CURSED LAZINESS by Rev. John Muir

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Nov 29, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 48.

CURSED LAZINESS.

By Rev. John Muir

[From a sermon by Rev. John Muir.]

"Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently." I venture to think it would have been better if, instead of this Latin word "negligently," our revisers had used its Anglo-Saxon equivalent, "lazily," for I am sure that the word laziness is more widely and more thoroughly understood than the word negligence. Here, then, we find God, through His servant the prophet, denouncing and cursing laziness. And small wonder that it should be so. What think you is the greatest of all the obstacles which impede the progress of the kingdom of Christ? I will tell you. It is the negligence or laziness of its members. Look around upon the churches, in any direction you please, and what do you find? You find that whatever of work is done through their agency is done by few individuals.

But we need not individualize. The words apply to Christian people everywhere, whether officially recognized by the church or not, and they distinctly teach that a curse—and the curse (O, awful thought!) is the curse of God—that a curse shall overtake each and all who fail to put heart and soul into "the work of the Lord."

The Crime of Doing Nothing.

Perhaps it may be objected that I am making too much of an isolated passage of Scripture. My reply is, I am not dealing with an isolated passage of Scripture. Away back in the days of the judges we hear this very curse uttered as a word of doom. "Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord. Curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof." Why was this ancient city thus cursed? What had her citizens done that they should be thus punished? Nothing! They had done nothing, and therein lay their crime. They were negligent, indifferent, and inactive when the call to work and duty was both loud and clear. Sisera's hosts were in the land. On all sides cities and tribes were flocking together to meet the invader. But amongst them there was no Meroz. Indolent and irresponsive, she came not forth "to the help of the Lord against the mighty." And when, without her aid, the battle had been fought and won, judgment went forth against her; henceforth she became an accursed city, till at last not one stone was left upon another concerning which men might say, "Here stood Meroz."

We hear it again in the New Testament, and this time from the lips of the Master Himself. "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Why this awful penalty? Wherein had the man transgressed? He was "slothful," that was all; a servant that had neglected his duty; a lazy, and therefore an idle, man. Yet once again the curse falls upon our ears from amidst the wondrous scenes of the Apocalypse, when he who walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks is heard declaring, "Because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." O, brethren, instead of being confined to an isolated passage, the truth of my text is taught in every part of Scripture.

God's Work.

I dare say that to some of you these words seem very severe. Let each remember that the work which is being neglected is the Lord's work. We often hear and speak of "church work," but if we would speak correctly that phrase must be discarded. There is no such thing as "church work." The work in question is God's work, and as such—if for no other reason—it claims our best energies.

O, brethren, it is high time to awake out of sleep! We have been negligent and half-hearted all too long. Remember the working period is strictly limited. The time is fixed in which we must accomplish our task; and when the end of that time shall come, nothing more can be done, not another stone can be laid by the builder, nor another touch be given to any of its parts. We must work the works of Him that sent us while it is day, because the night cometh when no man can work. Solemn thought for all of us! "The night cometh." The years are speeding quickly past. The day is far spent, and the night—the night whose gloom will blot the field of labor from our vision, the night when the hand that now trifles with its task shall lie palsied and chill, the night beyond whose shadows our wasted opportunities will meet us again, the night is at hand, the night in which no man can work.

Yes, and the solemnity of the thought is increased by the fact that no man knoweth the hour of its coming. Not always is its approach preceded by the dip of the sun towards the west. Not always are we warned that the night is near by the withering of our powers. Sometimes it comes while the sun is still climbing to its zenith, and before our growing faculties have reached their highest development. We know not how, we know not when, but yet it comes.

What Is Needed.

Away then with lethargy and half-heartedness! Let us arise and curse our laziness ourselves, forswearing it forever. Let us judge ourselves, that we be not judged of God. What is wanted—what God wants, and what the importance of the work demands—is a burning and consuming earnestness. The zeal of the Lord must eat us up. The baptism we are baptized with must be distinctly and manifestly a baptism of fire. It must kindle our energies to a white heat, and fill us with a glowing enthusiasm which will burn through every false barrier, and make itself felt in every direction.

Look around you and see how active and earnest are the forces arrayed against us. From center to circumference the kingdom of darkness thrills and throbs with earnestness. Every subject is a soldier, and being a soldier, he fights. Every subject is a servant, and being a servant, he serves. There is no dilly-dallying or make-believe in the enemy's camp. Then why should there be any in ours? Has the cross no longer its power? Has the sacred passion exhausted its inspirations? Does the love of Christ no longer constrain and the Holy Ghost no longer energize? Ten thousand times no! It is our dull, supine, and senseless hearts that have lost the power to respond to these divine realities. We are touched by stimulating influences at every turn in life, but alas! we are dead to them all.

O, brothers, we must get nearer to Christ. We must tarry at the cross till its very memory becomes a life-giving power. We must open our hearts to the Spirit till He fills us with all the fulness of God. Then shall we no longer be idlers under a curse, but Christ-like workers. Servants to whom the Master will say, when He cometh, "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."