Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

every one who will give himself the trouble to watch the phenomena of the moral world, and to inquire for their causes, must see that the intercessions of the godly man prevail with God. Unconverted men even, with all their prejudices against spiritual religion, and all their obtuseness of moral vision, are generally too observing not to notice, and too honest not to acknowledge it. It is almost self-evident. The man who is eminently pious, walks with God; and it is plain as a sunbeam, that when he speaks, God hears.

We wonder and complain, sometimes, that our prayers for the outpouring of the Spirit, and for the conversion of sinners, are not answered. But have we wrestled with God? Have we been suitably impressed with a sense of the value of souls, and have we besieged the throne of grace for them? When have we agonized in prayer for their conversion? How often have our hearts yearned over them? How often, while reflecting upon their condition, have we, with tears, sought the mercy-seat, and "told Jesus?" How often has our private Bethel witnessed fervent, importunate intercession for them? When have we felt and interceded for their salvation, as Abraham felt and interceded for the cities of the plain? Has such incense as this ever ascended from our altars? Has such been the character of our prayers? And shall we, in whose breasts the Spirit has lighted up a flame of holy love, shall we feel little anxiety that others should share in that love? Shall we, who are heirs to a crown of unfading glory, and who hope soon to wear it, feel little interested to secure such a crown for our unconverted friends? Shall we withhold our intercessions, and fold our arms in apathy and indifference, in the midst of our ungodly friends and relations? Is it a time to sleep, when members of our own families are unreconciled to God, and exposed to his wrath?

We can scarcely open our eyes, without beholding those who are tenderly allied to us by the ties of friendship, and some who sustain a closer relation to us as our kindred, who "have no hope, and are without God in the world." They are "treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath." The edict of retribution has gone forth. They are already sentenced, and the storm of Jehovah's vengeance is impending.

O Christian! do you know that you have influence with God? Do you know what encouragement you have to intercede for those whom you love? You may avert the doom that threatens them. Your prayers may secure their introduction into the family of God, and a title to the rank and privileges of sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. Then, plead for their salvation. Plead with a warm heart. Plead with faith and earnestness, and implicit reliance on the efficacy of the Holy Ghost. Such intercessions are never thrown away.

XI.

THE NIGHT NO TIME FOR LABOR.

BY REV. EDWIN F. HATFIELD,

PASTOR OF THE SEVENTH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, NEW YORK.

"The night cometh, when no man can work."-JOHN ix. 4.

"Six

THE Sabbath is a day of rest. The labor, that is lawful and proper on other days of the week, must then be suspended. days shalt thou labor and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work."

The sin of our day is to set this divine law aside; to treat it as part and parcel of a venerable code, once in use, and of great value to an ancient people, but long since abrogated, and of no present obligation. Or, if it be retained as a part of the moral law, its sanctions are, for the most part, disregarded, and its claims neglected. But, in the days of Jesus of Nazareth, it was far otherwise. So strictly was the very letter of the law regarded, by Scribes and Pharisees, and the great body of the Jewish people, that even works of necessity and mercy were treated as transgressions, if performed on the Sabbath.

This erroneous interpretation and application our Saviour endeavored to correct, and frequently rebuked, even at the hazard of being himself treated as a Sabbath-breaker. We have an instance of the kind, in the chapter from which the text is taken. The interview with the man born blind, as here narrated, and the restoration of the man to sight, took place on the Sabbath. Knowing well what use his enemies would make of the transaction, and determined to put the seal of his reprobation on a superstition so inhuman and wicked, as well as to set an example of doing good at all times and on every occasion, he introduces his intention with this justification of the proceeding,-"I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." He then gives sight to the blind, and dismisses him to his home.

Thus he teaches, most emphatically, that no opportunities of doing good are to be lost, or deferred, on account of the sacredness of the

day; that doing-days will soon be gone, and that doing good is the great errand of life. This errand is to be executed diligently, while it is day, before the night comes, when no man can work.

Such were the occasion and design of the language of the Redeemer, to which your attention is now to be directed. When he says, " "The night cometh when no man can work," he appeals to a well-known and universally-recognized law of nature. Work is to be done by day, and not by night. The night is the season for rest; the day for labor.

In accordance with this principle, and sustained by this high authority, I shall proceed to show, that

THE BUSINESS OF THIS WORLD SHOULD ORDINARILY BE TRANSACTED BY DAY, AND NOT BY NIGHT.

A state of labor is the natural state of man on earth. Necessity is laid on him to put forth his powers of body and mind in vigorous exercise. Even in paradise, surrounded with abundance of nourishing fruits, and under no necessity to provide, by the labor of his body, for the gratification of hunger and thirst, a work is given him to do." And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Employment, an active, vigorous employment, of the powers of both body and mind, and a daily succession of such occupations, are essential alike to the health of the body and the comfort of the mind. When Paul wrote to his fellow-servant in the gospel, that "if any would not work, neither should he eat," he might have referred to the constitution of man's nature, that forbids to the indolent that relish for food which results from vigorous exercise. It is an established law of our 'physical system, that labor, exercise, motion, activity, are indispensable to health, to vigor, to enjoyment. It is seen, in the case of the child, ever in motion, and never at rest, save when asleep.

