Plain Words for Christ, Being a Series of Readings for Working Men

by Reginald G. Dutton

But the great point for Christian men to remember is that whether they are out of work or not in a worldly sense, they are always, or ought always to be hard at work in a heavenly sense. If we are out of work, it may be our master's fault, or it may be our own. But if we are out of work for Christ it is never His fault, and so it must always be ours. Our work for Jesus begins as soon as we enter this world, and ceases not till we leave it. If you were to go to a far-off country, where there was no other human being near you, you would still have to be working for Jesus. There is always the battle with self, the daily self-denials, the oft-repeated doubts to be silenced; and this we shall find quite enough work for us to do. Each Christian has his own separate work to do for God; and we may be quite sure of this, that God will not take us out of this world until that work be done. Some time ago, in an English dockyard, a great ship was to be launched. An immense multitude of people came to see it glide down the slides that were to carry it into the water. The blocks and wedges were knocked away; but the massive hull did not stir. Just then a little boy ran forward, and began to push the ship with all his might. The crowd broke out into a laugh of ridicule; but it so happened that the vessel was just ready to move; the little push the boy gave it was all that was needed to start it, and away it went into the water.

Now we have each of us got some work to do for the Master. It may be great, or it may be small; but if we will but look for it, there it is. It may be our business to speak a word to a friend who is living in sin, or it may be we may have to speak to multitudes. It is certain that we all have to set a good example, and to live a Christian life. Yes, even when we are out of work, we can show that we are working for the Master. We can try and be content with our hard lot, and God only knows how very hard that lot sometimes is. We can refrain from speaking against our employer, or saying anything unjust or untrue of him. You know it is always easier to say an unkind word, or to think a hard thought of one who has done us harm, than to speak or think kindly of him; and because it is easier we generally do so. You may say this is but natural. So it is. But there are a great many things which come quite naturally to us, which are wrong, and forbidden in the Bible; and if we would go to heaven, nay more, if we would please God, we must deny ourselves in some of these very things which come so naturally to us. And do remember, reader, that though masters may be, and certainly often are unkind to their servants, and unfaithful to their trust, it is not for us to judge them. God has told us that vengeance is His, and He will repay. Masters and men alike have hard times: and though the masters may have more money, they have more calls upon their purse and heavier expenses than the poor. For failing crops do make hard times for the farmers, and loss of wealth means hard times for the merchant, just as hard in its own way as any the poor have to suffer when they are out of work.

DISCONTENT.

"Some murmur if their sky is clear

And wholly bright to view,

If one small speck of dark appear

In their bright Heaven of blue;

And some, with deepest love are filled

If but one ray of light,

One star of God's good mercy gild

The blackness of their night."

Trench.

Discontent in any form, and among any class of people, is indeed a disagreeable, and a wicked thing. It is disagreeable, because it makes one's neighbours uncomfortable. It is wicked, because it is a sin against God. It is bad enough and wrong enough when we find it amongst the poor. It is worse than wrong when we meet with it among the rich. "Godliness with contentment is great gain[#];" and so often do these two go hand in hand, that they have come to be looked upon as almost inseparable. A discontented man is always an unhappy one, and we may say, too, generally manages to render those about him unhappy. We have given us in the Bible, for our warning, an example of discontent in the person of Jonah. Jonah, as you will remember, was sent to a city called Nineveh, to warn its sinful inhabitants of the wrath of God. So he went, and preached throughout her streets that after forty days the city should be overthrown. But, contrary to the expectation of Jonah, the King of Nineveh and his people humbled themselves before God, and repented of their evil ways. And Almighty God, with that forbearing love which He is wont to show to His repentant children, heard the prayer of the people of Nineveh, and they and their city were saved. But, strange as it may seem to us, this forbearance "displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry[#]." He was angry because Nineveh was saved, and because it seemed to him that his was now a false position. And so this discontented man went out of the city, and there he made himself a booth, or tent, to keep off the hot rays of the noonday sun, and he wished that he might die. And then Almighty God taught Jonah a lesson--such a lesson as it would be well for each one of us to learn. He caused a gourd to grow, to ward off the heat from Jonah; and when Jonah began to be glad because of this tree, God sent a worm to its roots, and one after another the leaves fell off, and the tree died; and discontent again prevailed in Jonah's heart. Then God called him, and said, "Thou hast had pity on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; and should not I spare Nineveh, wherein are more than six score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand and their left[#]?" How many houses there are in England, which would be happy ones were it not for this demon form of discontent. How many families have been made wretched, and homes broken up, all through discontent. There are people, who enjoy the best of health, the fruits of the earth in their season, and many other gifts of God Almighty's providence, and who yet amongst it all lack His great gift of contentment. And there are others who lie upon beds of sickness, or beds of pain, in our crowded hospitals, or in loathsome dens in the back streets of our great cities, and these have that gift of contentment which the world never gave them, and can never take away. There are little children, who play happily and contentedly in our great thoroughfares, who have never seen a country lane, a cornfield, or wild flower. And there are many grown-up people, to whom these are sights of every day, and who fail to recognise the hand of the great Giver.

[#] 1 Tim. vi. 6.

[#] Jonah iv. 1.

[#] Jonah iv. 11.

The dew of heaven only falls on those parts of the earth which most need it--gardens, grasslands, and cornfields. Little, if any, is wasted on the barren rocks, or on the unthankful sea. So, too, is it with contentment. God does not lavish it where it will not be gratefully and thankfully received; but where few of His good things come, in hospitals, in orphanages, and very often among the poorest of the poor, there He rains down His great gift in rich abundance, that all men who see it may wonder, and thank the great Giver of all.

"I WANT TO BETTER MYSELF."