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IDLERS IN THE VINEYARD

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 11, 1878

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 51, No. 15.

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IDLERS IN THE VINEYARD.

By Chas. B. Reynolds

“Go work to-day in my vineyard” is a special command to each one called by the grace and mercy of God from the darkness of error and tradition to a knowledge of present truth.
All commandment-keepers are under the most solemn obligations to labor, to sacrifice, to bear burdens, and to seek by every available means to aid in the proclamation of the last message of mercy. Yet many act as though keeping the Sabbath and grudgingly paying S. B., and the one-third for the tract work, constituted all possible duties and ended all claims upon them. Many seem to be under the impression, that, while others are called to bear burdens, to make mighty efforts and great and oft-repeated sacrifices, they are exempt. They look on and wonder, and sometimes admire the zeal of the laborers, but never participate or help bear burdens.
Has God called two classes of saints, one to work, suffer, and endure, the other to idly look on? How comes it that the zealous burden-bearers of old were under so great obligations, from which the idlers of to-day are exempt? “They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.” Heb. 11:37, 38.
Shall we share the martyrs’ reward, yet under pretext of our inability, our weakness, our infirmity, rest content in idleness? Shall we be fruitless vines, bringing forth nothing but leaves,—drags, encumbrances, dead weights upon the cause? What can avert from the do-nothings the stern rebuke of the outraged Master, “Why stand ye here all the day idle?” Can Jesus, in the glad, soon-coming day, say to such, “Well and faithfully done”? None but those who earn this plaudit can ever enter Heaven.
Some envy the abilities and the position attained by the self-sacrificing pioneers in the message. But could these pioneers have attained their growth in grace, knowledge of the truth, and rich experience, if they had stood idly looking on? No: their abilities were developed by exercise. They increased in grace and strength as they increased in self-sacrificing efforts. And they now hope by patient continuance in well doing to obtain glory, honor, immortality, eternal life. Do we desire to share with them the heavenly inheritance? The way is plain before us,—seek help of God to do as they have done, as they are doing. How can we expect the crown, if we never bear the cross?
A mere routine of devotional exercises will not suffice. We must do all we can all the time, praying to know the will of God, then laboring faithfully to perform our allotted duty. Each one blessed with a saving knowledge of present truth should do his part just as though the success of the proclamation of the third angel’s message depended on his individual effort and self-sacrifice. Can Jesus, in the great day of his coming, say, “Well done” to any who do less than this?
It is a snare of Satan to imagine that great talent, special and wonderful gifts, can alone fit one for useful labor. This was the plea urged by the unfaithful servant to whom his lord entrusted the one talent. Oh! had he been blessed with five or even two, he would have done wonders; but with only one talent, surely he was excused from trying to do anything with that. So he buried it in a napkin; and not because he made bad use of it, but because he failed to make any effort,—did not use his one talent,—he was justly cast into outer darkness.
Awake! Arise! How long shall the vain, wicked, deceitful plea be offered: “My influence is less than nothing; I have no talent, no ability; I would if I could, but lacking so much I ought not to be expected to work in the Master’s vineyard.”
How was it with the disciples of old? We read that when the five thousand men, besides women and children, were in need of food, Jesus said to his disciples, “Give ye them to eat.” How impossible must this have appeared to those disciples. They had but five loaves and two small fishes, not sufficient for themselves. They desired the multitude should be fed, were really anxious that their needs should be supplied; but what could they do? It would be absurd for them to attempt such a great work with such self-evidently inadequate means. Christ instructed them to bring their little store to him; they did so. He blessed it, and gave it back to the disciples. Mark! he did not increase it; he simply blessed it, and gave back to them just the same scant insufficiency they brought him. But as they used it, it increased, and they found their poor little insufficiency a great abundance, enough and more than enough.
God is no respecter of persons. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Heb. 13:8. May God help us to believe, to act upon the lesson the record teaches. The last message of mercy is being sounded, are we bearing our part? “Go work to-day in my vineyard.” Work to-day; “for soon the night cometh, when no man can work.”
CHAS. B. REYNOLDS.