" God's fellow-workers ! " What a title ! How august the dignity ! What distinction it confers upon us ! The conjunction is almost incredible. God the eternal, infinite. The omniscient and omnipotent! Man, crushed before the moth, chilled and smitten by the November fog! And yet these two terms, significant of frailty and almightiness, are brought into this marvellous association, and we are described as " fellow- workers " ! We do not wonder that John Calvin, in seeking an exposition of these words, describes one side of the partnership as " composed of mere worms of the dust." But a worm in conjunction with the Almighty becomes a powerful fellow-worker.
^f Is there anything more fragile than the incandescent mantle ? You blow upon it and it falls into dust. It will not bear the rough touch even of the gentlest finger. And yet this flimsy substance can co-operate with a tremendous energy and contribute in the production of dazzling light. And here we are, mere children of the dust, frail and flimsy as this mantle. And yet, when we are in league with the Almighty, we become exceedingly serviceable, and fruitful in great things. We can be fellow- workers with God ; such a dignity ought to make us walk with sanctified erectness.1
TI When a mother says to her little child who is carrying some little burden from one room to another, " You are helping me," what stature it gives to the little soul, and what a sense of dignity and place in life's affairs.
U Suppose a great painter, a Eaphael or a Turner, taking a little boy that cleaned his brushes, and saying to him, "Come into my studio, and I will let you do a bit of work upon my picture." Suppose an aspirant, an apprentice in any walk of life, honoured by being permitted to work along with some one who was recognized all over the world as being at the very top of that
1 J. H. Jowctt.
i CORINTHIANS in. 9 81
special profession. Would it not be a feather in the boy's cap all his life ? And would he not think it the greatest honour that ever had been done him that he was allowed to co-operate, in however inferior a fashion, with such an one ? Jesus Christ says to us, " Come and work here side by side with Me." x
1. As we are joint-labourers with God, we must learn the lesson of mutual dependence.
(1) We are dependent on God. — We cannot do the smallest part of our work without His co-operation. Here is the secret of humility. Alike in the development of our own inner lives and in our ministry for others, we must be destitute of prosperity and progress, if it were not that God is working in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. So let us bid farewell to every shred and vestige of pride. If it were not for our Divine ally, we should be shamed and driven in dishonour from the field.
Tf When first the greatness of the scientific thought of evolu- tion burst upon the wondering mind of our time, there was an idea that it would almost cut away the ground from under religion. Perhaps this feeling was never expressed — and at the same time its shallowness exposed — better than in the saying of Frances Power Cobbe. " It is a curious thing," said Miss Cobbe, " that as soon as men find out how anything is done, they should immediately rush to the conclusion that God did not do it." But that idea is pretty well past. God's part in Evolution becomes only more evident the more the subject is examined. We cannot get that idea of evolution to work, we cannot keep it working, without recognizing, behind all things and in all things, some mighty, mysterious power and energy, which, the more we look at it, the more we have to think of it as life and will, and to call it by some name of God.2
(2) God is dependent on us. — In his controversy with the late John Stuart Mill, the French philosopher Comte said, " My Deity, that is, Humanity, has this advantage over yours : He needs help." The English philosopher met the charge by saying, " The theist's God is not omnipotent ; He can be helped, great worker though He be." What Mill described as " the feeling of helping God " has always been cherished by the most sincere and earnest believers in the power of God over all.
1 A. Maclaren. 2 B. Herford.
I COR. — 6
82 GOD'S FELLOW-WORKERS
Lord, when we pray, " Thy kingdom come ! "
Then fold our hands without a care For souls whom Thou hast died to save,
We do but mock Thee with our prayer.
Thou couldst have sent an angel band
To call Thine erring children home; And thus through heavenly ministries
On earth Thy kingdom might have come.
But since to human hands like ours
Thou hast committed work divine, Shall not our eager hearts make haste
To join their feeble powers with Thine ?
To word and work shall not our hands
Obedient move, nor lips be dumb, Lest through our sinful love of ease,