Evening
Time: 12:37 PM PST
"Ye serve the Lord Christ." --Colossians 3:24
To what choice order of officials was this word spoken? To kings who proudly
boast a right divine? Ah, no! too often do they serve themselves or Satan, and
forget the God whose sufferance permits them to wear their mimic majesty for
their little hour. Speaks then the apostle to those so-called "right reverend
fathers in God," the bishops, or "the venerable the archdeacons"? No, indeed,
Paul knew nothing of these mere inventions of man. Not even to pastors and
teachers, or to the wealthy and esteemed among believers, was this word spoken,
but to servants, ay, and to slaves. Among the toiling multitudes, the
journeymen, the day labourers, the domestic servants, the drudges of the
kitchen, the apostle found, as we find still, some of the Lord's chosen, and to
them he says, "Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto
men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance:
for ye serve the Lord Christ." This saying ennobles the weary routine of earthly
employments, and sheds a halo around the most humble occupations. To wash feet
may be servile, but to wash His feet is royal work. To unloose the shoe-latchet
is poor employ, but to unloose the great Master's shoe is a princely privilege.
The shop, the barn, the scullery, and the smithy become temples when men and
women do all to the glory of God! Then "divine service" is not a thing of a few
hours and a few places, but all life becomes holiness unto the Lord, and every
place and thing, as consecrated as the tabernacle and its golden candlestick.
"Teach me, my God and King, in all things Thee to see;
And what I do in anything to do it as to Thee.
All may of Thee partake, nothing can be so mean,
Which with this tincture, for Thy sake, will not grow bright
and clean.
A servant with this clause makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws, makes that and the
action fine.