WORKING IN THE VINEYARD.
By Chas. B. Reynolds
When a call is made in behalf of the cause of God, instead of regarding the call as addressed to others, or studying how to evade it, let us take the appeal home to our own heart and conscience, and respond cheerfully, promptly. Instead of seeking to be excused, to avoid labor, let us seek for it, beseeching God for ability faithfully to discharge the duty assigned us. Let the language of the heart be, “Lord, here am I! What wilt thou have me to do?” Instead of turning a deaf ear to calls for means, because to respond will necessitate self-sacrifice, let us rejoice that opportunity is afforded to prove the reality of our gratitude to God, by rendering a tithe of that which is all his own. Begin each day with fervent praise for mercies bestowed; and implore God to bless with a spirit of diligence, an eager watchfulness for opportunities to labor in the vineyard of the Lord, in patience, meekness, and faith. It is astonishing what one faithful one can accomplish by patient, prayerful, persistent endeavor. “Where there is a will, there is a way.” One whose heart yearns to be about the Master's business will find work enough on every side; not perhaps some great work which will call forth the applause and admiration of men; it may be the quiet drudgery, the unappreciated hard task, the patience-trying, wearisome labor, unnoticed and unrewarded of men; but known and approved by Jesus, calling forth his smile, his present blessing, and insuring, in the soon-coming day, the “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” Pray, “Give us this day our daily bread,” then do the daily work in return; put your whole might into it, the might obtainable from a mightier than yourself, which is the secret of all good or successful work. Act as though Jesus were by your side. Do not offer God poor, feeble, partial, grudging efforts, but your most vigorous, wholehearted, best energies. Work from love to Him who gives you the work and the strength to perform it. Do not insult the giver of every good, by dreamy promises of great things you mean to do, of wonderful efforts and self-sacrifices you intend to make when all things are in just the right shape, so that you can just as well as not; but heed the admonition, “Go work to-day in my vineyard.” Remember we are never so blessed, never live so near to God, as when trying to bring precious souls to Christ. Believing the third angel's message, let us realize the perils of the unconverted around us. Let the parent bear in the arms of faith the unconverted children; let husband and wife plead at the throne of grace for each other; let us bear on our hearts the souls of nearest friends and kindred,—bear them before God as Christ bore them, with strong crying and tender entreaty. What shall be said of that man or woman who could save life, yet would not? To save one from mortal death is a noble and praiseworthy act; but how trivial compared with salvation from eternal death, from the sentence, “Depart, ye cursed.” To be the means of hiding one sin, and saving the sinner from punishment, were a priceless gift; but oh how trivial compared with the benefit of hiding a multitude of sins, and saving the sinner from the penalty of them all. “Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.” Jas. 5:20. This is the privilege God has committed to us; this is the treasure he has put into earthen vessels. ’Tis sweet to work for Jesus, for it insures not only present, but eternal reward. The work of the Lord is hindered by idlers who do not feel the necessity of working in the vineyard. The lukewarm, driveling, moaning croakers are more baneful and do more injury than the most violent opposers. Those who openly oppose, call forth our energies to try to set them right; they stir us up to show the advisability of the work on hand and its necessity; but the influence of the idle and the penurious is fatal to the advancement of the cause in their vicinity. They are dead weights upon the church to which they belong, clogs, drags to the prosperity of the whole body. It is not in human nature to escape the deleterious influences of the unsympathizing idler. His dolorous doubtings, uttered only to cloak or excuse his own selfish laziness, will check the energy and double the burdens of the best, most active and faithful laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. It were better that a millstone were tied about our neck, and that we were cast into the sea, than that we should be of this number, to whom, not the “Well and faithfully done,” but “Depart, ye cursed,” must be pronounced in the soon-coming day, by the outraged and indignant Master. “Go work to-day in my vineyard.” Every one has a work to do, all are called,—the aged, the feeble, the infirm, the young, the strong,—each has a work to do, some duty to perform, some influence to exert, sacrifices to make, efforts to put forth to help in proclaiming the message of present truth. “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand.” Soon our labor must close. A little while, a few short days, and we may be stretched upon the bed of death. We shall listen to the dull, monotonous ticking of the clock; shall note the solemn shaking of the physician’s head, shall hear the whispered words, “No hope;” shall read the anguished efforts of a loved companion to keep back the starting tears; shall hear the subdued sobs of sorrowing children; shall be face to face with death. Then, as we press loved hands in the last good-bye, how vividly will come to us remembrance of opportunities neglected. Oh! if we could have but one short week more of life and strength, how zealously we would improve it. How we would agonize before God for wisdom, and, with tears, implore our loved ones to heed the angel’s message of mercy, and flee the wrath to come. How could we bid them farewell, knowing we had wretchedly failed in our duty to them? How could we meet our God with the blood of souls upon our garments? We cannot recall the past, we have no promise of the future; but, blessed be God, we can improve the present. We have the now. Let us examine our condition, sit in judgment on our own case. What are we doing for Jesus? What work are we now engaged in that shall gain for us the “Well done”? We have the light, the testimonies are plain and oft-repeated. Are we faithful, living up to the light received? In pitying mercy we are yet spared to retrieve the past. The message of the Master comes to us, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” “Go work to-day in my vineyard.” May God help us to make haste to obey. CHAS. B. REYNOLDS.