66

Servants, be obedient to your own masters, as unto Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but servants of Christ, ́doing the will of God." See here what gives dignity to the most menial servant. Let your situation in this world be the humblest and the most menial; you fulfil its duties, not because there may be a harsh or a tyrant master over you, but because you are doing the work that Christ has assigned you. Your sense of responsibility to Christ consecrates all you do; and you do not feel humbled, but dignified and ennobled, in doing the lowest service, for you serve the Lord Christ. "Whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord." If you sweep a crossing, if you keep accounts, if you serve a mistress or a master, do it heartily, not as unto them, though that is right; but look above them, and feel it is a duty that you are fulfilling as to the Lord. And again, "Whatsoever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." But you naturally say, We shall find next week that we shall be so overwhelmed with the pressure of business, we shall be so busy from early morning to late at night, that we can scarcely get time to think about religion.

ence.

I do not prescribe that when you are making an article of commerce, or summing up your accounts, or prescribing as a physician, or drawing up a case as a solicitor, or pleading at the bar as a barrister, at every moment, and at every step, and continually, you are to feel a sense of God's presThat cannot be. You are so absorbed, as common sense shows, doing the thing that is given you, that you cannot have the thought of God and religion like a continuous presence. But, nevertheless, you may be doing all to the Lord, and doing it wholly for him. For instance, a father goes into a distant land to toil, because he cannot get bread for his family at home. He labors in that land. He is busy, perhaps, sowing or ploughing for twelve hours together. He thinks of nothing but of the furrows, the seeds, or of the

plough, or the harrow, and all the demands of agriculture. But, nevertheless, the reason for his being there, the motive power of his being there, is to find bread for his family and his children. So you may be busy all day in traffic, in commerce, in business, in trade. You may not, from six o'clock in the morning till six o'clock at night, have the thoughts of religion, because you are utterly absorbed in the business that is before you. But the reason of your doing that business, when you look back, and the reason why you are engaged in that business, when you look forward, is that you may do God's will in that sphere, place, and province in which his providence has placed you; and while fervent in spirit, and diligent in business, you are serving the Lord Christ. Or, to take another illustration, a minister of Christ may be anxious to find out the meaning of a Greek or a Hebrew word. If you call upon him, he is searching two or three hours into different writers to ascertain the derivation and application of this word. For at least half a dozen hours, that minister may have been preparing his sermon, and yet he has been so busy in searching out that word, its derivation, its application, its usages, that he has had no time or spare thought to think of any thing but of this one Hebrew or Greek word, and all its applications. Nevertheless, the reason why he makes the search, and his joy when he has concluded the search, arises, ultimately, from his desire to win souls, and to spread the kingdom of Christ. So with you; you may be in the world, whatever your situation or employment may be in that world, serving Christ, whilst you are utterly absorbed for the hour or two in the business that is before you. And if you were not to attend to that business with all your energy, you would soon lose your business, and the opportunities of doing service to Christ's cause, or good to mankind. It is a grand mistake in the world to think that you can only be religious when engaged

in religious work. That is not true. You are religious when you are building, or ploughing, or sowing, or reaping. If any thing were to go wrong, or any temptation urged to do wrong, you would fall back upon the grand governing motive," Serve the Lord Christ:" but for the time you are engaged wholly in the work; and it is not irreligious to do it with all your might, when the motive for which you do it, and the end to which you do it, is a Divine one. It is not true, that doing religious work is necessarily being religious. A man may spend twelve hours every day in building a church, and may be an absolute heathen or an atheist. Another man may spend sixteen hours a day in building a warehouse, and may be doing a most holy and religious work. It is not the work that makes the workman holy, but it is the workman's heart that consecrates the toil, and makes all he does to be serving the Lord Christ.

Do you say, All that is very well in the pulpit, or at a communion table, but we cannot carry it into business. Now I am showing how you may carry into your business your religion, and that your religion will not lead you to be slothful, lazy, unsuccessful, but the very reverse. Whenever, therefore, I hear men say, I failed in my business because I paid so much attention to my church or my chapel, I at once answer, that is not true; there is not an atom of truth in it. And you may depend upon it, it was not your attention to your church and your chapel, but something else. No man ever became less industrious because he became really pious. Let us never plead religion as an excuse for inattention to business. That is a lazy apprentice, and not a religious apprentice, who says, I went to the prayer-meeting, and therefore I could not attend to my master's order. That is indolence, and not piety, that says, I have failed to do this, or I could not execute your message in the proper time, because I turned aside to distribute a few tracts, or went to

talk with a pious man. Religion bids you do your duty to your master diligently, not slothfully; with all your might; and this is religion; when you do it. To make the pretence of distributing tracts, or a conversation with a religious man, an excuse for inattention to your master's orders, or for not executing those orders with all your might, is either direct hypocrisy, or it is a grievous misconception of what religion is. Never plead that business keeps you from religion; still less that religion, at all events, keeps you from business.

Do not put off religion, piety, the fear of God, acceptance of the only Saviour, devotion, and dedication to him, till after you have become rich, and retired. The secret why many say, I have no time to attend to religion till I have despatched this business, or got this matter off my hands, is their making haste to be rich. Religion is to be in business, not after business. It is to be the life of business, not a postscript to business. It is to direct, sanctify, sustain, ennoble business; not to be a separate thing to be attended to afterwards.

Do not so look to

And lastly, in the midst of all your diligence on earth, never forget, "What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" business, that you forget the great, the essential, the primary thing, salvation. And do not make religion, or the things that belong to your peace, a plea or pretext for inattention to your business, and undutifulness to your master, or disobedience to those that are set over you in the world. And in our daily life, and in our Sabbath life, in the counting-house, or at a communion table, or at our daily meals, may the Lord bless us and keep us; may the Lord make his face shine upon us, and be gracious to us; may the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon us, and give us peace, through Christ Jesus.

CHAPTER XI.

FEAR NOT.

"And thou, too, whosoe'er thou art.
That readest this brief psalm,
As one by one thy hopes depart,
Be resolute and calm.

Oh fear not in a world like this;

And thou shalt know ere long,—
Know how sublime a thing it is
To suffer and be strong."

"Fear thou not: for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God."-ISA. xli. 10.

MEN are liable to be afraid when they find themselves in the midst of perils, whether by sea or by land. They need a prescription against fear, not a prescription against feeling. If we are in the midst of battle, exposed to shot and shell, or on the deck no less exposed, we cannot but feel, because we are flesh and blood; yet though we feel, we may not fear, because we are Christians, and the promise is applicable to us always and everywhere, I am with thee; “I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteous

ness.

We live in startling times. Peril surrounds and envelops us like an atmosphere. The first showers of the last judgments, predicted to come on the earth, begin already to