A LIFE OF SERVICE

We have seen that the Christian life is a life of prayer, guided by the Holy Word, an obedient life, and a life of love. In this chapter we wish to teach you that it is also a LIFE or SERVICE.

Jesus was the first great teacher who ever taught the greatness and dignity of SERVICE. He was on the way to Jerusalem to die for the world -- he, the Son of God and the Creator of the universe. His disciples were as yet so little like him that they were quarreling about who should have the first place and be the greatest in his kingdom. Jesus called his disciples unto him and said: "Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you; but whosoever would become great among you shall be your servant, and whosoever would be first among you shall be your bondservant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life .a ransom for many" (Mat. 20:25-28).

Nobody had ever heard of such an idea before. You boys and girls will notice that it is contrary to the common opinion of the world today. Men are generally trying to become great by getting some great office, by becoming Governor, or United States Senator, or President. Or they wish to command the army, and have soldiers obey them; or they wish to be a great manufacturer or railroad officer, and have thousands of men in their employ; or they wish to have millions of money and no end of power and fame, and the ability to make multitudes bow down and serve them. This is what men call greatness. But it is not so with God. He thinks greatness consists in being useful; not in being served by multitudes, but in serving others; and he is the greatest who serves the most.

Famous as President McKinley is, and valuable as his life may be, it is not at all certain that he is our greatest man in the sight of God. Some other man, unknown to the public, may be serving the world more efficiently. Before John the Baptist was born the angel said of him: "He shall be great in the sight of the Lord" Luke I:15). And Jesus said of him that there was no greater man than he (Mat. 11:11). Yet he was not tall, like Goliath, nor stout, like Samson. He commanded no great armies like Alexander or Cæsar. He never lived in a palace, nor governed a province, nor wore a crown, nor sat upon a throne. He never had riches, nor chariots, nor servants to do his bidding. He was only the son of a poor priest who lived in the desert in utter poverty, and ate and dressed like a wild man of the woods. So great was his obscurity, he was never heard of till he was thirty years old. Then he preached a year or two, and, for preaching a plain sermon, and rebuking a titled sinner for his sins, he was shut up in prison, and, at the request of a lewd dancing-girl, he was beheaded. That was all. Yet God pronounced him the greatest of men. You see, God does not estimate men as the world does.

This leads me to say:-

1. In God's sight greatness consists in greatness of moral character and efficiency of service. God's greatness is Infinite; but his power is matched by his service. He serves the whole universe. He comes at everybody's call. "He sendeth the springs into the valley that give drink to every beast of the field. He watereth the hills from his chambers. He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man, and bread, which strengtheneth his heart. The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God. O Lord, how manifold are thy works: the earth is full of thy riches; so is the great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable. These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season" (Ps. 104:10-27).

O, what a servant God is! He ministers to every living thing, from the microscopic insect to the mighty archangel before the throne. He gives to the sinner every breath which he profanely uses to curse his Maker. No one serves like God; and he is greatest and most like God who most efficiently serves his fellows and the cause of Christ.

Now we see how John the Baptist was great. He was great in the greatness of his service, in bearing witness to Christ, and introducing him and his kingdom to a needy world.

II. Some boy may ask: "Why should we serve?" I answer, we must serve, first, because our own love will die without it. "During the dark days of slavery in this country, a Negro woman was one day put up for sale in the slave-market. She was young and handsome, and her master expected a good bargain in selling her. But she was, on this very account, in great agony of mind. She did not know what evil-minded man might purchase her, and she trembled with fear and shame as she was talked about and examined by the coarse men around her. A wealthy Christian gentleman was so touched by her terror that he bought her, and told her that she was free. But she followed him home, and, though he told her that he did not need a servant, and had bought her only to make her free, she refused to leave him. She remained in his family all her life, a most devoted servant; and, whenever she was urged by her friends to leave him and enjoy her liberty, she declared that no lot in life was so pleasant to her as that of a servant to the man who had redeemed her. The only favor she craved in life was to be near him and serve him."

So it will be with us. If we love our Redeemer as we ought, our love will blossom into spontaneous and joyous service. God does not so much need our service or praise or honor.

Millions of angels can give him that in abundance. But God does long for our LOVE, and love must serve or die. The voice of love service is the music of heaven.

Furthermore, the world needs service, and that is reason enough why we should serve. It was the world's need that brought Jesus from the skies. The world's sorrow filled him with grief, and the world's sin broke his heart. He permitted himself to be lifted upon the cross that he might lift the world from the depths of its shame and woe. Any noble, Christ-like heart will throb with pity at the sight of the world's wretchedness and sin, and will want to serve it and help save it. And thus, in serving, we shall lift our own selves up into the glorious company of the God-like. We shall join hands with Christ as co-workers in the blessed enterprise of saving a lost world, and, doing so, we shall find our own highest greatness and glory.

