* C. H. Spurgeon.
138 ALWAYS AT WORK
following His example, or not, and His loving mercy is with us all the time.^
(2) Another part was to offer Himself a sacrifice. Twenty-one years from this Passover, He Himself must be the slain Lamb, His must be the blood shed. These shadowy typical ceremonials will then be abolished, and will cease for ever ; for He Himself will become the one Priest, the one Sacrifice, the one Mediator at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavenly sanctuary. It is said that He increased in wisdom. During these seven days of the Passover, He must have added immensely to His store of know- ledge concerning the work He had to do, and the sacrifice He had to make as the world's Eedeemer. That Passover was an object- lesson, whose typical meaning He would not fail to understand and to apply.
•ff It was His Father's business made Him sweat great drops of blood; His Father's business ploughed His back with many gory furrows ; His Father's business pricked His temple with the thorny crown; His Father's business made Him mocked and spit upon ; His Father's business made Him go about bearing His cross ; His Father's business made Him despise the shame when, naked, He hung upon the tree ; His Father's business made Him yield Himself to death, though He needed not to die if so He had not pleased ; His Father's business made Him tread the gloomy shades of Gehenna, and descend into the abodes of death; His Father's business made Him preach to the spirits in prison ; and His Father's business took Him up to heaven, where He sitteth on the right hand of God, doing His Father's business still ! *
3. This is the necessity that lies upon every one of the sons of God. In other words, the law of life, as illustrated by the example of our Lord and Master, and iterated and reiterated by all the lessons of human experience, is the law of Divine obedience through human service. The love of God is best shown in the love of men. Those souls are the most reverent, and most completely fulfil the Divine will, that yield the most readily and cheerfully to the pressure of human need.
(1) This business may not be regarded as apart from the ordinary, daily duties of life. What one is called upon to perform day by day, however ordinary and monotonous, may lie directly
* Archbishop Temple. " C. H. Spurgeon.
ST. LUKE II. 49 139
in the line of Divine appointment. It is hardly fair to assurae that Joseph and Mary were not about their Father's business. Nor is there any reason for supposing that Jesus meant to imply that they were not, although asserting for Himself obedience to the higher mandate. By attending simply and unostentatiously to the chosen or appointed task, we may find the angels of God coming forth to meet us as they met Jacob of old on his way from Syria to Palestine.
If It is possible that some of you may be secretly wishing that you could spend all your days in pubHc prayer, in the hallowed engagements of the sanctuary, in preaching the gospel or in teaching the young; let me say to you that there is not an errand-boy in the streets of London who cannot be turning his work into the business of God ; all business may be made our Father's, by doing it in our Father's spirit, and for our Father's glory. Do not yield yourselves to the fallacy that religion is separate and distinct from all the common engaoements of life. The doorkeeper in the poorest commercial establishment in this city may be doing his Father's business quite as much as the elders and angels that are around the throne. Everything depends upon your spirit. You may make the commonest duty uncommon by coming to it in a sanctified and heavenly spirit.^
(2) The business of the Father may be performed in the treat- ment we give to current questions. Every age has its problems. The heart of the Eoman Empire in the time of Tiberius and Nero was stirred by great questions, as is shown by the interrogatories of Pilate and Felix and Herod Agrippa. Our own age is no exception in this respect to the ages that have preceded it. Indeed, it would almost seem as if Christianity, in its fearless challenge of every phase of human thought and of every variety of organized life, had created problems which are, and must be for ever, almost the despair of human wisdom and eflbrt. In whatever direction we turn the light of our faith, we seem not only to expose to observation the deep struggles of the individual soul over the mysteries of being, but to bring into view those actions, habits, institutions and relations of men which must be reformed before the Kingdom of God shall come. We cannot shut our eyes to these things ; we cannot push them aside as of no consequence; we cannot even fold our arms in indifference
* Joseph Parker.
I40 ALWAYS AT WORK
before them. They are here; they demand consideration, and must and will have some intelligent treatment from us.
How to get the idle rich to abandon their idleness and help to carry some of the burdens of those who are now too heavy laden ; how to equalize to some extent the favours of fortune and, while discouraojinoj an over-accumulation of riches in a few hands, take away at least some of the sharper stings of poverty ; how to avert the arrows of misfortune from those who are exposed to the pitiless assault of circumstances which they have done nothing to create and which they are powerless of themselves to change; how to lighten the work of those who have too much of it and give work to those who, without employment, would yet be glad to earn an honest wage; in short, how to exalt the lowly and bring down the proud, and make the pathway of men blossom with comfort and kindliness and goodwill, and thus give us a foretaste of heavenly peace ; these are some of the new tasks of this new time. Those who love their fellow-men are summoned to these undertakings. Those who have leisure and intelligence are without excuse if they let the summons go unheeded. The voice that calls is the voice of God, and they who obey the call may be sure that they are about their Father's business.