p. 18 | To Every Man His Work

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 9, 1911

To Every Man His Work

A Call to Definite Service

(First Reading)

You will find my text in a part of the thirty-fourth verse of the thirteenth chapter of Mark: “To every man his work.” The whole verse reads like this: “For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.”

Now, it doesn’t say, To every man he gave some work, or to every man a work, but to every man his work. It reads very much as if every man and woman in this world had a mission; as if every one of us had something to do. Some one has said that every man’s life is a plan of the Almighty God. Away back in the secret councils of eternity, God laid out a work for each one of us to do, and if we do not do that work, it will be left undone. This idea that some one else will do it if we don’t, is a false idea. The man doesn’t live that can do the work that God has given me to do, except me. The man doesn’t live that can do the work that God has given you to do, except you. God will call us all, by and by, to an account of our stewardship, to see if we have done what he has given us to do; and I do not believe there are any men or women, in the church or out of it, who are happy, unless they have found out what their mission in this world is, and what God has for them to do.

A False Idea

This idea that has got into the church, that one man must do all the work, because he has more talent, isn’t found anywhere in the Bible. Because Dr. W. and Dr. G. have ten talents, and I have but one, is no sign that I should put mine into a napkin, and bury it, and say, “Because these men have ten talents, I won’t use mine at all.” When I stand before God’s bar, I shall not have to render an account for their talents, but for the talents he has given to me. The man who made good use of his two talents, heard the same words as the man who made good use of five: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: . . . enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” And if the man who had one talent had made good use of it, he would have heard the same blessing as the man who had two. God will increase our talents just as fast as we make good use of them. I have yet to find the man who makes good use of the talents which God gives him, to whom God does not lend more. If a man makes good use of five talents, see how quickly he will have ten; and if he makes good use of the ten, it will not be long before God will increase those again. But if he misuses what God has given him, it will not be long before he will have them taken away.

Silent Partners in the Church

We have a great many men in the church who have an idea that the minister, and perhaps now and then the deacon, or even the [Sabbath-school] superintendent, must do all the praying, all the visiting of the sick, and all the work; but I firmly believe that this lost world will never be reached until this idea is dismissed from the church. A great many men go into partnership in business; but when you come to find out, they are only silent partners. Now, you may go into business as a silent partner, but you can not enter into the fellowship of God and be silent partners. He will not take you, and he doesn’t want you. You must be a working partner. You who think it is a hard thing to work for God, will be disappointed by and by. It is a sign that you have not been converted. The first impulse of the young convert is to work. If we have Christ formed in us, the hope of glory, we can

not help but work; we shall have a desire to use these talents that God has given us.

Christians as Lights

If you can not be a lighthouse, you can be a candle; you can certainly give as much light as rush-light. A man once said he hadn’t as much light as a rush-light. “Well,” said another, “I could set a whole city on fire with that.” Set your light out before men. We talk about pillars of the church. We have too many pillars; we want more lights. We want men who just let the light of God shine out of them. Think of the talents represented in this building. Suppose we reconsecrate ourselves to God now, and go out of this building, and say, each one of us, “By the grace of God we will do what we can to build up his kingdom, and use all the talents he has given us.” What a mighty reformation there would be in Boston inside of twenty-four hours!

Spiritual Stagnation

Why is the Dead Sea dead? — Because it is all the while receiving, and never giving out anything. Why are so many churches dead? — Because they are all the while receiving, and giving out nothing. The spirit of the gospel is to give and give; but if all the while we are receiving, like a sponge, and never giving out, of course we become dead and stagnant. If we have any good thing, let us give it out, and keep the coin of heaven in circulation. If it has been a blessing to our souls, let us tell it to some one else, and in that way we shall be a blessing to all we come in contact with.

Learning and Working

Some say that men must be educated before they can work. A man wrote the other day that the trouble was, the church was trying to mow with a dull scythe. “Well,” said I, “what would you say of a man who was all the time whetting his scythe?” He would wear it out. No; let us keep whetting and using; if it gets dull, whet it up again, and not be all the time getting ready. Many in the church are so afraid they will make some mistake in the Lord’s work that they do nothing at all. But it is a great deal better to make some mistakes than to fold your arms and go to sleep. It is a great deal better to launch out into the sea, and trust to God to give us fish, than it is to stop, shivering, on the shore, afraid to go out, afraid we will not fish right, or cast our net on the right side. There is nothing like experience; and if we are willing to do all we can, it will not be long before those who are now acting so awkwardly will be good workmen.

