Entering into Other Men's Labors
By I. H. Evans
“I SENT you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor: other men labored, and ye are entered into their labors.” I heard a true, devoted disciple of the Master mourning because she thought there was to be no crown for her in glory. She said, “I can not see how it is possible for me to be saved. There are to be no starless crowns in heaven. Each star represents a saved soul. There has never been a person led to Christ through my efforts. No star can shine in a crown for me.” I said, “Then why do you not quit the service of God, and go with the world?” “O,” she replied, “go with the world?—Never! I love my Lord and Saviour, and I should serve him if I knew I should be lost. I hope some time before I die to win some soul to Christ.” This sister paid her tithe, and from her meager store freely gave offerings to her Lord. No servant of Christ need pass her door for shelter or food. The poor ever found at her home a welcome. Her prayers never failed to mention the laborers in the great harvest-field, and yet there was no soul that she could count for her Lord. The burning tears ran down her cheeks as she deplored her lack, and regretted her worthless life. Could one but look into the Master's reckoning, the true balances of one's life-work would there be counted. Not in sheaves gathered by the sower would the results be alone measured; but the7seed sown, the earnest petitions offered, the sacrifices cheerfully made, the faithfulness and heart endeavor would all be remembered before God. The sower is as needful to the harvest as the reaper. John the Baptist must prepare the way for the coming Christ. Huss and Wycliffe sowed for the Reformation harvest. The Word of God, translated into four hundred and fifty languages and dialects of earth, scattered by self-sacrificing disciples of the lowly Nazarene, has opened the doors of nations, and brought forth a whitened harvest awaiting the sickle of the reaper. Those to-day gathering the ripened grain are reaping where others have sown. The seed may take years in coming to maturity, but the sower and the reaper are alike known to the Lord of the harvest. Not only do the sower and the reaper enter into each other's labors, but their harvest of souls is also to be shared with the children of God who have labored with them in prayers and offerings. They who support the servant of God by tithes and offerings, that he may give his whole time to the work of soul saving, can but be sharers in the labor of these men; and when the rewarding day comes, as come it will, and God makes distribution according to every man's work, those who have sustained the work of God by sacrifice and offerings will share in the gathered harvest. Not alone to the officers of an army belongs the glory of a great victory. True, they appear in the foreground, but the men behind the guns, the commissariat and the nation furnishing the recruits and means of sustenance, are important factors in the victory gained. So it is in the cause of God. They who support God's servants who are called to labor in a public way, are an essential element in the work of God. They enter into the labors of “other men,” and when rewards are distributed according to every man's work, the Lord will adjudge to each man his portion. And what a privilege to be a sharer in the souls of men whom we have never seen in the flesh, and who never heard our voice! In that day they will come from benighted Africa, those redeemed souls, and will shine “like the stars of heaven” in the crown of some of God's children. They will come from Asia and the islands of the sea, yea, from every nation and tongue and people under the whole heaven, and be an everlasting joy to those who have had a part in their salvation. Let us never forget that other men labored, and we have “entered into their labors.”
I. H. EVANS.