III. Some thoughtful child asks: "How must we serve? What can we do?" This is a very practical and important question, and demands a careful answer:

1. Set a Christian example before everybody. That is the best kind of service. "Ye are the light of the world," said Jesus (Mat. 5:14). Light scatters the darkness by simply shining. Boys and girls, have enough of Christ in you to shine. There are a great many sermons preached by human lips; but the world needs some living sermons, sermons in boots and shoes, Christian boys and girls setting a good example before wicked boys and girls. Finney said: "The Christian is the world's Bible, and the only Bible most people ever read." O children, let your beautiful Christian life be to them a pure gospel of a revised version. St. Paul said of Jesus: "Whose I am, and whom I serve" (Acts 27:23). That is the two parts of religion -- salvation and service. First, thoroughly belong to Christ, body and soul; then live for him before men.

A person once said to a much-troubled English bishop of remarkable serenity of mind and wide Christian influence: "I should like to know your secret of always being happy." He replied: "It is plain enough. I look up to heaven, hoping to get there. I look around and see, everywhere, people suffering more than I, which makes me content with my lot. I look to the graveyard, and see how little space I shall soon occupy, and grow thankful for life and the little I have." Everybody can thus serve God by grateful contentment, if in no other way. St. Paul did that amidst trials and hatred, and persecution and want. "I have learned," said he, "in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

I will now tell the story of the remarkable way in which God used the fidelity of a little Welsh girl to serve him. In the beginning of this century, this Welsh girl was in a Sunday-school. Her parents were very poor, and had no Bible of their own, nor had any of their neighbors. The nearest Bible was at a house some miles away, over the hills, and this faithful little girl was in the habit of walking there and back to learn her Sunday-school text. One Sunday she could not repeat her text, and, when questioned by the minister, she said: "Please, sir, the weather was very bad." "Very true," said the minister, "but what had that to do with your learning your verse?" Then he found out how scarce the Bibles were. He was deeply moved, and he went up to London, and proposed to some friends that a society be formed to print Bibles in Welsh for the poor. One of his hearers said: "Why not start a Bible Society for the world?" The grand idea was carried out, and the London Bible Society sends out its Bibles by the millions to all the world. Yet it all began by a little girl at Bala walking miles each week to learn her Sabbath-school lesson. God honored her fidelity, and used it; and he will use yours, if you are faithful, in ways that you do not dream of.

While we are about it, we will tell of another little girl whose influence will be felt as long as time shall last. Less than half a century ago, a Sunday-school superintendent in Jacksonville, Illinois, asked each one to bring a new scholar to the school the next Sunday. Little Mary Paxton went home, and asked her father to come to Sabbath-school. He was nearly forty years old, and so ignorant that he could not read. He was rough in appearance, and rude in speech. He hated the Church, and despised Sunday-schools and religion and everything good. But he loved his little Mary, and when she took him by the hand he did not resist. He went to Sabbath-school, and was led to Christ. He then learned to read for Christ's sake, and he finally came to be a Sunday-school evangelist. He founded fifteen hundred Sunday-schools, into which seventy thousand children were gathered, and out of which sprang one hundred churches. When little Mary was leading her father to Sunday-school, she was leading a train of thousands up the shining way that leads to God.

This leads us to say:

2. When you are working for the Sabbath-school and the Church and the prayer-meeting, you are working for God's greatest institution on earth, and you are serving God. It may seem a small thing for a Christian boy or girl to be always in the pew to cheer the pastor while he preaches, and to be always in the Sabbath-school with a knowledge of the lesson, and to be helpfully present in at least one prayer-meeting every week. But just such simple, faithful service as that is keeping alive the Christian Church, which is the "Bride of Christ" and the most precious thing in all this world.

3. Faithful labor put forth in any honorable, necessary employment in a Christian spirit and for Jesus' sake is serving God and serving the world. Jesus once was a boy and a young man, and lived a very plain, practical, hardworking, everyday life, and he says to all young Christians, "Follow me." No doubt he helped his mother daily in the home, and labored with his father, Joseph, in the carpenter-shop, like any dutiful young man might. And he says to us all, "Follow me."

Rev. W. F. Crafts has the following on "Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus:" "A Sunday-school teacher asked her class, 'What have you done this week to follow Jesus?' One said, 'I have prayed.' That was a right answer, for Jesus used to pray daily, and, sometimes, all night. Another said, 'I have read the Bible.' That was a true answer, for Jesus read the Bible so much that he could repeat a great deal from memory. Another said, 'I have washed the dishes;' and another said, 'I have been good in school;' and another said, 'I have kept my ears clean.' All these were right answers also, for Jesus, in his home, helped Joseph, the carpenter, about his work, and he did no wrong or mean thing in the school at Nazareth; and we feel sure that he remembered that cleanliness is next to godliness. Another little girl answered by saying, 'I scrubs.' And I read of an old woman, who, after a hard day's washing clothes, sang, as she climbed the stairs at night, 'One more day's work for Jesus.'

