“And Josiah set the priests in their charges, and
encouraged them to the service of the house of the
Lord”-2 Chronicles 35:2.
Josiah, as you remember, in the early part of his reign
set his face against the idolatries that prevailed, to
root them out of the land. He then bent his thoughts
upon repairing and beautifying the temple. After that
it was his heart’s aim to restore the sacred services,
to observe the solemn feasts, and to revive the worship
of God after the due order, according to the words of
the book of the covenant that was found in the house of
the Lord. Our text tells us something of the method
with which he went to work; and it may well serve us as
a model.
The first thing is to get every man into his proper
place; the next thing is for every man to have a good
spirit in his present place, so as to occupy it
worthily. I will suppose, dear friends, that in the
providence of God you are in your place, and that by
the direction of God’s Spirit you have also sought and
found the precise form of usefulness in which you ought
to exercise yourself. To-night it shall not be my
business to arrange you; but assuming that it is well
for you to keep where you are, my object shall be to
encourage you to do your work for your Lord without
being cast down. I am hardly going to preach so much as
to talk to different persons who are discouraged in the
work of the Lord, that we may rouse them up, rally them
round us, and encourage them to keep rank.
I. And, first, I would speak a little to THOSE WHO
THINK THAT THEY CAN DO NOTHING. They will tell me that
in such a sermon not a sentence can concern them: if I
am to encourage men to the service of the house of the
Lord, it will be in vain for them, as they can do
nothing at all. Well, dear friends, you must not take
that for granted; you must make quite sure that you
cannot do anything before I may venture to speak to you
as if it were a matter of fact; for sometimes there is
a want of way because there is a want of will. Though I
do not go so far as to allege that this is your case,
we know too well that “cannot” often does mean “will
not,” and not to have triumphed may mean that you have
not tried. You have been so discouraged that you have
excused yourself for inaction, and your inaction has
grown into indolence. If a man, under the notion that
he could not lift his right hand, constantly kept it
still, I should not wonder if, after weeks and months,
it would become a matter of fact that he had not the
power to use it. It might actually stiffen for no
reason but because he had not moved it. Do you not
think that, before your muscles get rigid, it would be
well to exercise them by attempting some kind of
service? Especially you younger folk, if you do not
work for the Lord almost as soon as you are converted
it will be very difficult afterwards to make you take
to it. Aptitude, I have often noticed, comes with
employment, and through negligence and sloth people
become enervated and helpless. You say that you cannot
move your arm, and so you do not move it; take heed,
for by-and-by your pretence will become the parent of
real powerlessness.
But I will take what you have said as being true. You
are ill; the vigour you felt in the bright days of
health fails you now; you have to suffer pain,
weariness, and exhaustion; you are often detained at
home; and home seems now to you a gloomy hospital all
the day long, rather than a genial hostelry when
evening shadows fall. Little indeed, therefore, can you
do; so little that you are apt to reckon it as nothing
at all. The thought is a burden to you. You wish you
could serve the Lord. How constantly you have dreamed
of the pleasure since you have been denied the
privilege! How willing your feet would be to run; how
ready your hands would be to labour; how glad would
your tongue be to testify! You envy those who are able,
and you would fain emulate and excel them; not indeed
that you harbour ill-will against them, but you
devoutly wish that you could do some personal service
in the cause of your Master.
Now, I want to encourage you first by reminding you
that the law of the Son of David is the same as the law
of David himself; and you know the law of David about
those that went to the battle. There were some that
were lame, and some that were otherwise incapable of
action, and he left them with the baggage. “There,” he
said, “you are very weary and ill: stop in the camp:
take care of the tents, and the ammunition, while we go
and fight.” Now, it happened once on a time that the
men that went to fight claimed all the spoil. They
said, “These people have done nothing: they have been
lying in the trenches: they shall not carry off a share
of the booty.” But King David there and then made a law
that they should share and share equally-those that
were in the trenches and those that engaged in the
fray. “As his part is that goeth down to the battle, so
shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they
shall part alike. And it was so from that day forward,
that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel.”
Nor is the law of the Son of David less gracious. If by
sickness you are detained at home,-if for any other
reason, such as age or infirmity, you are not able to
enter into actual service, yet if you are a true
soldier and would fight if you could, and your heart is
in it, you shall share even with the best and bravest
of those who, clad in the panoply of God, encounter and
grapple with the adversary.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
