Work, for the Night Cometh.
By E. M. Levy
VERY stirring are these words of Jesus: "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work." They reveal the great principle which governed his entire life on earth. He was no day-dreamer, no sickly sentimentalist. This sad and wicked world pressed too heavily on his heart to allow of any other thought than that of constant devotion to his great work. The mid-day meal must be postponed; the hours of sleep must be employed in prayer and tears; every consideration of personal care and comfort must give place to ceaseless activities in doing good to man and in accomplishing the divine will. He had no leisure. He allowed himself no vacation. Persecutions, humiliations, rebuffs, sufferings, could not diminish the ardor of his sacred, all-consuming zeal. He went about doing good. All the love that was in his soul, all the thoughts of his mind, all the vigor of his body, and all the out-gushing of his spirit, was not for himself. It was his meat and drink to do God's will. So fully was this true that at last, when drawing to the closing scene in his wonderful life, he boldly asserts: "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." In this our Lord and Master is our pattern. As he set his Father's business before him as the great object of his life, so likewise must we, his disciples, seek to conform ourselves to his blessed example. Religion is something more than a mere profession, something more than a mere sentiment. Religion does not consist in attendance on experience meetings, or in the singing of hymns, or in raptures. These things, good in themselves, are, nevertheless, worthless, unless accompanied by a life of self-denial and consecration to the service of God. Work for God is our business here. To seek to advance the cause of Christ, to reclaim the lost, to build up the church in holiness of life, is the responsibility devolving upon every one that calls himself a Christian. And that we may do this in the right spirit let us appropriate the words of Christ: "I must do the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work." The call is solemn here, because it speaks of a time when we must cease to labor. "The night cometh." "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do," says the wise king, "do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." "Whither thou goest." Time is speeding on. How fast the years come and go. We stand in speechless wonder at the rapid march of time. "The night cometh, when no man can work." How soon that night will come we do not know. The changes that we witness in ourselves, and the changes that we see in others, tell us that time is short. The rolling years admonish us that the Lord is at hand. Eternity cries louder and louder that the night is coming. The Master of the vineyard is waiting for us. It may be high noon or the eleventh hour of life with us. He bids us go work for him, and when the evening shall come he will give us what is just. Think of that day, reader, when "he shall come, and his reward shall be with him."—E. M. Levy, D. D., in Christian Standard.