Twenty-Five Village Sermons | Page 8

would not tempt us to sit with
folded hands for God's blessings to drop into our mouths. No! I believe
it would make men far more industrious than ever mere self- interest
can make them; they would say, 'God is our Father, He gave us His
own Son, He gives us all things freely, we owe Him not slavish service,
but a boundless debt of cheerful gratitude. Therefore we must do His
will, and we are sure His will must be our happiness and
comfort--therefore we must do His will, and His will is that we should
WORK, and therefore we MUST work. He has bidden us labour on this
earth--He has bidden us dress it and keep it, conquer it and fill it for
Him. We are His stewards here on earth, and therefore it is a glory and
an honour to be allowed to work here in God's own land--in our loving
Father's own garden. We do not know why He wishes us to labour and
till the ground, for He could have fed us with manna from heaven if He
liked, as He fed the Jews of old, without our working at all. But His
will is that we should work; and work we will, not for our own sakes
merely, but for His sake, because we know He likes it, and for the sake
of our brothers, our countrymen, for whom Christ died.'

Oh, my friends, why is it that so many till the ground industriously, and
yet grow poorer and poorer for all their drudging and working? It is
their own fault. They till the ground for their own sakes, and not for
God's sake and for their countrymen's sake; and so, as the Prophet says,
they sow much and bring in little, and he who earns wages earns them
to put in a bag full of holes. Suppose you try the opposite plan. Suppose
you say to yourself, 'I will work henceforward because God wishes me
to work. I will work henceforward for my country's sake, because I feel
that God has given me a noble and a holy calling when He set me to
grow food for His children, the people of England. As for my wages
and my profit, God will take care of them if they are just; and if they
are unjust, He will take care of them too. He, at all events, makes the
garden and the field grow, and not I. My land is filled, not with the fruit
of my work, but with the fruit of His work. He will see that I lose
nothing by my labour. If I till the soil for God and for God's children, I
may trust God to pay me my wages.' Oh, my friends, He who feeds the
young birds when they call upon Him; and far, far more, He who gave
you His only-begotten Son, will He not with Him freely give you all
things? For, after all done, He must give to you, or you will not get.
You may fret and stint, and scrape and puzzle; one man may sow, and
another man may water; but, after all, who can give the increase but
God? Can you make a load of hay, unless He has first grown it for you,
and then dried it for you? If you would but think a little more about
Him, if you would believe that your crops were His gifts, and in your
hearts offer them up to Him as thank-offerings, see if He would not
help you to sell your crops as well as to house them. He would put you
in the way of an honest profit for your labour, just as surely as He only
put you in the way of labouring at all. "Trust in the Lord, and be doing
good; dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed;" for "without me,"
says our Lord, "you can do nothing." No: these are His own
words--nothing. To Him all power is given in heaven and earth; He
knows every root and every leaf, and feeds it. Will He not much more
feed you, oh ye of little faith? Do you think that He has made His world
so ill that a man cannot get on in it unless he is a rogue? No. Cast all
your care on Him, and see if you do not find out ere long that He cares
for you, and has cared for you from all eternity.

SERMON III. LIFE AND DEATH

PSALM civ. 24, 28-30.
"O Lord, how manifold are Thy works! in wisdom hast Thou made
them all: the earth is full of Thy riches. That Thou givest them they
gather: Thou openest Thine hand, they are filled with good.