I remember, years ago, while coming into New York Harbor, we lost a very promising young man overboard. The life-boat was launched, and the life-buoy was cut adrift. But through some delay, the young man perished. What a tremendous disappointment those parents experienced as they stepped on board the frigate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and learned that their darling boy had found a watery grave.
I never think of the above sad occurrence but I am forcibly reminded that through the delays and sad neglect of Christian parents and Sabbath-school teachers, many young persons perish, and I inquire, Who is responsible for their destruction? Many ask the question that Cain impudently put to the Lord, "Am I my brother's keeper?" We can be guilty of other men's sins. This is a mysterious fact, but it is nevertheless true. If you are an idler in the Master's vineyard, you are, to a certain extent, responsible. Oh, that the Holy Spirit would show us our duty to our fellow-men.
Our departed brother realized this truth. Just look at a man seventy-five years old, occupied every Lord's Day teaching a large class of youth in the Sabbath-school. But you must remember that for six days in the week he nobly toiled as a printer, from eight in the morning until six at night. And he seldom missed the prayer-meeting, or other gatherings of the Church. He was, indeed, a worker that needeth not to be ashamed.
In the absence of the pastor he frequently led the prayer-meeting, and his expositions of the chapter read as the lesson of the night were very scriptural, cheering, and full of encouragement.
He was familiarly acquainted with the Word of God, and his prayers were earnest, solemn, and to the point, because his soul was surcharged with Divine truth.
It is no wonder, then, that everybody loved him—his young men in the various Bible-classes especially. Eternity alone will reveal the amount of good he accomplished by his kind, gentle, meek, cheerful, and quiet spirit.
Servant of Christ, well done; you rest from your labor, and your works do follow you.
Let us look at his work as a ruling Elder of the Church of Christ.
Paul, in writing to Timothy, says: "Let the elders that rule well, be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word and doctrine" (1 Timothy v. 17). An elder is one who rules the house of God. They are, therefore, the magistrates of the Church. They are to administer the laws of His holy sanctuary. How great and important this work. Who is sufficient for these things? The pastor, in apostolic times, was called an elder. But as an under-shepherd his labors are greatly assisted and augmented by the hearty co-operation of a judicious selection of men filled with the spirit of God, and duly ordained for their work. Men who recognize among their fellows no moral superiority, but that spiritually-mindedness that flows from prayer and the study of God's Word. Their work is immortal. Their duties are great. But their peculiar privileges are greater—to rule well the House of God.
It is, certainly, a sad sight to see men filling this sacred office without the requisite qualifications. The negotiations between man and man are so stupendous, that it is not every member of the Church who is fitted for this responsible work. We ought to study adaptation in the selection and ordination of ruling them.