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Every Christian ought to be a worker. If he were not one before he became a Christian, Christianity should have made him one. There is a grievous heresy wrapped up in the phrase, "the working classes." It is just as possible to be sycophantic to the poor as to the rich. The term properly understood includes many besides those destined to the drudgery of material labour.

I. THE CHRISTIAN AT HIS WORK MAY FEEL THAT WORK IS A GOOD AND NOBLE THING. Christianity greatly honours honest industry. Of our race there have been two heads — the one was a gardener in Paradise, the other a carpenter in Nazareth.

1. There is a natural voice of self-respect whose tones Christianity deepens and empowers. It is honourable to be independent. There is no disgrace in deriving riches and renown from ancestors, but there is virtue and glory in obtaining them from ourselves, and that religion which makes everything of the will and nothing of accidents, which aims ever at deepening personal interest and impressing personal responsibility, smiles ineffably at the Christian at his work.

2. Christianity attaches great importance to the exercise of the faculties. The value of daily toil is that it prevents the evils of stagnation, the wretched results of indolence. And here comes in the blessedness of the law that to eat men must work. The merely meditative often go wrong. Many have fallen into wretched theories and more wretched moods, because their thinking powers have not been yoked to their active energies. And, therefore, Christianity, which seeks the maturity and wholesome state of our nature, looks benignly on the Christian at his work.

3. Christianity, in elevating man, elevates his engagements. It cares comparatively little for the sphere and form of our outward life, but attaches every importance to its spirit and its power. It is the "good man" that makes the good, the great man that makes the great, deed. The worker is more than the work; and it is as he is. A slave, according to Paul, may do his work "unto the Lord," and make a divine service of his hard drudgery. And therefore the gospel, which makes everything of what a man is, and raises and refines him, constituting him a servant and a child of God, has only words of impressive approbation for the Christian at his work.

II. THE CHRISTIAN AT HIS WORK MAY FEEL THAT HE IS FILLING THE SPHERE INTENDED FOR HIM.

1. He is not only doing what, in general, is worth doing, but he is, or should be, able to realise the appointment of God. The Bible teaches a present providence as well as an original ordinance in reference to work. But providence is not fatalism. God's appointment does not interfere with our free agency, or release us from responsibility. "Whatever is, is right," so far as it is done by God; but it may be wrong, so far as it is done by us. It is true that, in a sense, we cannot frustrate God's purpose; but there is a limit to our right of inferring our duty from its ordinations and permissions. Our worldly lot may be a matter of volition. We need not stay in a state which necessitates transgression. If we cannot live without sinning, it is a sin to live.

2. It is, then, our duty to ascertain the will of God in reference to our worldly pursuits. That which is presented to us; that which we are fitted for; that to which we are directed by circumstances; these are the evidences, interpreted by a just and godly spirit.

3. Of course, the calling must be a lawful one. A man must be satisfied of this before he can take comfort from the thought that he is "in his place." As a general rule, it is not difficult for any Christian to distinguish between lawful and unlawful callings. He who wishes to be right may be so. If a man cannot pursue his calling without violating the law of God, his course is plain. If others do wrong, that is no excuse for us. Nor is it any excuse for us if quite as much wrong will be done, whether we do it or not. We are accountable for our actions in themselves, and for our moral example. Nor may we ask Cain's question, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

4. And is it not a soul-inspiring thought for any toiler in this hard world, that he is doing the work of his heavenly Father? It is not the nature of the service, but the Being that is served, that gives importance to it.

III. CHRISTIANITY WILL EXERT A DIRECT AND POWERFUL INFLUENCE ON THE CHRISTIAN AT HIS WORK.

1. It will regulate it — especially it will make work subservient to godliness. The Christian will not permit himself to be so engrossed with it as to hinder the higher work of eternal redemption. Work is a blessing; but it may become a curse. It is quite necessary that even lawful business should have its limits and intermissions. Speaking spiritually, it is good only with something else. It has to the direct means of spiritual growth the relations of exercise to food. Exercise is healthy; but it is no substitute for nourishment(1) In this light, what a blessing is the Sabbath! It is, to take the lowest view, the drag-chain on the wheels of the soul on its secular incline. It is, to take the highest view, the replenishing it with power from on high.

(2) Christianity should make us endeavour to abridge the labouring hours, when excessive, of our brethren as well as our own. The excessive toil of multitudes is, if not fatal to religion, a terrific obstacle to it. One thing at least can be done — there is no earthly need why the thousands who serve in our shops should not be earlier released from their daily drudgery.

2. The Christian at his work may be with God. "Let every man wherein he is called therein abide with God." There is no necessity for the exclusion of religious things from the mind during secular engagements. It is a strange occupation which has no moments of intermission; and to fill these with Christian meditations and prayers is the great privilege of the saint. A mind thus kept spiritual will be able to make some use of work for the purposes of the soul. How much of the carnality of worldly things, which we lament, is owing to our own want of a fresh and lively grace? How many water-pots are there in our earthly life which, if filled by us with water, would be filled by Christ with wine? We have to do with —

(1) Men. What a field of profitable thought is human nature!

(2) Things. And these are suggestive. Objects, places, times, all may be yoked to the soul's chariot. He who has put his lessons of Divinest wisdom into parables taken from agriculture and commerce has taught us how we may make our secular labour the mirror and voice of most spiritual truth.

3. God may be with him. "Acknowledge Him in all thy ways, and He shall direct thy steps." And if the guidance of God may be had, His prospering blessing may be had also. "The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and He addeth no sorrow with it." And may there not be the presiding sense of the Divine love, "the love of God shed abroad in the heart," whatever the course of providential events, giving strength in adversity, and infusing a nobler joy in prosperity?

(A. J. Morris.)

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KJV: Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;

WEB: not lagging in diligence; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;