[March 24th, 1861.]
I. God is defined to be a Spirit infinite, eternal and immutable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. In the presence of his immensity all creatures sink into insignificance. In the presence of his excellence, all sink into worthlessness. In the presence of his power, all else is weakness; and in the presence of his wisdom, all else is ignorance. He is so infinitely exalted above all things that all things are as nothing in comparison with him. His honor, his will, his blessedness is therefore the highest conceivable end of all things. To put anything in comparison or competition with this is supreme folly and wickedness.
But thus God in infinite condescension to the necessities of our race, and for man’s redemption, has assumed our nature. He was found in fashion as a man. He was made under the law. He bore its curse. He died for our sins, and rose for our justification. He, in the person of the Son, is head over all things to the Church. To him, to God incarnate, our allegiance and devotion are due, not only as to God the Creator, but as to God the Redeemer, and as united to us by the bond of a common nature, and the indwelling of his Spirit. This is the God whom we are called upon to serve. The service of Christ is the service of God. There can be no service of God other than the service of Christ.
II. What is this service?
First, it is the inward subjection of our mind and heart to the revelation of his will. It is the acquiescence of our views of truth with the declarations of his word. It is the accordance of all our affections with his will. We love what he would have us love: himself, his people, all mankind. We hate and avoid all that he hates; sin, evil passions, inordinate desires, a worldly or selfish spirit. Much of the service of Christ consists in bringing down every imagination, and every thought into subjection to his teaching, and in the inward life of the soul, as he is Lord, not of the body only, or of the outward life, but of the soul and all its states and exercises.
Second, the service of Christ includes the regulation of our outward life in obedience to his will. It is avoiding everything in our conduct which is unholy, unjust, unkind, impure, or unbecoming our character as his servants and children. It is the faithful performance of all our duties, private and social; our duties to our family, friends, neighbors, to the Church, and to the state. All this is properly his service, or obedience to him, because it is done according to his commands, out of regard to his authority, to please him and promote his glory.
Third, it includes the consecration of ourselves to the accomplishing of the work in which Christ is engaged. He came to save men, to redeem the world, to bring men to the knowledge and obedience of the truth, to cause all nations to love, worship and obey the Son of God. This is the end to which all things are directed, to which the Church is set apart. It is the highest end. It includes the highest happiness and excellence of our race, the highest good of the intelligent universe, and the highest glory of the Redeemer.
III. We are called upon to be earnest in this service.
Earnestness includes two things; first, fixedness of purpose, and, second, energy in exertion. It is not so much a matter of feeling. A man may be very calm, who is very much in earnest. Indeed those most excited and commonly in a flurry, accomplish little good. What we want is,
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Fixedness of purpose; that is, such a sense of the greatness, sacredness and importance of the end in view, and of the obligations which rest upon us, that we shall deliberately and of settled purpose, determine, negatively, that we will not serve ourselves, or the world, or Satan; but positively, that we will serve God in Christ; that the regulation of our inward and outward life according to his will, and the consecration of our time, efforts and talents to the promotion of his kingdom, shall be the end of our being.
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Energy in the prosecution of this end, or execution of this purpose. What we suffer from is the distraction arising from the multiplicity of objects. We purpose to seek Christ as the main end, but there are so many subordinate ends, so many other things which we seek, that we lose all unity and force in our life. A stream divided into many channels, flows shallow and feebly in them all. It is only by collecting all the water into one channel that the current becomes deep and strong. So it is with life. If you would serve Christ with earnestness, you must serve him alone.
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