A little bootblack blacked a gentleman's boots very nicely, and the gentleman said, "Do you think that will please me?" The boy said, "I don't know; but I think it will please my Father in heaven." "Poor fellow!" said the gentleman, "then your father is dead, is he?" "O no," said the boy, "I don't mean that. My Father up in heaven is God." "Then you think that blacking my boots so nicely will please God, do you?" "Yes," said the boy; "I think God is pleased to have me do the best I can."

Let us remember that in scrubbing, washing, blacking boots -- any kind of work that is necessary and honorable -- we can be following Jesus if we do the best we can for his sake. We want to be Christians, not only in the night and morning when we pray, and on Sunday when we sing and worship, but in our daily studies and errands and work.

4. Prayer is one of the most effective ways of serving God. God has taught us to pray, and ordained that prayer shall be a mighty power in the universe. There was a young man, named Ames, who, with other thoughtless young men, was walking up and down a grove where people were holding a camp-meeting. There was a prayer-meeting around the preaching stand, and, among those kneeling, the young man saw a mother, and, by her side, a little daughter, who knelt with closed eyes, and clasped hands and prayed, "O, Lord, bless my dear mother." Those six words entered into the heart of the young man Ames. Tears came to his eyes, and he was not satisfied until he had prayed for himself, "O, Lord, bless me!" That child's prayer gave to the world a great bishop, for that young man became Bishop Ames, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, by whom multitudes were brought to the Savior. A poor, sick boy, about twelve years old, in England, felt that he wanted to do something for the cause of Christ. He went to his minister and asked what he could do. The minister told him he was too feeble to carry around tracts or aid the cause in any way. Very soon after, the little fellow was unable to leave the house. About that time a revival commenced in the neighborhood. When his father returned nightly from the meetings, the son would ask him if such and such a boy was converted, The father's answer was, "Yes, my son." Thus he continued to question his father for thirty-seven nights, about some particular boy. And the last night, when his father returned home, he asked: "Wasn't Johnny Hatch led to Jesus tonight?" "Yes, my son," was the reply. That night that praying boy's work was done, and the Lord took him home to the mansions above. A few days after, his mother, in looking over his papers, found a list of names, which were the very ones the boy had asked about. The first one on the list had been first awakened, and one after another had been awakened in the order their names stood upon the list. The last name was "John Hatch." Thus a sick boy, who was told he couldn't do anything for the Lord, brought thirty-seven of his friends to Christ by his prayers.

5. He serves Christ and his fellow-men who has a heart full of sympathy and pity for those who are in trouble, and who, in Jesus' name and for his sake, expresses it in loving words and deeds. The following pathetic lines of matchless tenderness, by an unknown author, have been going the rounds of the papers. The poem touches the very source and spring of human sorrow, and reveals the way in which we can all help a suffering humanity.

If I should die tonight--
My friends would look upon my quiet face
Before they laid it in its resting place,
And deem hat death had left it almost fair;
And laying snow-white flowers 'gainst my hair,
Would smooth it down with tearful tenderness,
And fold my hands with lingering caress--
Poor hands! so empty --and so cold tonight.

If I should die tonight--
My friends would call to mind with lingering thought
Some kindly deed the icy hand had wrought:
Some gentle word the frozen lips had said;
Errands on which the lingering feet had sped;
The memory of my selfishness and pride,
My hasty words, would all be laid aside--
And so I should be mourned and loved to-night

If I should die tonight--
Even hearts estranged would turn once more to me,
Recalling other days remorsefully;
The eyes that chill me with averted glance
Would look upon me as of yore, perchance,
And soften in the old familiar way;
For who could war with dumb, unconscious clay?
So I might rest, forgiven of all to-night.

O friends, I pray tonight,--
Keep not your kisses for my dead, cold brow;
The way is lonely, let me feel them now!
My soul is longing for a hand-clasp warm;
My faltering feet are pierced with many a thorn;
Forgive, then, hearts estranged, forgive I plead;
When dreamless rest is mine, I shall not need
The tenderness for which I long tonight.

O boys and girls, there are sad hearts, aching hearts, hungering for appreciation, longing for sympathy, even dying for the touch and tone of love. It may be your own mother or sister or brother or friend. Don't wait till they are dead before you show your tenderness and affection. In the name of that Jesus whose touch was a benediction and whose speech was love, give your caresses and comfort, your words of affection and sympathy and kindness now to all around you; and, inasmuch as ye do it unto these, ye do it unto Him.

QUESTIONS

1. Is not God the greatest servant in the universe?
2. Is not useful service the best sign of greatness?
3. Do you not wish to be godlike in service?
4. Are you setting a good example?
5. Are you working for the Church and Sabbath-school?
6. Are you praying for the Church and Sabbath-school?
7. Are you praying for your pastor and for missionaries?
8. Are you kind to the sick and the sorrowing and the poor?
9. Do you pray for the unconverted?
10. Do you try to do good everywhere to everybody?
11. Do you ask others to come to Sunday-school and prayer-meeting?
12. Do you consecrate yourself to the service of Christ and humanity?

Sing: "Bring them in;" also, "The best Friend to have is Jesus."