghost. The qualifications necessary to engage in this work must have their seat in the heart rather than in the head. Right moral emotions cannot be dispensed with.
4. That religion is a great work appears from its blessed results on human character and conduct. The history of the past in relation to God’s work unfolds a series of wonderful achievements and glorious results. Its wide spread influence amongst the various nations and tribes of men has told a marvellous tale.
II. The good man is engaged in this work. This expression denotes--
1. Decision of character. In a world like ours fixedness of purpose is invaluable, whether it relate to the active duties of every-day life or to the more lofty and ennobling duties of religion. It is essential to success. The man whose movements are changeable, and who is never steady to one point or purpose, brings nothing to a good issue. What a paralysing influence indecision has upon the soul in relation to religion. Men dream and talk about their future course of action, and yet they are never found at the starting-point. They are decided for the future, but not for the present. The diligent man says, “‘I am doing a great work’; I am in it; it form part and parcel of my very being.” The Scriptures furnish us with specimens of the decision we plead for. We see it in Joshua, when he says, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” So, too, David said, “O God, my heart is fixed”; “I have chosen the way of truth.”
2. Labour. “I am doing a great work.” Religion is essentially active; it has no sympathy with sloth and inactivity.
III. The spirit of perseverance is required in this work. The good man engaged in this work cannot come down, because--
1. The work requires close and constant application. To acquire anything like an approach to perfection or completeness in religion is no easy task. The world, with its blandishments, its false maxims, and glittering snares, says, “Come down.” The flesh, naturally in favour of indulgence and ease, and opposed to self-denial, joins in the cry, and says, “Come down.” Satan, whose malice breaks out more bitterly as he sees the wall rising higher, repeats the order, “Come down.” Thus every new stone added to the building is the subject of dispute. The builder cannot leave his work, because--
2. Shame and misery would be the result. A more pitiful sight than that of a good man “cast down from his excellency” is certainly not to be found. My reason, my judgment, my conscience, all concur with the inspired admonition, “Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
IV. “Why should the work cease, whilst i leave it, and come down to you?” We must not suppose that God’s work would entirely cease, even though a thousand such men as Nehemiah were to desert it.
1. All the infidelity and wickedness of men cannot stop this work. Observe, finally, that--
2. Were it possible that His work should cease, it would be the greatest calamity the world ever knew. (A. Twiss.)
The pre-eminence of God’s work
I.God’s work is still a great work. It resolves itself into two parts--
1. Work in relation to one’s self--faith in the Redeemer, progressive holiness and final glory.
2. Work in relation to others.
II. God’s work must be done first. To Sanballat’s complimentary note Nehemiah replied by his conduct, “God’s work first, compliments next.”
III. God’s work preserves from mischief and misery.
IV. God’s work should be loved for its own sake.
V. God’s work should be begun, continued, and ended with prayer. (Homilist.)
Safety in Christian work
Christian work is--
1. A safeguard against vice. All honest work, indeed, is an antidote to vice, but Christian work is especially so.
1. It fills up those leisure hours that so often prove fatal to the unguarded soul.
2. By its very nature it supplies positive motives against temptation.
(1) It strengthens all one’s Christian principles.
(2) It keeps one constantly under the play of Christian influences.
(3) It prevents the spiritual life from dying of disuse.
II. A safegaurd against spiritual declension. Our spiritual life depends in the first instance on the work of Christ for us; but its continuance is dependent on activity--on the work we do for Christ.
1. Physical growth is dependent on activity.
2. So, too, with intellectual life.
3. So in a still higher degree it is in spiritual life.
Selfishness is the greatest spiritual poverty. Life loses in the proportion in which it withholds itself, and gains by all it gives. According to the width of my sympathies and the self-forgetting ardour of my zeal is the true power and opulence of my being. If it be lawful or possible to enlist thehigher selfishness in the service of unselfishness, as you value your religious life, as you would protect it on the one hand against innate tendencies to declension, and on the other against the sapping and undermining influences of the outer world, give your sympathies, your energies, your substance to the cause of God and man. It is not enough for your religious safety that you abstain from evil--you must engage in positive good.
III. A safeguard against scepticism. Not that scepticism cannot be met in the field of argument. But argument is not, in every case, the best way to meet the native scepticism of the heart. Christian truth is of such a nature that to understand it fully you must live it. “If any man will do God’s will he shall know of the doctrine.” There was a minister who at an early period of his life was in doubt about the truth of Christianity. He had almost lost his faith, when hearing this text he resolved to make trial of it. He went and gathered a number of boys together from the streets and taught them as best he could; from that he went to something else as opportunity offered, with the result that he found the text to be true; that in doing God’s will, especially in doing good to others, his doubts had all fled and never troubled him more. He found, as Carlyle says, “that doubt of whatever kind can be ended by action alone.” As a rule it is not from the great class of Christian workers that scepticism draws its recruits, but from those who stand aloof from all Christian activities, and in many cases look down on them with contempt.
IV. A safeguard against despondency. It is an old saying and true that while the water flows and the mill-stones revolve unless the grain be thrown between them to be ground, the stones will grind each other. So the heart and mind which are inactive, which have no subjects of interest, to engross them, turn their force inward and prey upon themselves. The water that is stagnant soon loses its freshness of colour and of flavour, and engenders the worthless weed, the green scum, the foul mud and noxious exhalations; so the man or woman who leads a useless, purposeless, inactive life not only degenerates in inward character, but loses the freshness and brightness of life, becomes restless, discontented, and a prey to melancholy. To a woman of the desponding type who was wont to bewail her spiritual poverty in the language of the prophet, “My leanness i my leanness I “ a shrewd and faithful friend, well-known for her good works, administered the needed and merited reproof, “Nay, but it would better become you to say, ‘My laziness! my laziness!’“ (Robert Whyte, D. D.)
Hindrances to revivals
I. A revival of religion is a great work.
II. Several things may put a stop toa revival. A revival will cease--
1. Whenever the Church believes it is going to cease.
2. When Christians consent that it should cease.
3. Whenever Christians suppose the work will go on without their aid.
4. When Christians begin to proselytise.
5. When the Church in any way grieves the Holy Spirit.
6. When Christians lose the spirit of brotherly love.
7. When Christians are frequently reconverted.
III. Things which ought to be done to continue a revival.
1. Ministerial humiliation.
2. Churches which have opposed revivals must repent.
3. Those who promote the work of revivals must repent their mistakes. (G. Finney.)
