Thus you may go about your service, and feel “I do it for Christ, and I
believe that Christ accepts my service, and I am content with that.” Jesus
deserves that much should be done for Him. Do you doubt that? A birthday
present is given to dad on his birthday. That present is of no use to mom,
or to the children; it cannot be eaten, it cannot be worn; dad could not
give it away to anybody, it is of no value to anybody but himself. Does
anybody say, “What a pity such a gift was selected, even though dad is
pleased”? No, everybody says, “That is just the thing we like to give to
dad, since it is something he needs personally. We meant it to be for him;
we felt this was the perfect gift for him, and we are glad that the gift
will bring him pleasure.”
So with regard to Jesus. Find out what will please Him; and do it for Him.
Think of no one else in the matter. He deserves all you can do for Him,
and infinitely more.
Besides, you may be sure that any action which appears to you as useless,
if prompted by love, has a place in Christ’s plan, and will be turned into
something of great value. This anointing of our Lord’s head was said to be
useless. “No,” said Jesus, “When she poured this perfume on my body, she
did it to prepare me for burial.” There have been men who have done an
heroic deed for Christ, and at the time they did it they might have asked,
“How will this serve my Lord’s purpose?” But somehow it was the very thing
that was wanted. When the great preachers Whitefield and Wesley went out
into the open fields to preach, it was thought to be a fanatical
innovation, and perhaps they, themselves, would not have ventured upon it
if there had not been an absolute necessity; but what seemed to that age
a daring deed, set an example to all of England, and open-air preaching
has become an accepted agency of great worth. If you, for Christ’s sake,
become visionary, don’t worry, your folly may be the wisdom of the ages to
come.
The woman’s loving act was not wasted; for it has helped us all down to
this very moment. There has it stood in the Bible; and all who have read
it, and are right in their heart, have been motivated by it to sacred
consecration out of love to Jesus. That woman has been a preacher to
nineteen centuries; the influence of that alabaster jar is not exhausted
today, and never will be. Whenever you meet a friend in Europe, Asia,
Africa, or America, who has done anything for our Lord Jesus, you still
smell the perfume of the sacred spikenard. Her act is doing all of us good
at this hour; it is filling this church with fragrance.
If you are serving Christ in your own secret way in which you do not seek
to benefit others, but to honor Him, it may be you will be an instructive
example to saints in ages to come. Oh, that I could stir some hearts to
personal consecration to Jesus, my Lord! Young men, we want missionaries
to go abroad; are none of you ready to go? Young women, we want those who
will look after the sick in the lowest haunts of London; will none of you
consecrate yourselves to Jesus, the Savior?
I shook hands with a good missionary of Christ from Western Africa. He had
been there sixteen years. I believe that they reckon four years to be the
average missionary’s life in this malaria region. He had buried twelve of
his companions in the time. For twelve years he had scarcely seen the face
of a white man. He was going to Africa to live a little while longer,
perhaps, but he expected soon to die; and then he added, as I shook his
hand, “Well, many of us may die; perhaps hundreds of us will do so; but
Christ will win at the last! Africa will know and will fear our Lord
Jesus; and what does it matter what becomes of us–our name, our
reputation, our health, our life–if Jesus wins at the last?” What heroic
words! What a missionary spirit!
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
