III.
The Perfected Service of the Future Life.
Perfect service may be said to comprise three things : willingness, activity, and completeness.
1. Willingness. — Our Lord's words to Mary, " She hath done what she could," at once suggest the reflection that all our service here must be more or less limited. Imperfections will mark our work. " The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Christ's praise of Mary's simple act announces the great principle that ability is the measure of responsibility, and the practical outcome of this principle is a readiness to use the " several ability " which we possess.
It is the duty of every Christian to do something for Christ, something for His honour. His cause, or His servants. Neutrality is antagonism. To stand, doing nothing, is to be obstacles in the way of those who work. Not to " hold forth the word of life," not to "shine as a light in the world," is to lie in the way, a big opaque stone, through which the beams of truth cannot pierce.
H. Cariss J. Sidnell.
3^4 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
But it is a very serious subject of thought, that there are so many of those who do something that never exert the half of their ability. They do not honestly do what they can. Obligation and capacity are commensurate. God does not desire " to reap where he has not sown, nor to gather where he has not strawed," but where He has given " much," of them He will expect " the more." He does not expect from a brute the service of a man, or from a man the obedience of an angel ; He does not expect from him that has one talent the results of five, or from him that has five the results of ten ; but He does expect everywhere, and from all beings, that each shall serve according to his actual and several ability.
^ Young men, try to serve God. Resist the devil when he whispers it is impossible. Try, and the Lord God of the promises will give you strength in the trying. He loves to meet those who struggle to come to Him, and He will meet you and give you the power that you feel you need.^
^ There is a fable which says that one day a prince went into his garden to examine it. He came to the peach tree and said, " What are you doing for me ? " The tree said, " In the spring I give my blossoms and fill the air with fragrance, and on my boughs hang the fruit which men will gather and carry into the palace for you." "Well done," said the prince. To the chestnut he said, "What are you doing?" "I am making nests for the birds, and shelter cattle with my leaves and spreading branches." "Well done," said the prince. Then he went down to the meadow, and asked the grass what it was doing. " We are giving up our lives for others, for your sheep and cattle, that they may be nourished"; and the prince said, " Well done." Last of all he asked the tiny daisy what it was doing, and the daisy said, "Nothing, nothing. I cannot make a nesting place for the birds, and I cannot give shelter to the cattle, and I cannot give food for the sheep and the cows — they do not want me in the meadow. All I can do is to be the best little daisy I can be." And the prince bent down and kissed the daisy, and said, " There is none better than thou." ^
If you cannot on the ocean
Sail among the swiftest fl,eet, Rocking on the highest billows.
Laughing at the storms you meet,
^ Bishop Kyle. ^ F. B. Cowl.
ST. MARK 385
You can stand among the sailors,
Anchored yet within the bay, You can lend a hand to help them.
As they launch their boats away.
If you are too weak to journey Up the mountain steep and high,
You can stand within the valley. While the multitudes go by.
You can chant in happy measure,
As they slowly pass along; Though they may forget the singer.
They will not forget the song.
2. Activity. — Love is active ; men prove their love not so much by their words as by their actions. Work is the way to strength. Inactivity is the way to infirmity. The running water clears itself ; the still water becomes stagnant. The active soul serves its Master ; the idle soul is the devil's work- shop. How can you better honour the Bridegroom than by honouring the Bride ?
^ All activity out of Christ, all labour that is not labour in His Church, is in His sight a " standing idle." In truth time belongs not to the Kingdom of God. Not, How much hast thou done ? but. What art thou now ? will be the question of the last day ; though of course we must never forget that all that men have done will greatly affect what they are.^
0 the rare, sweet sense of living, when one's heart leaps to
his labour, And the very joy of doing is life's richest, noblest dower ! Let the poor — yea, poor in spirit — crave the purple of his