“Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” Ps. civ. 23.
1 Though God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and then rested, yet He rested only to begin a work of another kind; for our Lord says, “My Father worketh hitherto,” [John v. 17.] and He adds, “and I work.” And at another time He says, concerning Himself more expressly, “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” [John ix. 4.] And when that night came, He said, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.” “It is finished.” [John xvii. 4; xix. 30.] And in the text we are told generally of all men, “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” The Creator wrought till the Sabbath came; the Redeemer wrought till the sun was darkened, and it was night. “The sun ariseth,” and “man goeth forth,” and works “till the evening;” when “the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow themselves, and those that look out at the windows are darkened, and desire fails, because man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets,” when “the silver cord is loosed, and the golden bowl is broken, and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns unto God who gave it.” [Eccles. xii. 3-7.] In the evening man returns to God, and his works, whether good or whether evil, “do follow him.”
This solemn truth, that we are sent here to do a work, is in various ways set before us in the Service appointed for this day. First, we read, in the beginning of Genesis, of Almighty God’s work in the creation of the world, which is the archetype of all works which His creatures are able to do through His grace unto His glory. Then we read of Adam, placed in Paradise, the garden in Eden, “to dress it and to keep it.” [Gen. ii. 15.] Soon, alas, did he fall, and become subject to heavier toil, the earth being cursed for his sake, and bringing forth unto him thorns and thistles. God, however, in His mercy, did not desert him; and, accordingly, we read in the Gospel of the householder going out from morning till evening “to hire labourers into His vineyard.” [Matt. xx. 1.] He went out early, and then about the third hour, and about the sixth and ninth, nor stopped till the eleventh. Such were His dealings with the race of man till the fulness of time was come, and in the last days, even at the eleventh hour, He sent His Son to gather together labourers for His work from all parts of the earth. And the history of those fresh Gospel labourers is presented to us in today’s Epistle, in the pattern of St. Paul, who “went a warfare;” [1 Cor. ix. 7.] who planted a vineyard; who ploughed, and thrashed, and trod out the corn; for necessity was laid upon him, and it was woe unto him if he preached not the Gospel. Nay, moreover, who kept under his body, and brought it into subjection, lest after he had preached to others, the end should come, and he should be a castaway.
Thus the Service for this day carries us from the creation of all things to the judgment, and that with this one thought—the work which is put upon us to do. Adam had to dress paradise; fallen man to “eat bread” from the blighted ground ”in the sweat of his face;” the labourers worked in the vineyard, some through the “heat of the day,” others in the eventide; and the Apostles and their followers ploughed, and sowed, and planted, in a different field, but still in their Master’s service, as it was at the beginning. Thus the lesson put before us today contrasts with that of the Epiphany. We have ended the feast of grace, and are now come to the work-days, and therefore we read of man going forth to his work and to his labour from sun-rising unto the evening. Or we may connect these two seasons with Lent, which is to follow; and whereas our Lord, in His Sermon on the Mount, speaks of three great duties of religion, prayer, almsgiving, and fasting—our duties towards God, our neighbour, and ourselves—we may consider the Epiphany to remind us of worship in the temple, Septuagesima of good works, and Lent of self-denial and self-discipline.
Now the lesson set before us today needs insisting on, because in these latter times men have arisen, speaking heresy, making much of the free grace of the Gospel, but denying that it enjoined a work, as well as conferred a blessing; or, rather, that it gave grace in order that it might enjoin a work. Christmas comes first, and Septuagesima afterwards: we must have grace before we work, in order to work; but as surely as grace is conferred on us, so surely is a work enjoined. It has been pretended by these teachers that works were only required under the Law, and grace comes instead under the Gospel: but the true account of the matter is this, that the Law enjoined works, and the grace of the Gospel fulfils them; the Law commanded, but gave no power; the Gospel bestows the power. Thus the Gospel is the counterpart of the Law. Christ says, “I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” The Gospel does not abrogate works, but provides for them. “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour” from the morning of the world to its evening. All dispensations are one and the same here. Adam in paradise, Adam fallen, Noah in the morning, Abraham at the third hour, the chosen people at the sixth and ninth, and Christians at the eleventh—all, so far as the duty of work, have one religion.