Acts 13:36 For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption: This allusion to the known devotion of David during his life, and to his "rest from his labors" in the "sleep" that hid him awhile from life, has been introduced in connection with Paul's vindication of the resurrection of "the Man" Jesus - that cardinal fact of Christianity and conspicuous top stone of the multiform Christian edifice. This, foretold in the shape of a shadowy typical promise made to David, to lie like seed long buried, had of late sprung up and shown surprising blossom, and indeed had already borne glorious fruit, even in him who "rose from the dead" and "became the first fruits of them that slept in him." The allusion in itself meanwhile is grateful and instructive. And when the sun goes down brightly and purely then does this lesser light sparkle. It covers five practical suggestions. I. THE PLAIN DUTY OF THE SERVANT OF CHRIST - THIS, TO "SERVE." This is a great word, a greater thing - to serve. Long time it was not so considered, till Jesus rose on the world, and, with ever-illustrious career of self-sacrifice, was among us as "he that served," and said it as well, "Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." He who bare our sins, who carried our sorrows, who suffered our stripes, who murmured, not beneath our infirmities, who staunched so many a bleeding wound of humanity, nor refused to stoop to wash and to wipe its hot and dusty feet, - he grafted this heavenly shoot on the wild, selfish, unpromising stock of human nature. And it is the memory of him, his obedience and his service and his devotion, that again and again reproduces the like, the vital motive of the humblest service and gladdest obedience of each true inmate of his Church. If any man would know the real secret of real position in the Church of Christ, let him learn: 1. To serve. 2. To serve Christ. 3. To serve him faithfully and closely and continuingly. This man will find his way to serve his fellow men and "generation" without fail - the poor, the humble, the untaught, the sinful, and those who already with himself wait on one Lord. II. THE RULE ACCORDING TO WHICH OUR SERVING MUST BE ORDERED - "BY THE WILL OF GOD." If we do really serve our generation, there can be no doubt that we are in the path of duty, and accordingly in harmony with "the will of God." At the same time, it is too possible to spend a large amount of time, of energy, of property, thinking you do God service, when you are doing no such thing. The safer way is to begin by seeing to it that the work is according to the will of God. This should be the very first thing in work, greater or less (1 Corinthians 10:31). So sang the quaint George Herbert, whose earthly song merged so well in the heavenly song, these two centuries ago - "Teach me, my God and King, In all things thee to see, And what I do in anything, To do it as for thee. "All may of thee partake; Nothing can be so mean But with this tincture - for thy sake; Will not grow bright and clean. "A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine; Who sweeps a room as for thy laws, Makes that and the action fine. "This is the famous stone That turneth all to gold; For that which God doth touch and own Cannot for less be told." It is most important to remember that very much in our serving depends on: 1. Our purpose to serve God's will. For God whose power to overrule is so often and so strikingly seen all-coextensive with his power to rule, often employs men to further his purposes, and to serve their generation, who never consecrated a single intelligent purpose or energy consciously to him. Far from such unconscious, ungrateful, even unwilling doers of his work should we be. The generation of such is indeed served, in one sense, according to God's will; but it is no thanks to them. 2. Our care to do the thing best approved as God's will. Right purpose and good intention have too often been the cover of a certain non-performance of the things that would be most true to the will of God. The will of God is to be consulted, not merely in the spring of our work, but carefully, humbly, all the way down the accomplishment of the purpose his grace may have originated in the heart. III. THE HUMILITY WITH WHICH WE SHOULD SERVE. We are to serve "our own generation." A faithful memory of this will save: 1. Waste aspirations. Pride is often at the root of great desires, personal feeling the motive of great schemes, lack of humility the direct cause of idle disappointment. 2. Seeking the unattainable distant, instead of that which we may most certainly touch because it is close by us. The present time, the present place, the present task are the time, the sphere, the toil for the servant of Christ. Between dreams of the past and visions of the future, the priceless opportunity of practical duty has too often irrevocably slipped past. 3. Sighing for more strength, or more knowledge, or more wealth, instead of using at once our available strength, and improving soberly our given talents, one, two, or ten. There are many who wait for a showy-opportunity of serving Christ and his Church, with ears shut to one of the sweetest utterances that even he spoke, respecting the "cup of cold water;" and with eyes closed to the widow woman of the mite by the treasury, to whom the Lord did not close his eyes, and to whom he even called the attention of others. 4. An actual lessening of moral strength and diminishment of that enlarged opportunity which is the invariable sequel of faithfulness "in few things." The time is neither very slow in its coming nor at all doubtful when the shoulders of those who have been faithful in few things and in very little things bend beneath the weight of most honorable burdens of responsibilities. Not a few of those who once did on the humblest scale the work of their generation, and neither bargained for nor dreamt of posthumous fame, stand now in niches or aisles of the Church, and "dead, yet speak" with a voice to edify and to thrill generations to come. Of one such instance we know to a certainty, that of the woman who most spontaneously and at her own individual expense thought to serve her generation by richly anointing the body of her Lord so loved to the burying, and received the promise, now for two thousand years fulfilled, "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, there also shall this, that this woman hath done, be spoken of for a memorial of her." IV. THE AMPLE ROOM TO SERVE - A GENERATION. Just now to serve only one's generation seemed little. But is it so? A generation. For what does the word stand? 1. For what an important length of time! 2. For what a multitude and variety of people! 3. For what a weight of solemn, thrilling interests in human affairs! 4. For what a trial of individual consistency and education of individual character! Only the infinite mind can read that volume through - the volume of one generation. Yes; there is no great distance to lend enchantment to the view, and no so picturesque vista, and no vague, flattering, indefinite scope; yet how full, how ample is the definite scope I "Blessed are those servants," who through a generation length, or from youth even to old age, are found in this sense, "expecting their Lord." V. THE COMFORTING DESIGNATION GIVEN TO THE END OF SUCH A LIFE-SERVICE. "David fell on sleep." It is sweet language indeed. But how often we lose the sweetness of it! The servant of Christ need not call that death which bounds the days of earth and shuts the bodily eye to the light of an earthly sun. It is but night. Night, grateful night, bounds the day of life, speedily merging in that grandest morning, the morning of the resurrection. It is but sleep. Sleep in Jesus, equally deep, soft, restful, closes the eyes of his wearied servant, surely renews his youth, and soon wakes into life everlasting and the light that is in God's presence. Let us learn the name Jesus himself gave to death, and learn it to love it. Now we work, we watch, we pray - soon we shall sleep on and take our rest. And our awakening from it will be ineffable light and knowledge and love. - B. Parallel Verses KJV: For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: |
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