Labor may be regarded as the first great law of our being. It is demanded in every season of life, more or less, according to our capacity. Every station and every class in society are subject to the law of industry, and none can disregard it with impunity. Wealth, honor, wisdom, virtue, and every blessing of mortal life, as well as the joys of heaven, are ordinarily made dependent on labor. "Industry," it has been well observed, "is a virtue of a very diffusive nature and influence, stretching itself through all our affairs, and twisting itself with every concern we have; so that no business can be well managed, no design accomplished, no good obtained without it."

The capacity and the opportunity to labor are, therefore, to be acknowledged as a positive blessing; and, when our circumstances imperatively require it, the necessity is to be regarded as a great good, and not an evil. It is a price put into our hands to obtain the richest blessings of life.

66

"No good of worth sublime will Heaven permit,
To light on man as from the passing air;
The lamp of genius, though by nature lit,

If not protected, pruned, and fed with care,
Soon dies or runs to waste with fitful glare.
Then be thy thoughts to work divine addressed;
Do something-do it soon-with all thy might;
An angel's wing would droop if long at rest,
And God himself, inactive, were no longer blest."

Labor gives a zest to all our enjoyments. It makes the plainest food savory, gives buoyancy to our spirits, and sweetness to our sleep. The sleep of a laboring man is sweet." That for which we labor, on which we bestow our strength, which has cost us much anxiety, thought, and effort of body or mind, acquires a peculiar value in our estimation. The fortune that we have earned by our own exertions is far more prized than the inheritance received from a friend departed. "The substance of a diligent man is precious." "In all labor there is profit."

We are not, therefore, to be understood as advocates for idleness, if we suggest, that the season for labor may be too greatly disproportioned to the season for rest and recreation. Our purpose is the very opposite, as will yet appear. We do not forget, that an apostle in the name of Christ has enjoined upon the followers of Jesus, exhorting and commanding them, "that with quietness they work and eat their own bread." No bread so sweet as your ownthat which you have procured by your own labor. The religion of the gospel demands a full occupation of all our powers in the service of our God, and our fellow-men. It gives no countenance to those disorderly professors, who are described as "working not at all, but are busy-bodies"-not at work, but over work; as in the original. Its language is to one and all-" Study to be quiet, to do your own business, and to work with your own hands: that ye may walk honestly towards them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing." It speaks, in language of not unmerited severity, of those who "learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house and not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not."

Labor, therefore, whatever the indolent, the purse-proud, the slave-driver, and the petted child of fashion, may deem it, is honorable in all; in the prince as well as the peasant, the master as well as the servant, the mistress as well as the maid, the employer as well as the laborer. How busy is universal Nature! The heavens and the earth are incessantly at work, fulfilling the great purpose of their creation. "The heavens," says one, do roll with unwearied motion; the sun and stars do perpetually dart their influence; the earth is ever laboring in the birth and nourishment of plants; the plants are drawing sap, and sprouting out fruits and seeds, to feed us and propagate themselves; the rivers are running, the seas are tossing, the winds are blustering, to keep the elements

66

sweet in which we live. . . . . . Every living creature is employed in providing for its sustenance; the blessed spirits are always on the wing in dispatching the commands of God, and ministering yea, God himself, although immovably and infinitely happy, is yet immensely careful, and everlastingly busy." "My Father, saith Jesus, "worketh hitherto, and I work.". So that it is literally true, that "all things are full of labor."

succor to us;

Well for us that it is so. What would this world be, but a wilderness, and its people but barbarians, were it not for the labor both of hands and heads? It is labor that has made man and the world in which he dwells what they are. We owe to it whatever is useful, curious, elegant, grand, and admirable in our edifices, equipage, furniture, modes of transit, and means of social and intellectual enjoyment. Labor is the source of all our wealth and worldly comfort.

Discard, then, at once and for ever, the thought, that it is mean, shameful, or a disgrace, to labor. Nothing is more honorable. No calling is more worthy of regard than that which demands laborious service. The man, whose labor and skill give increased value to the soil, or any of its products, is more to be honored than any idler, or even than he, through whose hands those products pass unchanged. Cherish the love of labor. Hold it in high esteem. It is the palladium of Independence, the parent of health, of energy, of virtue even, and a noble inheritance derived from the founders of our republic.

Be ashamed, not that your circumstances have made it necessary for you to toil, but that you are doing nothing, that you eat the fruit of other men's labors, that you render no equivalent for your dependence, that you live a life of idleness, are a mere drone in the hive, a hindrance and an incumbrance, a consumer but not a producer, a burden and a pest, a moth, and not a bee :

"How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day from every opening flower!
In works of labor, or of skill, I would be busy too,
For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do."

See to it, then, that you have something to do, that you do it, and that you do it well; that you waste not your life in idleness, and spend an eternity in shame. The charge of the Great Master to all his servants is, "Occupy till I come.'

But the wise man has very pertinently observed, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Man cannot always work. The pure ethereal spirits round the throne may without ceasing, day and night, for ever continue the work of praise, or be ever on the wing. But these animal frames were not so made. They cannot endure incessant labor. The body soon feels the need of rest and relaxation, when its powers are tasked. It must frequently be recruited with food and

« FöregåendeFortsätt »