“Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening.” Ps. civ. 23.
1 When the Son of Man, the First-born of the creation of God, came to the evening of His mortal life, He parted with His disciples at a feast. He had borne “the burden and heat of the day;” yet, when “wearied with His journey,” He had but stopped at the well’s side, and asked a draught of water for His thirst; for He had “meat to eat which” others “knew not of.” His meat was “to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His work;” “I must work the works of Him that sent Me,” said He, “while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work.” [John iv. 6, 34; ix. 4.] Thus passed the season of His ministry; and if at any time He feasted with Pharisee or publican, it was in order that He might do the work of God more strenuously. But “when the even was come He sat down with the Twelve.” “And He said unto them, With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you, before I suffer.” [Matt. xxvi. 20.] He was about to suffer more than man had ever suffered or shall suffer. But there is nothing gloomy, churlish, violent, or selfish in His grief; it is tender, affectionate, social. He calls His friends around Him, though He was as Job among the ashes; He bids them stay by Him, and see Him suffer; He desires their sympathy; He takes refuge in their love. He first feasted them, and sung a hymn with them, and washed their feet; and when His long trial began, He beheld them and kept them in His presence, till they in terror shrank from it. Yet, on St. Mary and St. John, His Virgin Mother and His Virgin Disciple, who remained, His eyes still rested; and in St. Peter, who was denying Him in the distance, His sudden glance wrought a deep repentance. O wonderful pattern, the type of all trial and of all duty under it, while the Church endures.
We indeed today have no need of so high a lesson and so august a comfort. We have no pain, no grief which calls for it; yet, considering it has been brought before us in this morning’s service 2, we are naturally drawn to think of it, though it be infinitely above us, under certain circumstances of this season and the present time. For now are the shades of evening falling upon the earth, and the year’s labour is coming to its end. In Septuagesima the labourers were sent into the vineyard; in Sexagesima the sower went forth to sow;—that time is over; “the harvest is passed, the summer is ended,” [Jer. viii. 20.] the vintage is gathered. We have kept the Ember-days for the fruits of the earth, in self-abasement, as being unworthy even of the least of God’s mercies; and now we are offering up of its corn and wine as a propitiation, and are eating and drinking of them with thanksgiving.
“All things come of Thee, and of Thine own have we given Thee.” [1 Chron. xxix. 14.] If we have had the rain in its season, and the sun shining in its strength, and the fertile ground, it is of Thee. We give back to Thee what came from Thee. “When Thou givest it them, they gather it, and when Thou openest Thy hand, they are filled with good. When Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled; when Thou takest away their breath, they die, and are turned again to their dust. When Thou lettest Thy breath go forth, they shall be made, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.” [Ps. civ. 28-30.] He gives, He takes away. “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” [Job ii. 10.] May He not “do what He will with His own?” [Matt. xx. 15.] May not His sun set as it has risen? and must it not set, if it is to rise again? and must not darkness come first, if there is ever to be morning? and must not the sky be blacker, before it can be brighter? And cannot He, who can do all things, cause a light to arise even in the darkness? “I have thought upon Thy Name, O Lord, in the night season, and have kept Thy Law;” “Thou also shalt light my candle, the Lord my God shall make my darkness to be light;” or as the Prophet speaks, “At the evening time it shall be light.” [Zech. xiv. 7.]
“All things come of Thee,” says holy David, “for we are strangers before Thee and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.” [1 Chron. xxix. 15.] All is vanity, vanity of vanities, and vexation of spirit. “What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever; the sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down; … all things are full of labour, man cannot utter it; … that which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.” [Eccles. i. 3-15.] “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven; a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up; … a time to get and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away.” [Eccles. iii. 1-6.] And time, and matter, and motion, and force, and the will of man, how vain are they all, except as instruments of the grace of God, blessing them and working with them! How vain are all our pains, our thought, our care, unless God uses them, unless God has inspired them! how worse than fruitless are they, unless directed to His glory, and given back to the Giver!