THE TRUE MOTIVE OF CHRISTIAN SERVICE.
By David Paulson
How often we raise this question in reference to others, “I wish I knew what was the real motive that influenced him to do what he did.” As we have no way of absolutely determining the intents of the human heart, it is never safe for us to pass judgment on our brother’s motives; for in the majority of instances we shall receive more assistance from the devil in arriving at our conclusions than we can reasonably expect to secure from God while engaged in such unprofitable business as judging the motives of others. Nevertheless, in God’s sight the real motive that prompts us to work for others is regarded of more importance than the greatness of the deed which is performed. In God’s sight, an action, be it ever so small and even contemptible in the sight of men, if it is prompted by pure love, is more acceptable to Him than is the casting out of devils and the performance of a series of similar great deeds when prompted by a wrong motive. The feeling that a true mother instinctively manifests for her children is only an imperfect representation of the divine life, which was revealed in all its perfection when man stood where he must again stand before he is ready to step into the other world without tasting death. The mother toils for her child absolutely regardless of either gain or reward. She does not insist on having some definite understanding as to how many hours each day she is expected to devote exclusively to the care of her children. The sense of pleasure which she experiences while working for them is sufficient to prompt her to continue to labor for them as long as she sees that there is an opportunity to do so, or until her exhausted energies bid her secure the rest necessary to enable her to manifest still greater usefulness in their behalf on the morrow. May the Lord deliver the cause of needy and suffering humanity from that class of missionaries who are laboring from a less exalted motive than that which a true mother constantly exhibits in behalf of her children. The professed missionary who does not see his way clear to assume certain responsibilities until the number of hours which he is to work each day has been definitely specified, and who endeavors to slip into some easy place, can positively rest assured that the real love for perishing souls has never yet had a chance to take possession of him, and that he is mistaking a desire for a position in the cause for that genuine love for humanity which is willing and ready to ignore position and place of influence if it only “may win some” to Christ. Thousands of workers are doomed to meet a bitter disappointment at the bar of God when they find that instead of having possessed, as they supposed, a love for souls, they had had an ambition to forward the cause or some branch of the work. The Bible abounds in characters that illustrate both of these classes. Paul, in his early life, represented one kind, and in his later life the other kind. The first part of his career was spent in making Jews; the last part of his life was spent in winning souls to Christ. The man who is interested in only those who he thinks can become church-members as a result of his ministrations, will find fewer and fewer openings for missionary work; for he gradually develops in others a spirit of distrust and suspicion, which closes more and more doors against him; while, on the other hand, the worker who has allowed the needs of humanity to touch his heart, will try to benefit the “nine lepers” even if he knows perfectly well that they will never join his church. Suppose a mother should find, at some midnight hour, that her erring son had possessed barely sufficient strength to enable him to reach the parental doorstep, and then imagine this mother trying to decide in her mind, before extending her hand to her boy, whether or not by so doing he would be led to accept the truth. A mother who would maintain such an attitude toward her children would be certain to instill into their hearts a hatred for the truth. The surest way for such a mother to gain an influence over her child which would lead him into the right would be by exercising toward him the true mother spirit. Can we reasonably expect to have any special success in our work for others if we engage in it from a motive which is inferior to that which prompts a mother to work for even her unappreciative child? The heart of the blessed Master responded more to the needs of humanity than it did to what results would be secured from His labor. It is certainly true that we have a special work to do in the world, and that is to introduce a living Saviour to a dying world. No mere verbal description can accomplish this, for this can be more satisfactorily lived than it can be told in words. In the time of Christ there were whole villages in which every inhabitant had been in some way benefited by the appearance of Christ among them. At that time He was manifested particularly in one human flesh; but when thousands of His followers shall have that same Christ working in their human flesh in the same way and to the same degree, then the world shall indeed “be lightened by His glory.” The people are no more prejudiced to-day against a display of what the true gospel can do in the human soul than they were in the days of Christ, when it was said that “the common people heard Him gladly;” nor than they were in the days of John the Baptist, when the people laid aside their accustomed duties and flocked to the desert to listen to a divine voice speaking through a human being. When the remnant people really become to “many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass” (Micah 5:7), then there will be tearful eyes and expressions of sorrow, in every community when one of our people departs from it, just as there was in days of old when Christ left some particular locality. As long as the heart of man is not so hardened that it cannot admire God’s beauty as revealed in a flower, so long will it recognize and appreciate that beauty when it is manifested as fully and as freely in a human being. Instead of complaining because people are prejudiced against the truth, let us rather see in their attitude a suggestion that they have become discouraged and tired of being compelled to see so much human nature, and that in reality they are saying, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” John 12:21. They do not wish to be introduced to anything less than that. It required ten days for the disciples, even after they had enjoyed such wonderful opportunities to learn from the Master how to put their individual differences aside sufficiently to represent Christ from right motives. When Peter was working for a cause rather than for humanity, he cut off the servant’s ear, thus making it necessary for Christ to follow after him, and heal the difficulty which he had created. If we work for humanity from any other motive than that of pure love, we shall fill the minds of people so full of prejudice that we shall virtually be repeating Peter’s work, thus making it necessary for Christ to raise up others to follow us to heal the wounds which we have made; and even then, there are scars that must necessarily remain. When the disciples were engaged in strife as to who among them should have the best position in the cause, then it became absolutely necessary for Christ not only to “straitly charge them” but also to “command them” not to tell any man what they knew; for He knew that while they were in such a state of mind, they could not possibly work from right motives. And so to-day, just to the extent that a worker cherishes wrong motives while presenting the truth, it will be discovered that Christ is still saying to him, “Tell no man that thing;” and the divine providence brings it about by not putting it into the heart of “any man” to listen to the words of such a worker. When we begin to have such an experience, instead of regarding others as too sin hardened to be reached by the true gospel, should we not rather “weep between the porch and the altar,” and confess our shortcomings and failures to work from the right motives, until our veil of humanity that covers up the Christ in us is “rent in twain”? Then the people may look into the holiest of holies of Christian experience, and thus be drawn to the living Christ, and will have born in their hearts a genuine and lasting love for the special truths that pertain to these closing days of this sin-cursed earth. - (Third week—November 10–16.)
1. What text in the Bible teaches us that God regards as of greater importance the motive which prompts our actions than the greatness of the deed which is performed? 2. What ordinary illustration furnishes us a suggestion as to what kind of spirit we should manifest in working for others? 3. Is it possible for an individual to possess a great zeal to propagate a theory of a truth, and yet be as destitute of genuine love for souls as the mountains of Gilboa are of dew? 4. Can we reasonably expect success in our work for others, if we labor for them from any motive which is inferior to that which prompts a true mother to serve her child? 5. If Christ could have been explained to man in words, was there any need of His coming down to live among men? 6. If no verbal description was sufficient to reveal Christ two thousand years ago, is it not just as necessary that the Christ life be repeated among men? 7. Which has stirred up the most prejudice against us, what has been seen of Christ in us, or what has been seen in us that was not like Christ? 8. Why was Christ continually forced to charge His disciples to tell no man what they were seeing or hearing? 9. Why are we not having more openings to present equally glorious and grand truths to the world? 10. Is it not possible that some in your community are saying, like the Greeks of old, “Sir, we would see Jesus,” and instead of being introduced to Him, they have been introduced to something that was so distinctively human that they have been bitterly disappointed, and so are thereby losing the very desire that God implanted in their hearts?