A Diversity of Gifts

Some say, “We can’t preach.” We don’t want all of us to be preachers. Suppose the city was full of preachers. It would be as strange as if it were full of carpenters or blacksmiths. Some can preach, some can teach, some can circulate tracts, some can find the children of the streets and bring them into the kingdom of God; some can go into the dark alleys, and talk to the people there about Christ, and pray with them; some can visit the prisons and hospitals; but all can not do the same thing. When I was in England, I was invited to go to the dog market on the Sabbath. It was down in the east end of London; and we got up there, and tried to preach to the people, but they didn’t seem to listen to us much. We hadn’t the talent for them. But there was a man there,—a man who couldn’t read nor write, nor even spell his own name,—and we got him, and put him up on a chair, and they gave him attention at once. Had he been Spurgeon, or Morley Punshon, or any other great English orator, even John Bright himself, they would not have listened to him. But when that man, who had been converted from among their own number, got up and told them what God had done for him (to be sure, he used poor language), they gathered around him, and the tears trickled down their cheeks, and a goodly number of them were brought under conviction. That man had a talent. There was a circle he could reach that nobody else could. Some of us can reach the rich; some of us can reach the poor. Why, William Dorset, the Yorkshire farmer, set all the farmers of England on fire. Thousands of them flocked to hear him. So to-day, if we could only get every man and woman to work, using every latent force they have, right among their own circle, it would not be long before we should hear the songs of new-born souls and a glad shout of joy going up to God.

The Great Little Things

A great many of us are willing to do great things for the Lord; but these little things, like talking to one soul, they are not ready to do. We must be willing to do some little thing. If God says, “Go speak to that young man,” go; and who knows but he may become a John Wesley, a George Whitefield, a John Bunyan, or a Martin Luther, who may reform some whole nation? A Reformation may be in that man. It is no small thing to run and speak to a man and win him for Christ. Don’t call that a little thing. The greatest sermons the Master preached were to one or two persons. He could sit down by the well of Samaria, and preach to one woman. He preached his sermon on the regeneration to one man in Jerusalem. Shall we call that a little work? Let us be willing to do some little thing; and if all are doing some little thing, don’t you see that among these thousands it will amount to a great thing? Many men think they can build a college and give it to the church, and the press will herald it forth that such a man gave fifty thousand dollars to this or that college or this or that church; but perhaps a man who hasn’t fifty thousand dollars to give will go and win a man for God, and that man will go and win thousands. That man has done more for the Lord than the other who gave fifty thousand dollars to a college or a church.

“You Have Been a Good While Coming”

Is it not time to go to men and women, and tell them that the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost? In one of the Southern cities, many years ago, when the yellow fever was raging, a father and mother, with their little boy, moved into one of the stricken districts. Soon after, the father was taken down and died; and his body was put into the dead-cart and taken away. Shortly after, the mother was taken down; and she knew that when she was gone, there would be no one to take care of her boy; for though she had neighbors, they were all afraid of going near them. She knew the disease was fatal, and when she was dying, she called her boy, and said, “I shall soon be dead; and when I am gone, Jesus will come and take care of you.” The little fellow was so young that he did not understand what it meant, but he remembered the words of his dying mother, and after the dead-cart came and took her away, and he had followed her to the grave, he returned home. The night came on, and it was dark and gloomy, and he was lonesome in that home. He staid as long as he dared, and then went out and sat down on the curbstone and wept. At last he went to the graveyard, and fell down on his mother’s grave, and went to sleep. The next morning a stranger passed there, found the little boy on the grave, and said, “What are you waiting for here?” The little fellow answered, “I am waiting for Jesus;” and the stranger said, “Waiting for whom?” “Waiting for Jesus.” “What do you mean, my boy?” Then the child told his sad story, and it touched the heart of the stranger, who said, “Jesus has sent me to take care of you.” The little fellow looked up through his tears, and said, “You have been a good while coming.” It is just so with this poor, sinful world. It should have been ready long since; and if we had used all the talents God has given us, it would have been ready. Shall we not from this day use all our talents? I want all to consecrate themselves to this work immediately.