It is hardly needful for me to point out that life is very largely made
up of commonplaces--commonplace engagements, commonplace relationships,
and commonplace duties. There are some who are a little better off than
others, but even such people have common things to do before they get
through the routine of life. With some of us it is altogether
so--commonplace in the home, commonplace in the situation, commonplace
in the workshop, commonplace in the office, commonplace in what we do
for our living, and commonplace in the persons with whom we are
associated. Nothing great or dignified about it. It is indeed a case of
'the trivial round, the common task'.
But, whether you are a business man or a road-sweeper, you can live the
sanctified life.
Some of you may be heads of houses or domestic servants, horse-drivers
or laundry-workers, factory hands or the owners of factories; but
whatever you are, as followers of Jesus Christ, God wants you to put
this label upon each and every section of your life--'Holiness unto the
Lord'. He wants you also to conduct yourselves in every way consistent
with that thought. The pots and the pans, and the bridles of the
horses, and whatever we may have to do, must be labelled with that.
'Commissioner, can a man have a clean heart and drive a cab?' a man
recently asked me. 'Of course, he can,' I replied, 'and if you come
with me I will show you how to do it'.
Why, the way in which we use these things is to be a part of our
consecrated service to God. It does not sound very lofty, but that is
just where the highest exhibition of Holiness can be given to the
world. It is not what you do--that may seem very important or may be
very trivial; but it is the manner of doing it and the motive behind it
which is the main thing.
You have all heard the story of the servant-girl who had got the
blessing, and who, when asked how she knew she had it, said that she
knew it because she 'now swept under the mats'. What a very simple
thing, and yet the blessing of Holiness just shows itself in that.
Sweeping round the mat and in the middle of the room only is not
'Holiness'. The girl was quite right; she knew that the sanctifying
Grace of God had made a change in her, because she wanted to clean
where dirt would not have been seen even if left there.
How beautiful the lines of George Herbert, where, after speaking of
doing things 'for Christ's sake', he says:--
_A servant with this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws
Makes that and the action fine._
The fact that you do your work in the spirit of your religion
sanctifies your lives. It transforms them from secular to sacred. Your
work and your worship spring from the same motive, and those who see
this treat you and your work with respect. The Scripture puts it
beautifully in speaking of the Apostles, 'The people took knowledge of
them that they had been with Jesus'.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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