Thoughts on the Spiritual Life - XXXVII - H. C. G. Moule

Durham Cathedral

Chapter x, continued.

Such, briefly indicated, is Christian Service. It is for all always. And the conditions to its true exercise are the same for all; a walk with God in the secret of the soul; a renunciation of all thought of intermittancy in the service; a simple and expectant reliance on the heavenly Master’s will to accept it and power to use it.

For our present purpose, however, we will consider Christian Service under a limitation. We will think of it as meaning the service rendered by any of the great multitude of “Christian workers” as such. It may be the service of the commissioned pastor of the flock; it may be that of the visitor of the sick, of the rescuer of the fallen, of the teacher of the Bible class or the Sunday School, of the lay worker in mission-room or open air. It may be any one who seeks definitely to influence others for Christ.

If such is service, what then are the qualifications for it, or more properly, some of the chief things amongst them?

One word, if but in passing, let me say as to the message which the servant of Christ carries. There is urgent need for the Christian worker of our day to take care of his personal hold upon articulate, fundamental truth, as well as over his spirit of zeal and love. Zeal is not enough, nor energy, nor willingness to endure much hardness. All these things can, as a matter of experience, go along with “another Gospel, which is not another.” There must be humble and laborious pains about the Scriptural solidity and rightness of the message, as well as about the energy of the messenger.

But I turn now to the personal rather than to the doctrinal qualifications of the servant of the Lord. And here first: would the worker be what the Master would have him be as a worker? Then let him be a consistent man all round. Would he serve in testimony? Then let him serve in everything. Would he be influential for his Master’s sake, far and wide, if a broad field of influence is, as a fact, open to him? Then let his wife, his children, his parents, his whole home circle, his circle of acquaintance, business, or labour, find him out as a servant of Jesus Christ in all ways that pratically touch them.

I recently heard, with much interest, a remark on the religion of English Church people made to a friend of mine by a member of the Church of the Unitas Fratrum, commonly called the Moravian Church, in Germany. “Your preachings,” said the Moravian, “are often admirable, far beyond much that we say or hear. Your statements of doctrine, your testimonies to Christ, and to His grace and power, are full and beautiful. But we see, as a rule, a great difference between your preachings and your lives. We, perhaps, have a humbler aim in the pulpit, but we seek to live all that we preach.” And my friend spoke with loving admiration of what the consistency of Moravian life was; above all, in its being pervaded everywhere and in all things, to an extent deeply impressive, and strongly attractive, with humility of heart, and with peace and joy in the Lord.

Let our inference for ourselves, from such a comparison, be in favour not of a lower doctrine, or a more misgiving testimony, but of a bringing into real practice what in theory we know so well. Let us settle it in our inmost convictions that the life of the disciple is intended to be one, and of a piece; and that his work in detail stands related, certainly from his Lord’s point of view, in a profound and vital connexion, to his habits, his temper, his manner of life in general. Consistency is indissolubly bound up with “meetness for the Master’s use.”

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